Travis County Commissioners Court
January 2, 2007
Item 3
3. Approve proclamation for "poverty awareness month" in Travis County. We do have several individuals here to receive the proclamation. Shall I read it?
>> it reads whereas an estimated 135,240, 15.7% of Travis County residents living in poverty in 2005, whereas 21% of children living in the city of Austin and 16% of children in central Texas live bloat poverty -- live below the federal poverty line, whereas an estimated 4,695 and that's 8.3% of the senior population, aged 65 years and older in Travis County have incomes at or below the -- the poverty level, whereas nearly 80,000 adults in Travis County have less than a high school education, and thus may not have the skills required for job that's move families out of poverty, whereas persons with disability are more vulnerable to poverty, a Travis County resident with a physical disability is 1.5 times more likely than average to live in poverty and residents with the mental disability live in poverty at almost twice the average rate; whereas the cost of living in the Austin area is significantly higher than the recognized poverty level, families that's incomes more than double the federal poverty guidelines to be able to to afford basic monthly expenses a family of four needs, 43,584 to cover basic expenses and the federal poverty guideline is 20,000. So in this community you need more than double the --
>> uh-huh.
>> the federal poverty guideline. Whereas the cost of living in the Austin area is significantly higher, just read that one. Don't need to reread it for emphasis do we? Whereas the demand for services to help individuals and families transition out of poverty continues to increase, now therefore be it resolved that we the Travis County Commissioners court do hereby proclaim the month of January, 2007, as poverty awareness month in Travis County and encourage all residents to increase their awareness of poverty by engaging in activities and supporting programs designed to reduce the effects of poverty in our community, I move approval.
>> second.
>> good morning.
>> good morning.
>> a lot of facts in the proclamation by the way, thank you.
>> thank you. Judge, Commissioners, we really appreciate the leadership that you all exhibit in terms of addressing poverty in our community and want to thank you for again partnering with the basic needs coalition and awareness month in 2007. Last year the coalition launched the first poverty awareness month in our community, really on the heels of what we saw happening in the fall of 2005. And with katrina and rita and the aftermath of that, and the impact not only on those communities that were directly impacted but also on our own community with the evacuees coming into our community, for the first time we saw the media you utter the p word and admit that there was poverty in america. What we wanted to do with part of the basic needs coalition is give a face to poverty within our own community. There's a lot of talk about the quality of life in Austin-Travis County and how that continues to increase. But what we do know is that that quality of life that we like to boast about is not available for everyone that's living in Austin Travis County. A fact that the county is very much aware of. And the county has been a very vital and important member of the basic needs coalition so we appreciate that support. We appreciate consideration of the proclamation. Tomorrow we are going to have a -- a launch of poverty awareness month and the -- the -- judge Biscoe you will be participating in that on behalf of the county, so I appreciate that. Today we have a number of e blasts that are going out to various list that's we are encouraging folks to then forward beyond that. It is the first of five e blasts. This is a similar strategy that we used last year to get some data in front of individuals so that they have a better awareness on the aggregate of the impact of poverty within our community. Oftentimes we have individual human interest stories and -- and really see the human cost at a personal level that there's also a community cost of -- of not adding poverty -- not addressing poverty that we need to be looking at as a community, looking that the cumulative effect, this aggregate effect, seeing how we can have an impact on that over the longer haul. And as has been indicated there is a poverty fact sheet that's available and so through your e-mail today, you should be receiving an e blast, you should be receiving the poverty fact sheet and also see that you get a list of the schedule of activities because we do have activities also planned in each of the five weeks of the -- of this. We have -- we are doing a five-week poverty awareness month.
>> it is a very great eye opener to take this tour and -- and are you still including everyone or did you want to gear this just to businesses. Business -- the business community.
>> actually, what we are doing is addressing key topics around poverty. So next month -- I mean next week at the united way there will be community-wide discussion on the impact of poverty on business and on education. Following that we will have -- we will have a release from the indigent care coalition on the impact of poverty as related to health care. And then we will also at the end of the month, beginning of February, look at some research that the basic needs coalition has spearheaded on food security and release that information in the community. So we are targeting key parts of our community who have not had or necessarily been exposed some of this information.
>> okay, great.
>> I would like to quickly introduce my colleagues with me. Beth attarton with caritas of Austin, she and montgomery are chairing the community advocacy public awareness committee this year, are responsible for the activities that we are seeing with poverty awareness month. Thank for you the great job there. On my right is sues eason. Dan prewitt from meals on wheels and more and he chairs with cynthia covert our -- our food security committee. At a later point we would like to come and share with the court the results after food pantry and meal provider survey that we did in 2005 and 2006.
>> would that be an increase -- you know, I'm just recalling in a little tour that Commissioner Gomez and I were on a tour that address the maybe some of the concerns of poverty. I recall going -- the elementary school, we looked at some of the pantries, food pabt trees and things -- pantries and things there that really need to be restocked for persons to use as far as food items are concerned. The concern then came to me, still here now. As we continue to address the shortfalls that embrace our -- our folks as far as poverty is concerned, what I guess is being done to maybe beef up those -- those places where -- where -- that house the food products for some of the persons to use at our -- that are in poverty. I really didn't get a real good definite answer then, but I know that we have invested a lot of money, one-time money also into -- into the poverty program, per se, during this last budget cycle. My concern, though, is how is it going to be addressed to make sure that the -- that the -- that the pantries are restocked adequately for the poor?
>> Commissioner, you just provided a really good intro into what week five is of our poverty awareness month. Where we come back and talk about the basic needs coalition response to food security in our community. So we will be forwarding information about that. And leading up to that as beth indicated, what we really wanted to do is engage different segments of our scmiewnt, engage leaders in those segments to have a broader dialogue about poverty, the cost of varietyin our -- poverty in our community, education, health care. To really bring it back towards the end in terms of specifically what a basic needs coalition is doing regarding food sciewmplt there's one last partner -- food security. One last partner present that's two individuals that are very well known to this court, sherri flemming, andrea bus see, we have been very fortunate to have the county as a member, a very active member of the basic needs coalition, both in terms of leadership and helping not only to participate in the work of he-- of the coalition but also to support that. Through -- through planning and research and other functions that the county has been able to bring to the table and we simply wouldn't be here if the county had not been an integral partner in this process. So thank you for that.
>> one item that I would like to lob out there
>> [indiscernible] is as part of the poverty awareness month and beyond, you speak about the broader effects, how it affects our community, actually community costs quantifiable and frankly unquantified, I would really love to see a further dialogue about creating a baseline by having an assessment of -- of a needs assessment for the most vulnerable populations in this county as well as the surrounding counties. I would love to talk with you all more about that in the future, about pulling in the academic community as well as the services community as well as government to come one a baseline on a -- on a twice decade basis so that we really ferret out the true costs of poverty in our community so that we can have the assurance that we really are addressing it. And not just chipping away at a little piece here and there, but looking at it as an integrated problem. I know that you all are doing that. I know that I'm speaking to the choir. I'm hoping to -- to help in an idea of a -- of a broader dialogue and data set to really address the problem on a comprehensive scale.
>> our hope is that if we become more aware, we will become more motivated, right.
>> > and more effective.
>> in addition to becoming aware of poverty in our community. We need to make sure that we do something about it. That's why I'm glad to be on the Commissioners court.
>> absolutely.
>> thank you.
>> thank you all.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> we have this beautiful proclamation.
>> who is going to receive the proclamation? Oh, okay. We know the one from the city will be --
>> [laughter]
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> take care of yourself, good luck to you. Okay.
>> sherri, patted you all on the back.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, January 210, 2007 8:14 AM