Poverty Awareness Month

CLIFTON  January is Poverty Awareness Month, a month long initiative to bring forth the ongoing issue facing more than 43 million people living in poverty in the United States. Poverty affects people of all races, backgrounds and ages. In the state of New Jersey almost one million people live in poverty.

Addressing the issue is a mission of the U.S. Bishop’s Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), who launched Poverty USA, the domestic anti-poverty program. The CCHD seeks to educate and promote understanding about poverty and its root causes. Its mission goes beyond helping those living in poverty but preventing poverty, stopping the cycle of poverty among families and helping families help themselves. To be considered living in poverty, a family of four consisting of two adults and two children has to make below $24,300 a year.

Diocesan Catholic Charities is no stranger to serving those living in poverty. Its Catholic Family and Community Services (CFCS) provides services in the poorest of communities in all three counties of the diocese.

Christine Barton, executive director of CFCS, said, “While we live in a state that claims the second highest median household income in the U.S., in the communities that CFCS serves, our clients earn a fraction of this: barely enough to get by.”

In two cities that CFCS serves, a large population faces poverty. In Passaic County, in the city of Paterson nearly one-third of its residents live in poverty and in Morris County, in Dover, more than 20 percent live in poverty.

Since the great recession that began in 2008, CFCS has seen its numbers grown significantly in providing basic services to thousands and thousands of people due to job losses, long-term unemployment and home foreclosures. These services include emergency assistance such as food, rental/mortgage assistance, utility bill payments, temporary shelter and even medical bill and prescription assistance.

“CFCS provides emergency and community support services that can help clients who are facing utility shut-off or eviction for rent non-payment. The increase in clients served mirrors that of the basic needs programs nearly doubly each year from 2012 to present,” said Barton.

Children and seniors account for a significant number of those affected by poverty. In New Jersey, 15.6 percent of children and 7.9 percent of seniors were living below the poverty line in 2015 according to the CCHD.

According to CFCS 2015 annual report, “Children are most adversely affected by poverty and CFCS strives to mitigate the impact of poverty on the child’s long term success through quality preschool education and after school and summer programs.” In 2015, CFCS youth programs served 5,297 children.

In the counties of the Diocese, Passaic, Morris and Sussex, 3,294 seniors were also supported by CFCS through services such as adult day care, recreation activities, transportation services, chore and home repair programs and Meals on Wheels.

One of the important goals of Poverty Awareness Month is the prevention of poverty and helping families sustain themselves. CCHD was established in 1969 to empower groups of poor and low-income people to address the root causes of poverty in their communities. According to the CCHD, the root causes of poverty are lack of education, single-parent homes, mental and physical disabilities and racial injustice. Another factor is the economic cycle. With the current economy, a minimum wage earns a full-time worker only about $15,000 a year. Health insurance is unaffordable to many including the 48 million people who lacked coverage in 2012. Housing has become inaccessible to low-income people and more than eight million pay more than half their annual income for rent or mortgage payments.

The CCHD has many youth programs for parishes to teach young people about poverty whether it is to live in solidarity and assist those in poverty and to break the cycle of poverty for youth already at risk. The CCHD has also provided more than 9,000 grants to self-help organizations led by poor persons.

Quoting Pope Francis, the CCHD posted this message by the pope: “Charity that leaves the poor person as he is, is not sufficient. True mercy, the mercy God gives to us and teaches us, demands justice, it demands that the poor find the way to be poor no longer.”

[Information: www.usccb.org.