It was actually really hard for me to find something local to write about this time. I should have taken this the last session when I would have had plenty to flame on about. But with the legislature adjourned and the damage done, things are pretty calm as everyone rests from the long battles. Most of the opinion editorials are now either revolving around the federal deficit fight or some local news issue not really involving politics. Finally, I struck upon and article that ties nicely into how the fight in Washington could directly affect us here at home.
In the article Food program cuts would strain local hunger assistance printed in the Austin American Statesman, the author, Kathy Golson, discusses the impact that some proposed cuts would have right here in Austin. The intent of the article is to mobilize the socially conscience or humanistic audience as well as to inform and possibly influence the “fence sitters”. The delivery is very professional, delivering facts, statistics and predictions while refraining from name calling and other polarizing tactics.
Golson starts out discussing the USDA commodities program that buys surplus products from farmers and distributes them to recipients and food banks. According to the article, currently proposed reduction could slash commodity donations by up to 50% from the current figure of 6.9 million pounds distributed last year. Cuts like this are a “double whammy” as they hurt both the agricultural sector and our poor.
A second element of concern she outlined was the proposal to turn SNAP into a block grant. Right now Texas gets SNAP funds based on the current need. Under this block grant scenario, the State would simply get a fixed amount of money. The author estimates that this would result in a rough average of $53 less per family for food benefits. What the author fails to also mention is that should the number of recipients go up; this would mean even less per family. They do however point out that unlike the current system, the state would be able to spend the money on other programs as it chooses. I know you’re thinking that our state government would never take money away from the hungry for other programs, but they did exactly that to an education grant just a few years ago. Money that was supposed to go toward educating our children was instead placed in the general revenue fund.
She does not provide the source for her statistics, but I was able to verify enough from the Capital Area Food Bank website to believe those figures and the detail of the article leads me to believe they most likely came from direct collaboration with the food bank. The SNAP figures were available on the Texas Health and Human Services Commision website and, to be honest, are quite chilling.
During this research, I had found an article on how Texas was so deficient in handling SNAP that they were fined just over 3 Million dollars by the federal government. The actual article was about how they had since corrected these deficiencies but one statistic presented there was that only about half the eligible SNAP recipients actually sign up for the program. The Turning Tides for Texas SNAP Participation
Now, Lets play Yahtzee…. Put all these dice into a cup, shake it up, and let’s see what comes out.
• 1 in 7 Texans are receiving food assistance from SNAP. That makes 2 in 7 eligible.. almost 1/3 our population.
Now, to turn that into real numbers I reference the SNAP statistics directly from THHS.
• Travis County: 114,724 Recipients, which would make 229,448 eligible recipients.
• Williamson County: 31,746 Recipients, which would make 63,492 eligible recipients.
• State Total: 3,563,970 Recipients, which would make 7,127,940 eligible recipients.
58% of these are children and 6% are over 65
Now, next time you drive around, or go shopping… look around you. Almost a quarter million people in Austin alone, 1 in every 3.5 people you see are either on food assistance or do not make enough to buy adequate food. Many will be hungry as you stare at them.
It is easy to think of cuts when you call these people “Entitlements”, is it so easy after you look at their faces?
As Austin has prospered, those with upper level jobs have prospered along with it, but many of the rank and file have been left out of this prosperity, and I am not just talking the “uneducated”. As businesses roll in, and more people roll in, real estate and rental prices go up, it increases demand for everything. This is on top of the normal inflationary pressure. Average “worker bees” make $10-15 an hour and housing they can afford is slowing being redeveloped into much less affordable projects. When was the last time you saw new 2 bedroom homes or a low rent apartment being built? Healthcare is increasing and health insurance alone for a family can consume more than a third of a worker’s paycheck if it is even offered. I challenge anyone to sit down with a classified section and spreadsheet to devise a realistic budget for someone with children and a $15 an hour job. How is someone supposed to work themselves up in life if they can’t even feed themselves and their family working full time?
Pro business is fine but without some “pro people” mixed in, eventually the system will develop into such a state of imbalance that it will no longer be sustainable.
Off Topic but related:
As a side note to this commentary, I offer a real life example. The home I lived in here in the early 1970’s when I was growing up was just off 34th and Jefferson. My dad was a carpenter and my mom stayed at home. The neighbor behind us I remember was a janitor. It was a neighborhood of 2 bedroom, 1 bath houses between 1200 and 1500 Sq. Ft. built around 1940. We were a family of 6 so we closed in the back porch for another bedroom. We were able to afford the house on a single working class income and feed/clothe 6 people, have a car etc.
Flash to today… exact same 2 bedroom houses… $250,000.00 and up, average rent in excess of $2000
Average monthly take home at $15 an Hour… $2000
WTF?
Yes, there is more affordable housing elsewhere in Austin but this goes to show how once affordable areas are slowly disappearing.
E-Austin residents must leave complex
Renters feel squeeze as market explodes
And the problem isn’t limited to just Austin:
Some trampled in housing-vouchers rush
What good is a Texas that most Texans can’t afford to live in?
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