National poverty rate drops, NC rate still higher than average

National and state poverty levels have decreased for the first time since before the recession, but North Carolina’s levels remain above the national average.

The number of Americans living in poverty in 2013 was 15.8 percent, down a tenth of a percent from 2012, and North Carolina has followed a similar trajectory, according to a report released Thursday by the American Community Survey through the U.S. Census Bureau.

North Carolina’s poverty levels decreased by a tenth of a percent to 17.9 percent in 2013, the report said, but experts say the issue persists statewide.

“Poverty is North Carolina’s largest problem,” said Gene Nichol, director of the Center on Poverty, Work & Opportunity at UNC-Chapel Hill, in an email. “The federal poverty rate actually dramatically understates the challenges North Carolinians face in trying to support themselves and their families.”

He said the state has been losing ground on the national poverty rate since 2000 — the last time North Carolina was at the national average.

“The General Assembly makes this tragedy worse each year by waging war on the interests of the people,” Nichol said. “There is no way a family of four can make it in our state on $24,000 a year.”

Tazra Mitchell, policy analyst at the North Carolina Justice Center, said her research found that the poverty line for a family of four should be $52,000 a year — more than double what it is currently.

She said there are neighborhoods in large counties, such as Mecklenburg, Forsyth and Wake, with poverty rates higher than 40 percent, and the state has been even harder hit in rural areas.

An increase in the federal minimum wage has been debated in recent months, and Mitchell said it might improve poverty rates. But she said state lawmakers have eliminated several policies, like the earned income tax credit, that would help low-income families.

Andrew Brod, a senior research fellow at UNC-Greensboro, said North Carolina was hit harder by the recession because the state economy has shifted in recent years from manufacturing to service-based.

“North Carolina had so many eggs in one basket,” Brod said.

He said Winston Salem has been one of the hardest hit cities in North Carolina with a 22 percent poverty rate, according to estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

But he said there are efforts to combat state poverty, including a gathering of state mayors at the Greensboro Poverty Summit Sept. 10 that discussed urban poverty.

Carter Wrenn, a conservative political consultant, said job creation is an essential part of the economic recovery, but government intervention is not the solution and the president’s stimulus plan failed to address the issue of job creation.

But Gary Pearce, liberal political consultant, said the stimulus plan rescued the nation.

“Obama’s stimulus plan probably kept us from falling into a full-fledged depression,” he said.

Pearce said poverty is not a large-scale issue in elections, but it should play a more prominent role.

“People truly in poverty, struggling to get by every day, don’t have the time or ability to register to vote and get to the polling place,” he said.

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