Beth Walton

Asheville Citizen Times

ASHEVILLE - Regional economist Tom Tveidt was a bit befuddled when he saw poverty numbers rise in Western North Carolina's metro area despite drops elsewhere. Those who work with the poor day in and day out, however, weren't as surprised.

Nearly 17 percent of the population in Asheville lived in poverty in 2015, a 32 percent gain from the previous year, despite drops statewide and nationally, according to the U.S. Census American Community Survey data released in September.

In the metro region, which includes Madison, Buncombe, Haywood and Henderson counties, 15.4 percent of the population was living below the federal poverty threshold in 2015, set at $12,082 for a single person and $25,257 for a family of four.

In 2014 that number was 12.6 percent.

Poverty in North Carolina dropped nearly 3.6 percent in 2015 when compared to the year before. Nationally, there was a 4.2 percent drop.

Statewide 16.4 percent of the population lives in poverty. Across the United States that number is close to 14.7 percent.

"There definitely seems to be something going on with the poverty trend in Asheville that is not happening nationally or statewide," Tveidt said. "This is a bit of a caveman fishing expedition, trying to make connections."

Tveidt points to issues with changing demographics, a declining labor force, fewer households with retirement income and a shrinking middle class.

The 2015 Census found two statistically significant changes in Western North Carolina's population trends, Tveidt said. There was a 7 percent increase in the number of people 25-34 who call the metro area home. This came alongside a 5 percent increase in those of retirement age, 65 to 75.

There are also fewer people in the workforce. There was a near 13 percent drop in the number of people counted not in the labor force in 2015, falling from 71,085 individuals to 63,090.

As demographics change, so to have earnings, Tveidt points out. The Census shows gains in the number of low-income and wealthy families, yet drops in the middle class.

There was a near 7 percent increase in the number of families living in the $15,000 to $24,000 a year income bracket in 2015, while those making $75,000 to $100,000 dropped almost 14 percent.

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The small number of families earning more than $200,000 jumped by 57 percent.

Policymakers need to realize that as hotels and restaurants continue to prosper, it is exacerbating poverty, said Micheal Woods, executive director of Western Carolina Rescue Ministries, the largest provider of emergency shelter in the region.

Over the last five years, 30 percent of net new jobs in Asheville have come from the Leisure & Hospitality sector, Tveidt said. Those jobs have relatively lower wages.

"The tourism dollars benefit the rich and not the poor and that's the truth of that," Woods said. "Those that have the ability to benefit the most are the ones who are benefiting the most. It's a rich versus poor thing."

The economic recovery from the Great Recession has been slow in Asheville, along with much of North Carolina, said Greg Borom, director of advocacy for Children First/Communities in Schools of Buncombe County, a nonprofit agency working to advocate and empower children and families living in poverty.

There continues to be a lot of jobs in retail, services and hospitality with wages that may not move a family with children above the poverty line, he said.

The average weekly wage for people working in restaurants and bars in 2015 was $285.78. That number includes reported tips, Tveidt said, using data from the North Carolina Department of Commerce.

Other tourism sectors paid slightly more in 2015, but still not a lot.

Accommodations, such as work at hotels and bed and breakfasts, averaged $422.72 a week. Jobs related to employment at museums, performing arts centers or recreation venues averaged around $497.85 a week.

"We also have a very expensive housing market," Borom continued. "This places more children in poverty at risk to experience multiple moves, evictions, doubling up, or homelessness."

Asheville-based Realsearch, a company that analyzes real estate trends, recently reported that 2016 boasted the highest home sale median prices on record in Asheville, $260,000. That represents a leap of 7.2 percent over the same period last year, when the median price was $242,500.

The median rent for a two-bedroom unit in Asheville has reached $1,180 a month, the highest in the state for that size among a set of 10 large North Carolina cities, according to 2016 data prepared by the San Francisco-based company Apartment List.

"Couples move here or live here and only one of them can find a job in his or her field, so they are low-income," said James Barrett, executive director at Pisgah Legal Services, a legal aid group advocating for the most vulnerable in Western North Carolina.

"Pisgah Legal Services has lost staff because spouses had to move away to find jobs in their field, especially since housing costs are high here compared to other places and relative to the wage scales."

"Even when jobs pay living wages, they aren't always adjusted for household size and they might not be full time."

Life is especially difficult for working parents, given the high cost of child care, said Amy Barry, executive director at the Buncombe Partnership for Children, a nonprofit focused on improving school readiness.

The average fee in Buncombe County for a five-star child care center offering early education to children ages 3 to 5 is $750 a month.

"We get calls from families all the time that just cannot afford the private fee," she said. "It's definitely a barrier."

Asheville resident Kwana Bailey, 40, knows what it is like to grow up in poverty and pushes every day to make sure her children have it better than her.

That became exceptionally more difficult in July when a tree fell on her mobile home and her landlord refused to fix the property.

Bailey and children were out of a home and had to turn to nonprofit homeless service provider Homeward Bound of Western North Carolina for assistance.

The agency was able to find Bailey, who works as a health care aid, a three-bedroom house just south of downtown and could offer rental assistance for up to a year.

The mother of six is now holding her breath that when the time comes she will be able to make the more than $1,000 in monthly rental payments on her own.

In August, she secured a new job in the same sector, yielding higher pay, but Bailey still earns less than $20,000 a year.

In October, she had to go to Eblen Charities for help with her electric bill.

Alongside agencies like Eblen and Homeward Bound, Bailey says the family has relied on government benefits in addition to services provided by other nonprofits such as Green Opportunities and Community Action Opportunities.

It's the only way she can get ahead.

"I know that I won’t be the only one affected by this cycle, and I’m telling you that this is our way out," she said. "My whole lifetime goal is to one day give it back."

This article is the second in a series on poverty in Western North Carolina. The work was done in partnership with the Marguerite Casey Foundation’s Equal Voice Journalism Fellowship.

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