Rural Poor

L

istening to the Voices of the Rural Poor
By Randy Weckman

Poor people. Children in poverty. The images conjured up by each of these phrases today most often have an urban, housing project complexion. Yet, much of the poverty in the United States is not urban, inner city poverty, but
rural, wide-open-spaces poverty and small town poverty. Regardless of locale, poverty constitutes human potential unfulfilled.

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996, commonly dubbed “welfare reform,” made sweeping changes in the federal government’s role in supporting low-income families. It ended cash assistance as an entitlement, imposed time limits and work requirements on poor people, and gave states greater domain in welfare policy. And as the name implies, it put the onus on poor families to figure out how to end their dependence on welfare.

Nearly all discussions leading to welfare reform centered on the urban poor. And while the outcome of being poor in an urban situation and a rural situation may be similar, the opportunities for bootstrapping oneself out of poverty may be quite different.

How are rural families with young children dealing with the “end of welfare as we know it,” a common descriptor of the legislation? According to a study by Tricia Dyk, a sociologist in the Department of Community and Leadership Development, they’re having problems that are uniquely rural in nature.

“In our study we asked poor Kentucky mothers to tell us in their own words what their lives are like after welfare reform,” said Dyk.

“Because they are telling us their story, we can understand the strategies they use in dealing with poverty every day,” she said.

“The mothers we’ve interviewed aren’t ‘welfare queens’ of popular myth. Two-thirds of them or their husbands had worked sometime during the last year. Nonetheless, the barriers for bootstrapping themselves permanently out of poverty are formidable,” Dyk said.

These families don’t want to continue “drawing a check,” as the saying goes, but they face difficult challenges not only in finding a job but in being able to retain it because of many things most of us take for granted, she said.

“Jobs in rural areas are scarce, and when a job is available, it is twice as likely as an urban job to pay minimum wage and have no benefits,” Dyk said. It may be very difficult if not impossible to sustain a family on minimum wages, especially when benefits are meager, she said.

The lack of reliable transportation is a major barrier for many of these people, she said.
“Because getting to a job in a rural area usually requires some travel, you may have a hard time keeping a job if you don't have a car or your car is undependable. Some moms are coping by having a member of an extended family help out with transportation to and from a job,” Dyk said.

Child care is another major obstacle for many. Child care is expensive in urban areas, too, but at least it is more readily available. In rural areas, reliable child care may be quite distant from one’s home, she said.

“Again, the extended family often helps out with child care while parents work,” Dyk said.
So, okay, if jobs in rural areas are scarce and barriers to working substantial, why don't the rural poor move to urban areas where jobs, public transportation, and child care are more available?

“Historically, many rural poor have migrated to the cities,” Dyk said. “The low-income moms we interviewed, in addition to being very dependent on extended family members to keep their own families intact, often have responsibilities to other family members that preclude them from even thinking about leaving the rural area for the city,” she said.
Oddly, living in poverty hadn’t particularly embittered the low-income moms.

“These people are resilient and resourceful in their own ways in dealing with the unexpectedness of their lives. They tend to be very good at living poor,” Dyk said.
Take Laurie, a 22-year-old mother of two, who said one technique she uses to get through to the end of the month is pawning.

“I pawn stuff all the time. I pawned my ring the other day to buy diapers. I pawn things telling myself I'll get them back. But then I never do.”

Laurie (not her real name) takes care of two small children while her husband works any odd jobs he can procure. Laurie believes she is ineligible for child care assistance because she and her husband live together. Because money is so tight, she relies on washing clothes in the bathtub rather than spending money at the laundry.

By knowing just how families like Laurie’s are coping, we can better anticipate the needs our rural poor have in getting out of poverty and staying there, Dyk said. Just because they are no longer on welfare rolls doesn't mean their income is sufficient to move beyond poverty, she said.

Tricia Dyk, a sociologist in the Department of Community and Leadership Development, has talked with low-income Kentucky women about how they’ve fared since welfare reform began.