At a work session last Thursday, Charlottesville City Council members discussed strategies for improving the situation of Charlottesville citizens living in poverty.
“We have more trouble than a lot of other communities,” Council member David Brown said, noting, though, that because Charlottesville is home to the University , the poverty rate is inflated because it includes University students who earn under $15,000 a year.
Council member Holly Edwards pointed to the number of free and reduced lunch recipients as a more accurate measurement of poverty in the city. In August 2008, there was a total of 5,193 recipients — 2,745 adults and 2,448 children. Slightly more than 40 percent of students at Charlottesville High School receive free and reduced lunches, as do 55.9 percent of students at Buford Middle School and more than 80 percent of students at Clark and Johnson elementary schools, she said.
The work session gave Council members an opportunity to explore the issue of poverty in the local community and to consider remedies that could be possible under a “tight budget.” Council members examined ways to partner with the private sector and nonprofit organizations in addition to looking at what other communities are doing, Brown said.
“We’re doing a lot of things that a lot of other communities do,” he said, “but I think we came up with some areas to emphasize in our upcoming budget year.”
Council discussed issues such as job skills training and the possibility of partnering with the Thomas Jefferson Partnership for Economic Development to help expand access to vocational training, Brown said.
“It’s a real challenge for families in poverty who are working to find the time, the energy, the money, the childcare to be able to upgrade their skills,” he said. “It’s not an easy road.”
At the work session, Brown suggested reducing bus fees or limiting them for people at a certain income threshold.
“Thirty ... or 40 dollars a month may not seem like a lot to a lot of people, but to people living on the edge, it’s a lot,” he said. His idea would “do a little bit to help” people get where they need to go, he said.
Council members also talked about ways to increase access to banking for people living in poverty. University students receive free checking with “no fee, no minimum balance required,” Brown explained, “but families who live in poverty don’t get that.” Council members are looking for a way to get people “engaged into the banking system” so they do not have to spend money while cashing their paychecks, Brown said.
Edwards suggested a series of town hall-style meetings, “where we could get people from all sides of the issue ... and really get a further discussion on what would be some things we could do easily,” Brown said.
Edwards said the idea came from an analogy someone shared with her.
“We need to make sure that we’re not making the shoe fit the foot,” she said, but that “we’re actually going into the community to find out what the actual needs are.”
Edwards hopes to develop a grassroots-style effort that would revolve around “meeting people where they are and just sitting around and chatting.” The meetings would lead to an understanding of the challenges and the barriers the city faces and what opportunities the city can offer to citizens who are struggling.
With state budget cuts, the declining economy and lower tax revenues, Brown explained that creativity is key when working to address these issues.
“We really are fortunate to have so many [programs and agencies already in place],” Edwards said, “but clearly this is an opportunity to see where the overlaps are, to see where the connections need to be and to see how our resources can be better coordinated so that they really are effective.”
Though Council still has much to consider regarding the poverty problem in Charlottesville, Thursday’s work session was “a very good beginning,” Edwards said, describing it as “an opportunity to find out what the numbers are, what’s available and then to ask the question of what comes next.”
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