County poverty rate down to 9%

The number of El Paso County residents scraping by on poverty-level wages declined sharply last year, government figures show.

The figures mean fewer people are on the lowest rung of the region’s economic ladder, but an expert cautioned they don’t necessarily indicate more area families are on firm financial ground. Even while the poverty rate declined from 11 percent of the population in 2005 to 9 percent last year, the number of people receiving food stamps and getting help from charity food pantries climbed.

“The economy has been improving for some people, but for many it hasn’t,” said Shawna Kemppainen, chief philanthropy officer for Care & Share Food Bank of Southern Colorado.

A family of one adult and two children would be considered at the poverty level if their household income was $16,600 or less in 2006.

Comparing age groups, the steepest decline in El Paso County’s poverty rate was for children younger than 5. An estimated 21 percent of children ages 1 to 4 were in poverty in 2005, but that dropped to 13 percent last year. The poverty rate for working-age adults, 18 to 64, declined from 10 percent to 8 percent. The rate for people age 65 and older remained steady at 7 percent.

Kemppainen said falling poverty numbers from one year to the next reveal only part of the picture of financial hardship.

“The poverty rate is a onetime snapshot in a single year, and in the United States the fact is that 58 percent of people are going to live in poverty at some point in their adult lives,” she said. “People fall in and out of poverty. ... You may be in poverty for three months, get a better job, you get divorced, you fall back into poverty four years later.”

Other figures suggest that although some El Paso County families are making more money, their incomes still aren’t enough for necessities. The number of families who qualified for cash welfare payments in El Paso County went from 1,565 on average each month last year to 1,262 so far this year, a 19 percent decline, according to the county Department of Human Services.

To qualify for the payments under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, a single parent with two children could make no more than $5,052 per year, including some income deductions. That’s about a third of the official poverty-level income.

Meanwhile, the number of people qualifying for food stamps in El Paso County increased from 13,565 per month on average in 2006 to 14,636 so far this year, an 8 percent increase, the Department of Human Services reported. The food stamp program in El Paso County allows families to earn up to 130 percent of the official poverty-level income.

The eligibility rules for welfare programs are complex, so comparisons are difficult. Still, the numbers indicate a declining poverty rate in El Paso County hasn’t translated into prosperity for some residents.

The Census Bureau estimates Colorado’s poverty rate at 12 percent in 2006, or 3 percentage points higher than El Paso County’s rate.

Median income for Colorado was $52,015 last year. El Paso County’s median household income in 2006 was $53,240.