poverty Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Black Children Most Likely To Live In Poverty In W.Va., New Report Finds

A report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation found Latino children are the least likely to live in poverty in West Virginia.

The Race for Results report, from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, standardizes scores across 12 indicators representing well-being milestones to measure aspects of health from the child’s infanthood to adulthood and converting them into a scale ranging from 0 to 1,000.

Latino children scored highest in West Virginia with a score of 568. West Virginia children of two or more races had a score of 513. White children came in third place with a score of 509. Black children came in last place with a score of 417 out of a possible 1,000.

In West Virginia, American Indian, Alaska Native, Asian and Pacific Islander races results were suppressed. This means the data pool was so small, that releasing it would identify the participants.

Leslie Boissiere, the vice president of external affairs at the foundation, said West Virginia’s high school graduation rates are above the national average, but other indicators are below the national average.

“There are some some areas where West Virginia has done well,” Boissiere said. “But in the area, beyond high school, as well as looking at the rate of poverty for all kids of all racial and ethnic groups. It’s an area where the state is underperforming compared to the nation as a whole.”

According to Boissiere, a child tax credit could help the poverty rate in West Virginia.

“We know that based on the data and the evidence, it is an effective way,” Boissiere said. “Medicaid expansion is another way that we know is effective, allowing kids to remain in foster care beyond the age of 18 to ensure that those kids have a higher likelihood of graduating from high school on time, and also earning a post-secondary degree and being financially stable. So we have evidence of some programs that have been effective in lifting kids out of poverty, and those should be effective for the state legislature to consider as well.”

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

Advocates Rally At State Capitol To Demand Accountability in Jail Deaths

There were 13 reported deaths at the Southern Regional Jail in 2022, and more than 100 deaths in the state’s regional jail system in the past decade.

Advocates with the Poor People’s Campaign have notified Gov. Jim Justice of a federal investigation filed with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to investigate a rise in reported deaths of those in custody at West Virginia jails.

There were 13 reported deaths at the Southern Regional Jail in 2022, and more than 100 deaths in the state’s regional jail system in the past decade.

On March 10, the families, and the Poor People’s Campaign, held a rally called “West Virginia Mothers and Families Deserve Answers” on the front steps of the capitol building.

Pam Garrison, one of the Chairs of the West Virginia Poor People’s Campaign (WVPPC), told the media and attendants to the rally that the rising number of deaths in West Virginia jails is what made the WVPPC reach out to the national Poor People’s Campaign.

“We sent a letter to Reverend Barber in the national asking them to come and help us, help us bring these family stories to the nation to let them know what’s going on here in West Virginia, and what’s getting hidden under the rugs,” Garrison said. “You know, it’s sad that we have to be here for this. In this kind of situation, somebody has to stand up. Somebody has to speak their mind. They are in the ground, they can’t speak for themselves.”

Lacey Watson ran against Congresswoman Carol Miller in 2022 for her seat in the U.S. House of Delegates. He attended Friday’s rally because he is concerned for his cousin, who is currently in the custody of West Virginia Jails.

“With my cousin being in that situation, we need more accountability from our elected leaders, from our governor all the way down to, those heads of the criminal justice system there at the Southern Regional Jail,” Watson said. “It’s ridiculous that you know, we as family members, we as a community have to demand accountability from the elected leaders that we have.”

Two of the 13 inmates that died last year were Quantez Burks and Alvis Shrewsbury. Their families attended the rally and spoke about their loved ones.

Advocates claim in many of these cases, a person died shortly following their arrival, sometimes within 24 hours. Such was the case for Quantez Burks, according to his mother, Kimberly Burks.

“My son was in their system for less than 22 hours,” Burks said. “The very next day, we got no message, no call, no anything from the state, the police department nor the justice system saying that my son was deceased. They beat my son while he was handcuffed. The private autopsy said he died of blunt force trauma to his whole body. His heart attack was caused because of the stress that his body was put under during their beating. Not only do we need to bring attention to the injustice that is going on in the jail, but we also need to hold these departments accountable for what they’re they’ve done. That means the governor, the chief of police, and the COs, especially since they’re still employed.”

While state lawmakers are considering a proposal to increase transparency in West Virginia’s jail system, families are left in the dark, waiting months for investigations to conclude only to be left with unanswered questions.

Miranda Smith, the daughter of Alvis Shrewsbury shared her family’s story.

“On August 29, 2023, a 45-year-old healthy dad, brother son, grandfather, and grandson entered Southern Regional Jail and only survived 19 days of brutal and inhumane treatment,” Smith said. “He was beaten by fellow inmates and it was ignored and covered up by corrupt correctional officers and authority. He was neglected by the medical staff and due to this maltreatment my dad passed away in Washington Regional Hospital. People who knew and loved him will always see it as if he died in that jail.”

The final speaker was Bishop William J. Barber, President of the Repairers of the Breach and Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

“These tears that you see are not black tears or white tears. The pain is tough enough to have a loved one die. It’s tough enough to have someone die, just in life period. But to have all of these unanswered questions, to have all of these distortions, compounds the pain and we’re calling on everyone who believes in righteousness and truth, to turn those all of the investigative tools that you have.”

The rally then took to the sidewalk to march and sing as they delivered a petition to Gov. Jim Justice’s office, calling for a full federal investigation into local prisons by the Department of Justice.

How Surplus Dollars Could Spur Economic Development, Fight Poverty

Large budget surpluses, in recent years, have encouraged what to do with that money. One thought is to use a large portion of it for economic development projects — enticing companies to set up shop in West Virginia. Another school of thought is to invest that money in poverty programs and to bring the poorest West Virginians up. Reporter Chris Schulz spoke with Mitch Carmichael, the Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Economic Development, and Rev. Matthew Watts from the Tuesday Morning Group, about possibilities.

On this episode of The Legislature Today, there’s a House bill pending that would divert the lion’s share of $500 million federal COVID-19 relief dollars from general economic development to specific and local poverty fighting projects. Government Reporter Randy Yohe has the story.

Reporter Chris Schulz spoke with Mitch Carmichael, the Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Economic Development, and Rev. Matthew Watts from the Tuesday Morning Group, about possibilities.

Also, the Senate passed several bills Wednesday morning to address issues surrounding child protective and social services in the state. Chris Schulz has more.

The first of two bills aimed at restructuring the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources completed legislative activity.

Finally, thoughts that Senate, House and executive branch leadership were working toward a tax reform compromise got a shake up on the House floor.

Having trouble viewing the video below? Click here to watch it on YouTube.

The Legislature Today is West Virginia’s only television/radio simulcast devoted to covering the state’s 60-day regular legislative session.

Watch or listen to new episodes Monday through Friday at 6 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Report Finds Many Ohio Valley Communities At Deep Disadvantage In Health, Wealth

A new report finds the Ohio Valley has some of the most disadvantaged communities in the country. The study comes from the University of Michigan’s Poverty Solutions, an initiative to eliminate or alleviate poverty through action-based research.

The “Index of Deep Disadvantage” combines measures of income, health outcomes, and social mobility, or the factors affecting someone’s ability to improve their lot in life.

Two Ohio cities, Cleveland and Dayton, are on the list of the 100 most deeply disadvantaged communities. Other Ohio Valley communities on the list are rural counties: McCreary, Bell, Clay, Wolfe, Breathitt, Harlan, Lee, and Owsley Counties in Kentucky, and McDowell County in West Virginia. The majority of these communities are located in Appalachia.

Luke Shaefer is a professor of social work and public policy and leads Poverty Solutions. He said he was surprised to see that most of the disadvantaged communities were not in urban areas. Of the top 20 most disadvantaged areas, only two were cities — Flint and Detroit, both in Michigan. Kentucky’s McCreary County was the 20th.

“Not to say that we shouldn’t have policies that try to address poverty in our urban centers, but that we should look a lot more at what’s going on in some of the rural parts of the country,” Shaefer said.

Those disadvantaged areas include Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, the Cotton Belt, Tribal Nation Lands, the Rust Belt and areas near the Texas-Mexico border.

Measurement Matrix

The researchers used census and administrative data to examine income by looking at poverty rates, and determined health measures using life expectancy and birth weight.

Social mobility is measured using new estimates of household income and how that might affect children whose parents were at the 25th percentile of the national income distribution. The report says this measure characterizes intergenerational mobility, especially for low-income populations who cannot use their own resources to insulate them from differences in community resources.

In Kentucky’s McCreary County, for example, the report found that 41 percent of the population lives in poverty, and 22 percent live in what the authors call deep poverty. Just under 8 percent of people in McCreary have a college degree.

Shaefer said the life expectancy in the 100 most disadvantaged communities, including those in Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio, is similar to the measures found in countries such as North Korea, Bangladesh, and Mongolia.

In West Virginia’s McDowell County, the report found, life expectancy is just 69 years, far below the national average.

“We’re not just talking about differences in income and differences in what people can buy, but differences in how long people live,” he said.

Shaefer hopes the disadvantage index will start a conversation with policymakers about the needs of people living in poverty.

01/30/2020, 1:30 p.m. EST Correction: This story originally misspelled Luke Shaefer’s last name.

Memoir Recalls Growing Up Poor In Logan County, W.Va

Katherine Manley grew up in abject poverty in Logan County, W. Va., but went on to teach in the same schools she attended.

Mountain State Press recently published her memoir, “Don’t Tell ‘Em You’re Cold” about her upbringing and how she overcame those challenges. The book’s title refers to a time when she was begging on the streets of Logan with her father. He was afraid the authorities would take her away if she told anyone she was cold.

Manley explained that the book covers her life from approximately 6 to 19 years old. Her father was disabled from a train accident and the family scraped by on welfare and begging on the streets. As a teen, Manley’s mother abandoned the family.

But Manley said family is supportive of the book.

“I have a brother in Pennsylvania. He was glad that I told the story because it helped him see what we went through. He was much younger than I was. And my three children, they said that I’m giving them a look into my life that they probably never would have known about,” Manley said.

She added that she thinks of those days as “just a way of life” and that the family was “very resourceful.”

Not uncommon to memoirs, Manley said writing the book was an emotional journey.

“I cried a lot. I cried and I’d have to push the keyboard back. And some of the chapters I laughed about. I learned that I was probably stronger than what I thought I was,” she said.

Manley tells the story of her childhood, but to address the emotions she was feeling at the time, she included “letters” to God and her mother, among other people.

“I remember those evenings when things were difficult. I would lay in bed at night and I would just, I would talk to God,” she said. “I would just look out the window, part the curtains and say ‘God, I know you’re up there somewhere.’ And I would just start talking. So I thought, ‘What about a letter?’”

Manley explained that she hopes readers are strengthened by the book. She said she wants them to realize they can make it out of poverty; that it will inspire them.

“If there’s anyone going through a challenging situation right now, just realize that nothing is permanent. I mean, whatever you’re going through today, you can wake up in the morning and it’s a new day. There’s a way you can make it out. Never give up hope,” she said.

After overcoming those challenges, Manley said she has learned a lot about poverty.

“The thought that poor people will never matter is so wrong. I’ve actually heard someone say to me, ‘Oh, they don’t matter.’ But yes they do. If we don’t do something to reverse the cycle of poverty, then this is just going to be another chapter written in history,” she said. “And so that’s my platform as I travel around the state and other places, to get children to realize they are important, but they must dream. They must set a goal for themselves and as adults, we must help them.”

This interview is part of a series of occasional interviews with our in-house author Eric Douglas. He talks to writers from, or writing about, Appalachia. You can find more of these interviews on our website under “Appalachian Author Interviews.”

Numbers Of Children In Concentrated Poverty Increasing In West Virginia

West Virginia is one of ten states where the number of children living in areas of concentrated poverty is increasing. That’s according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s “Data Snapshot on High-Poverty Communities.”

Concentrated poverty is an area where 30 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

“In the United States, eight and a half million kids or 12 percent of the kids population in the United States are living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty,” said Scot Spencer, Associate Director for Advocacy and Influence at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. “That is an improvement from our first snapshot. But it still means that there are too many kids living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty.”

The Data Snapshot underscores that living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty undermines a child’s well-being. Nationwide, the number of people living in concentrated poverty is falling, but remains high. West Virginia is lower than the national average, but the numbers are rising.

Between the Casey Foundation’s last report in 2012 and the latest report using 2017 numbers, the number of children in West Virginia living in poverty rose from 30,000 to 38,000.

“Any kids living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty should be an unacceptable number for us. Because what it means for the long run is that their ability to succeed in life is truncated by living in these types of neighborhoods,” Spencer said.

West Virginia and Delaware are the only two states where poverty levels rose last year, according to U.S. Census data. The Mountain State’s overall poverty rate climbed to 19.1 percent last year, making it one of four states with a poverty rate above 18 percent.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re in an urban environment or suburban environment or a rural environment. There are parts of the economy that have left places,” Spencer said. “And so just by the fact that the jobs that were once family sustaining jobs are no longer there. People then fall into poverty and pockets of neighborhoods fall into poverty.”

Spencer didn’t have detailed information on specific locations in West Virginia. But indicators exist that point to which regions are struggling.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, 22 percent of the households in the 3rd Congressional District — which includes the southern coal fields — use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits.

Spencer also noted a lack of access to hospitals and the presence of food deserts in these areas can compound the problems.

“There may just not be places for kids to be kids and to play and to grow up and to do well. There’s a lack of access to quality education, the lack of access to quality housing, the lack of access to jobs,” he said.

Finding solutions to problems like concentrated poverty will involve federal, state and local governments working with the business sector and community groups, according to Spencer.

“How do we focus industry or sector specific job training and opportunities in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty so that people can actually make families sustaining wages? In places where there are large industries, how do they hire and contract locally? How does local government think about how they let their services or hire their contracts, so that they are actually hiring from the communities that they are in?” Spencer asked.

Spencer also notes that financial hardships can cause chronic stress linked to diabetes, heart disease and stroke — all major health problems in West Virginia.