Poor families live in shadow of state's booming economy

REBECCA COOK, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Originally published November 20, 2001

VANCOUVER, Wash. -- There's a hidden dark side to the booming growth in southwestern Washington, a new census survey indicates.

Forty percent of Clark County's single women and single mothers lived in poverty last year, according to census survey data released Tuesday, compared with 29 percent statewide and only 21 percent in Pierce County.

That's a big surprise to demographers, because Clark County is considered to have a thriving economy. It was the fastest-growing Washington county during the 1990s. Officials there say the numbers are disturbing but probably accurate.

"It shows that we've grown in not-so-good ways," said Clark County Social Services Director Mike Piper.

He theorized that people struggling for financial security move from nearby Portland to Clark County, hoping to find work, affordable housing and a better life. Instead they discover rapid growth has left few family-wage job opportunities and even fewer chances for cheap housing.

The poverty data come from a snapshot of Washington's most populous counties called the Census 2000 Supplemental Survey.

Heather Evans, 24, born and raised in Clark County, is one of the faces behind the statistics. A fine-boned woman with strawberry blonde hair, a quick smile and determined blue eyes, she fits the U.S. Census definition of a "female householder family, no husband present." She has two sons and is pregnant with twins. Her husband, a recovering drug addict, is in jail awaiting trial on burglary charges.

Working whatever part-time jobs she could get with a 10th-grade education, Evans has never earned more than $8,000 a year -- well below the federal poverty level of $14,150 for a family of three. She owes nearly $20,000, mostly to utility companies.

She now lives in a privately funded Vancouver shelter called Open House Ministries, which provides intensive counseling, child care and work training for homeless people. She's pursuing her goal of becoming an emergency medical technician, a job she believes is her family's best chance at middle-class security.

"I have to go out and get my education," Evans said. "An $8-an-hour job is not going to be enough to support my family. You don't even know how good a feeling it would be to be able to support my family."

The Olympian Copyright 2001

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