Inquirer Editorial: Must cut roots of deep poverty

It is unconscionable that Philadelphia has more people in what's called deep poverty than any other city among the nation's 10 largest.

Almost 13 percent of city residents earn less than $5,700 a year for individuals, or $11,700 for a family of four, according to an analysis by The Inquirer and Temple University sociologist David Elesh. Poverty-line earners are paid twice as much, making these 200,000 Philadelphians the poorest of the poor.

Unfortunately for them, the Corbett administration's disturbing economic policies have made it even harder for the poor to provide for their families.

The governor has instituted a means test to receive food stamps even though most states have rejected that hurdle as counterproductive. He has also cut general-assistance payments, a modest $200 monthly stipend that had been provided to recovering addicts and poor adults.

Meanwhile, the unemployed in Pennsylvania have been shunted into a bureaucratic morass so inefficient that the U.S. Department of Labor is investigating.

The administration has cut child-care subsidies for the working poor, and Corbett's representatives on the city School Reform Commission have failed to pressure Harrisburg for more funding to meet the state's obligation to give children the basic academic tools needed to escape poverty.

That's not all. Corbett cut meager health-care aid for 41,000 adults, but fortunately a court ordered him to restore adultBasic. And he has yet to say whether he will expand Medicaid so Pennsylvania can get the full benefits of the Affordable Care Act.

It's hard to believe the governor doesn't care about the state's poorest residents, but that's what his actions suggest. The kindest interpretation of Corbett's policies would be that his administration doesn't understand how difficult it is to overcome the debilitating effects of deep poverty.

As reporter Alfred Lubrano recently reported, deep poverty often means sleeping on the bare floors of cold apartments and trying to patch together low-paying jobs so you can scratch up enough food to survive. When their food stamps are exhausted, which is typically by the third week of the month, many parents forgo food so their children can eat.

What used to be called welfare, now known as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, is impossible to get in most circumstances unless you already have a low-paying job or are in job training. And since the recession, jobs for unskilled workers have been hard to find and training has been cut.

Very poor people "live in toxic stress," as Mariana Chilton, an associate professor at Drexel University School of Public Health, put it. "They're dealing with social dysfunction, violence in the family, potential drug addiction, poor education," she said.

The governor needs to remember that as he negotiates his new budget with the legislature. If he does, he will improve basic services for the poor and invest in smarter programs that actually help people break out of poverty.