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Updated: September 21, 2022 @ 1:32 pm
A new report shows how pervasive poverty is in Essex County.
The report was presented to a group of community action stakeholders at Essex Tech Monday during an event hosted by the Massachusetts Association for Community Action (MASSCAP).
It was a chance for stakeholders to discuss ways to eradicate poverty. Especially since wages have become stagnant for working class families since the 1980s, despite the wealthy growing exponentially wealthier at the same time, according to the report.
“The problem of poverty is not that our economy has tanked,” said Nancy Wagman, kids count director of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (MassBudget) and author of the report. “Overall, our economy still grows.”
Massachusetts has one of the largest wealth gaps among its residents in the country. This largely has to do with the high-tech industries that are rapidly growing in the state, stagnant wages of low-paying work and under-resourced communities, Wagman said.
“The particular challenge in Massachusetts is that there’s been so much growth at the top compared to other states, and so some of the forces that have kept wages stagnant at the bottom and the middle are more universal,” Wagman continued.
In Salem, 30% of residents are poor or hover at the poverty line — the case for 41% of the city’s children, the report found.
The city also has 35% of its households spending more than 50% of their income on housing, which is more than Boston, Lynn, Springfield and Worcester.
Gloucester has 20-33% of its residents spending as much on housing, a 21% poverty rate and 27% child poverty rate.
Beverly and Essex fall into an overall poverty range of 19-27%, while Peabody, Danvers, Ipswich, Rockport, Hamilton and Swampscott are in the 13-18% range.
Wealth disparities become even more apparent when looking at race, Wagman said.
The median annual income for Massachusetts residents is $84,000, on par with Essex County’s median income of $81,000 to $83,000, according to the report.
White residents in the state see an annual median income of about $91,000. But for Black residents, the median income is only $54,000. That drops to $48,000 for Hispanic and Latino residents and $35,000-$49,000 for Native Americans.
People of color have also seen more stagnant wage growth compared to their white neighbors, the report found, even as the state becomes more diverse.
That’s why panelist Kiame Mahaniah, CEO of the Lynn Community Health Center, urged organizations and local leaders to use compassion as a tool against poverty.
“The biggest problem we have in our political sphere in the U.S. is that in whatever community you are, there’s a sizable group of people that believe that another sizable group of people is not worth it,” Mahaniah said.
Low wages and a systemic lack of opportunity have barred many people of color from having safe housing, healthy food and reliable health care and transportation, Mahaniah said.
Programs like SNAP benefits and organizations like MASSCAP members Action, Inc. in Gloucester and the North Shore Community Action Programs in Peabody, have help cut poverty in half in Massachusetts, Wagman said.
But they can’t be the only solutions, added keynote speaker Beth Francis, the president and CEO of the Essex County Community Foundation.
“This report continues to clearly outline clearly that in order to solve the issue of poverty, it can’t just be one person and one organization in the fight,” Francis said. “It can’t just be the state or municipal government. It can’t just be the federal agencies. and it can’t just be philanthropy working to end the problem.
“The real solution lies in us all coming together,” she said.
Having jobs that pay wages in line with inflation and the state’s cost of living is a good place to start, Wagman said.
“When people are earning money at work, there are no constraints on how they can use it,” she said. “They can spend it how the family needs.”
COVID-19 financial relief has protected the state from even higher poverty rates during the pandemic, the report found. Still, the pandemic highlighted already existing inequities.
More eviction filings were made against communities of color than white renters. They also saw higher rates of COVID-19 due to essential yet often low-paying jobs and smaller homes that made it harder for households to social distance.
These issues still need a lot of work. But there are organizations that can help, said Laura Meisenhelter, executive director at NSCAP and the board president for MASSCAP.
“Your local community action agency or community health centers are always good entry points if you don’t know where to go, because it’s our job to know where to go for help,” Meisenhelter said.
Contact Caroline Enos at CEnos@northofboston.com and follow her on Twitter @CarolineEnos .
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