ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, November 18, 1996 TAG: 9611180109
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
MONTGOMERY County's Board of Supervisors got a hurtful earful last week. For all the growth and prosperity generated by a major university and retail growth, poverty in the county also has a higher profile.
The misery index provided by the county's Human Services Commission included the following:
* Poverty in Montgomery County is up 33 percent over the past decade.
* The county's Community Shelter for the homeless is meeting only 25 percent of the local need for emergency housing; more families are staying longer in the shelter - six months on average - because breadwinners can't find jobs that pay above minimum wage, if they can find jobs at all.
* The Free Clinic of the New River Valley is seeing many suicidal people, overwrought because of lack of resources and inadequate income. The Mental Health Association says the local rate of depression and anxiety is ``startling.''
* New River Community Action has waiting lists for programs such as Head Start, and says low-income clients feel ``a sense of panic'' over welfare reform being implemented by state and federal governments.
* The county's Department of Social Services reports an increasing number of investigations involving abuse of the elderly, including many isolated and frail older citizens. The caseload is comparable to that of much larger communities, such as Norfolk.
* The number of ``working poor'' has also increased with the economic transition from fewer full-time jobs to more part-time jobs without health insurance and other benefits.
* Organizations such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters don't have enough adult volunteers to serve needy children, and many of those who do volunteer are ``stressed and stretched'' because of job insecurities and increasing job demands.
The supervisors received the 64-page report without much comment. Indeed, what is there is to say when presented with such seemingly intractable problems?
Perhaps this: Montgomery County is in the same boat with most jurisdictions in the state and nation. Accelerating economic change is deepening the divide between haves and have-nots at the same time as cultural changes, in families and volunteer organizations, are weakening traditional sources of security, and federal assistance is being cut back. State government seems little inclined to fill the void.
How are local governing bodies going to handle the increasing problems and needs of have-nots as more responsibility is shifted to the local level? ``Good question,'' said Montgomery Supervisor Mary Biggs.
It would help if national politicians offered more leadership in addressing the widening gulf between rich and poor, instead of simply assuring, as President Clinton did, that we're ``on the right track.'' Next year's candidates for Virginia's statewide offices also might find the issue worthy of discussion. It isn't, after all, merely local governments' problem.
LENGTH: Medium: 57 linesby CNB