Pilot program looks for working strategy
By Samantha Strong
Herald contributor
It becomes much more difficult to ignore a problem when talking about a real person rather than an abstract idea.
Poverty in Oshkosh does not have a simple solution, with many contributing factors to someone’s financial status. This makes it an even more important topic to work on as a community.
The Women’s Fund, part of the Oshkosh Area Community Foundation, partnered with Christine Ann Domestic Abuse Services and Evergreen Retirement Community to pilot a program called RISE 2.0. The transitional living program works with single mothers and their families to provide services and programming to help achieve self-sufficiency.
RISE 2.0 coordinated affordable, safe housing for two women and their families with the understanding they were required to pay rent, contribute to program fees and basic utilities — depending on income — and attend weekly educational training such as managing money and parenting. The women are also required to be in consistent communication with an advocate from Christine Ann. The hope is that by eliminating the instability of affordable housing, the mothers can spend more time and energy on education, employment and their families.
“This program allows us to take finding safe and affordable housing out of the equation for these women — because that’s often a huge barrier — and see what it actually costs to live and raise a family in Oshkosh,” Karlene Grabner, executive director of the Women’s Fund, said. “That way we can provide a more realistic look at what it costs to not only survive but thrive in this community. This in turn has the potential to drive the change in the community that we need.”
Real cost of poverty
To better understand what a single Oshkosh mother living in poverty faces, the two participating women agreed to discuss their day-to-day finances and decisions. Neither pays more than 30 percent of their income in rent, which is the recommended percentage anyone should pay for housing regardless of income or financial status.
In order to make ends meet and take care of their families, both women are enrolled in FoodShare, use the food pantry from time to time and one is in WIC, a supplemental program helping women, infants and children with health care and nutrition. Each has more than one child, the youngest being under age 2.
Both women hold jobs that pay an hourly wage, but each noted that after meeting their children’s needs they have little money left. This is an all-too-common experience for many single moms here.
One of the program participants (she is identified as Lea to protect her privacy) said she pushes her school-age children to be involved in sports with the hope that planned extracurricular activities will keep them from making poor decisions. However, these activities are not cheap. Her children are involved in football, volleyball, cross country and other sports, with each requiring specific clothing and equipment. As the children grow they need new clothing and equipment.
Lea does not qualify for any other program besides FoodShare and receives $124 a month for groceries.
“You always hear people say, ‘Oh, it must be nice to get that handout,’” she said. “No one wants to be on food stamps. $124 is a couple of meals at my house. I’m not sitting around waiting for things to be given to me. I’m busting my ass working and working and working to take care of my kids and I just can’t get ahead for the life of me.”
From age 15 Lea has been a caretaker, watching over her younger siblings due to her mother’s health issues. She eventually dropped out of school but is now working to get her GED diploma. To accomplish this, Young needs to pass four tests on a variety of topics. She said each test costs $40-$50.
She has a job in the health care system but works 12-hour shifts, often 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., leaving her children to take care of themselves and each other.
Lea typically leaves the house by 2:45 p.m. to get to work by 5:45 p.m. because she doesn’t have a car. She makes dinner for her children before she leaves, and after work starts her three-hour trek back home using the city’s transit system.
She sleeps for a few hours around 12:30 p.m. and then gets up to do it again.
She said it’s incredibly difficult to keep up with this schedule but does it for them.
“When they tell me they need something new I don’t say anything, but in my head I’m thinking, ‘How am I going to do this?” Lea said. “I’m tired from working and I’m going to go work more hours, but I do it because you hear about a lot of kids getting in trouble when they don’t have other activities. I figure if I keep my kids active, they’re not going to take the wrong path, so I just work more and more and more.”
Julia, the other RISE 2.0 participant, said she considers herself underemployed as an hourly worker, which has a significant effect on her ability to support her family. She said the full process to secure this position lasted four weeks and included two interviews. She said the job comes with no additional benefits, which is the case for many hourly positions.
“It’s important to consider the idea of social capital and it isn’t always how hard you work, it’s who you know,” Julia said. “Anyone can get a job, but a career is a privilege based on your social capital. If you don’t have hands to help you up, you’re stuck with an hourly wage job and I challenge anyone to tell me otherwise.”
She has a vehicle, which helps alleviate some of the pressure of child care dropoff and pickup, and receives child care assistance through government programs. She has shared custody but noted those situations can get more complicated than being the sole parent because if her children’s father doesn’t pay his half of the child care bill they are at risk of being kicked out of the program.
When the three-year RISE 2.0 program ends, Grabner is confident the women will have self-sufficiency.
“They will reach self-sufficiency or we will stick with them until they do,” she said. “For these women my wish is that they are able to demonstrate for their kids the power of perseverance. With this drive and example, my long-range goal is that these kids have broken their generational poverty cycle.”
Money and mental health
Both women confirm having anxiety over money even though they qualify for at least one government program because they can be difficult to navigate and aren’t always easy to apply for.
Julia said when she does her budget it’s much more complex than someone not using government programs because there are certain things she can buy from certain stores and others she can’t. For example, she can get coffee at Pick n’ Save but not from Festival Foods.
“There are certain types of cereal and yogurt you can get so you have to do a lot of work to try and figure it out,” Pickett said. “The person who is using three different forms of payment — it probably took them twice as long to figure out how to use those efficiently than what you’re seeing.”
Brittany Stewart, another Oshkosh-area mother working an hourly-wage job, also has a lot of anxiety surrounding money and doesn’t feel she could cover the cost of a large unexpected emergency.
“Simply put, I would be ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul,’” Stewart said. “I can’t even meet the budget expenses I have now. Most months it’s setting up payment plans and deciding what is better to go without. What’s more important — vehicle insurance or making sure I have electricity, running water and a safe place for my daughter and I to come home to? The question answers itself.”
Stewart graduated from high school and was on her way to UW-Stevens Point to major in speech pathology but had a family issues that brought her home to work full time. She later attended Fox Valley Technical College for a few semesters but was unable to finish because she needed to continue her full-time work. She said her average annual income is below $20,000 and her biggest expense by far is child care with utilities a close second. Daily and weekly expenses that prove to be problematic are gas and laundry. She does not have a washer or dryer in her apartment.
Oshkosh vs. other cities
Julia feels there is a difference between Oshkosh and other places she has lived when it comes to community engagement and support. She has found that even programs that aim to support Oshkosh mothers aren’t welcoming she often feels alone and isolated.
“There’s a difference between how people are using those small organizations here than in other communities,” she said. “You can use small organizations to help others or you can use small organizations to say, ‘Here we are; you can’t get in’ and most of the time it’s, ‘Here we are; you’re not a part of this.’” She acknowledged there are organizations trying to change this perception but thinks they are few and far between.
Julia also believes programs could be run more efficiently in Oshkosh by having a health clinic and food pantry in the same building to reduce the time it takes to get from one place to another to secure essential needs.
“It’s a full-time job to be poor,” she said. “It just feels like, on top of everything else going on, all of the higher institutions are telling you your time has no value. All I see when I look at the people waiting for their food is the potential and valuable skills just kind of stagnant and told that’s what they’re worth.”
The women in RISE 2.0 both sought emergency shelter at Christine Ann after fleeing abuse, which is how they became involved in the program. Stewart is a participant in Pathways of Hope through the Salvation Army, which provides individualized services to families working to break the cycle of crisis and vulnerability that can repeat for generations. The program goes after the root causes of poverty by helping families overcome unemployment, unstable housing and lack of education.
“I cried every single night when we were in the shelter after my kids when to sleep,” Lea said. “It was so hard and I ended up having to quit my job because there was a lot of mandatory overtime I couldn’t take because of my kids.”
She did find another job but said it wasn’t easy and still struggles to get as many hours as she needs to keep up with expenses.
All three women acknowledged feeling shame and embarrassment simply trying to move through the community as a single mother in poverty. Lea said there are few people in her life or her children’s who know they lived in temporary shelter. Julia struggles to combat the guilt others put on her for buying things she and her family need, such as a cellphone or vehicle. Stewart referenced the benefits cliff that has her considering whether to take a better-paying job but losing benefits.
“Some days I feel like I’m only treading water, others I feel I will never get above water,” Stewart said.
A little compassion helps
“A little bit of respect or compassion goes a long way,” Julia said. “Even if people could just be a little more courteous to the person who has multiple forms of payment at the grocery store checkout — they’re just trying to feed themselves or their kids.”
Lea also finds compassion important and does what she can to help others while living paycheck to paycheck.
“When I see people on the street asking for money, I don’t have a lot of money but I still give them a dollar or two if I can because I am that mom that needs help sometimes too,” she said. “I don’t know their story. Nobody knew my story but they still helped me and that’s why I do what I do.”
Stewart said she thinks some in the Oshkosh community are naive in believing that people living below the poverty line are doing so by choice.
“A lot of people seem to think homelessness is a choice, that addiction and alcoholism are choices, and being a single parent often has a negative connotation surrounding it,” Stewart said. “Though circumstances may seem to support these opinions, it couldn’t be further from the truth. Poor people don’t make bad decisions; people make bad decisions because they are poor.”
Next week: Juggling education and employment goals