Report: One-third of N.J. residents in 'true poverty'

If you’re living paycheck to paycheck or falling behind on bills, you’ve got plenty of company.

Nearly one-third of New Jersey households can’t make ends meet, the highest percentage since the 1960s, according to a new report issued by Legal Services of New Jersey.

The state’s official poverty rate stood at just over 11 percent in 2014. But Legal Services, an Edison-based non-profit organization that provides legal aid to thousands of low-income state residents each year, says federal poverty income guidelines aren’t telling the full story.

Those pre-tax income guidelines were originally set in the 1960s and were based on a multiplication of an average food basket. Since then, the guidelines have been adjusted annually based on changes to the Consumer Price Index, and are the same for all 48 contiguous states.

Legal Services says New Jersey households actually need to earn at least two and a half times the federal poverty level, which is $24,250 for a family of four, to pay for basic needs such as housing, education, healthcare, transportation, and work-related child care.

Are you living in "true" poverty? Scroll down to see an interactive graphic.

For a family of four, that works out to a minimum of $60,625 per year.

Last year, some 2.8 million state residents - about 800,000 of whom are children - lived in households with incomes that fell below that mark, according to the 144-page report. That included nearly a quarter of households in Monmouth County, and one-third of Ocean County households.

Sherry Edwards is among the many in the Shore area who are struggling.

The 50-year-old single mother from Neptune was one of dozens of people waiting for a free hot lunch and groceries this past Thursday at Lunch Break, a bustling social services center in Red Bank.

Though Edwards has a part-time job as a case aide for a local housing agency,her sporadic hours don’t generate nearly enough to keep her head above water.

Many of the available full-time jobs she’s found would require her to work “ridiculous” overnight hours, which she said she can’t do with a 15-year-old son at home.

Less than halfway through the month, she’s already running out of food. “I took the last pack of chicken out of the freezer to cook tonight,” she said.

‘True’ poverty

Drawn from Census statistics and other government data, Legal Services’ ninth annual report, "Poverty Benchmarks 2015", seeks to measure what it calls “true poverty.”

It defines that term as an inability to afford “some portion” of a household’s basic needs.

It’s a bare-bones list, says Melville D. Miller Jr., the group’s president.

“There’s no frills in it. There’s no recreation. There’s no entertainment. None of that stuff,” he said.

While the percentage of state residents in households with incomes below the “true poverty” benchmark leveled off in 2014, after a period of steady increases, the report paints an “unsettling” portrait of entrenched poverty and long-term joblessness in one of the country’s wealthiest states, Miller said.

Despite a reduction in the state’s unemployment rate, a boost in the state’s minimum wage, and expansion of the state’s Medicaid program triggered by the Affordable Care Act, the report found “a continuing flow of middle income New Jerseyans into the ranks of the impoverished.”

Of those who remain unemployed, 41 percent have been out of work for longer than six months, twice what the long-term unemployment rate was before the recession, the report noted. Only New Mexico and the District of Columbia have higher long-term unemployment rates, Legal Services says.

What’s driving the downturn? Sluggish job growth, lower wages, rising housing costs and cuts in government aid programs all play a role, the report says.

The result is a state where 25 percent of the income is in the hands of the top 5 percent of the population.

In a press release accompanying the report, Legal Services said it hopes the findings will prompt policymakers and community leaders to come up with “a more intensive and comprehensive approach (to) combating poverty and its consequences.”

The wrong direction

The report’s finding came as little surprise to Lunch Break’s staff and clients.

"I'm not surprised because I'm living that life every day," said Asbury Park resident Shanda Pearson, as she waited for lunch. "I can't even get on general assistance. It's ridiculous. I've been on hold since August."

Gwendolyn Love, the organization’s executive director, said the number of people seeking help from Lunch Break’s kitchen, food pantry and other on-site resources has been steadily increasing.

“We’re not going in the right direction at all, and I don’t see what the government is doing to turn things around,” she added. “That’s been the trend for seven years now,” she said.

Unless nonprofit groups, businesses and private citizens take the lead, she believes, the poverty problem will only get worse.

Shannon Mullen: 732-643-4278; smullen4@gannettnj.com