Week 1: More than 200,000 El Pasoans survive on $14 a day

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First of a 6-part series in the El Paso Times by Louie Gilot (4/1/07)

MEASURING POVERTY
* Government calculations put the poverty line at:
$20,650 a year for a family of four ($14 a day per family member)
$17,170 for a family of three ($16 a day per family member)
$13,690 for a family of two ($19 a day per family member)
$10,210 for an individual ($28 a day)
* These thresholds reflect the minimum amount a family has to make to cover basic necessities such as food, shelter and clothing. Below it, they are not making it.
* But people earning as much as twice the poverty guidelines are still considered poor and can qualify for some government help, such as Children's Health Insurance Program.
* The main downside of the thresholds is that they are the same throughout the United States and don't reflect regional differences.
Source: Health and Human Services

TOP THREE
These are the top three reasons for El Paso's enduring poverty rates, as cited by some local experts. In no particular order:
* Education.
* Labor Market.
* We are not a destination for highly educated talent.
Cheryl Howard, professor of sociology and anthropology at UTEP.

* Education.
* High school jobs, not high-tech jobs.
* The stigma of the border (which hinders some outside investment).
Dennis Soden, executive director of the Institute for Policy and Economic Development at UTEP.

* Education levels.
* Structure of the local economy.
* Age distribution (El Paso is younger)
Jim Peach, professor of economics and international business at NMSU.

This article orginally appeared in the El Paso Times and is part of a five-part series on poverty in El Paso.

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Lower class not the only ones affected by poverty
By Gustavo Reveles Acosta / El Paso Times
El Paso Times
Article Launched:04/01/2007 01:22:09 AM MDT

Jogging across the well-manicured lawn at Berroteran Park -- nestled between the modern Lujan-Chavez Elementary School and a row of neat two-story homes -- Eastsider Josie Hinojosa didn't think much of the unfinished cinder-block homes on unpaved streets lining the poor neighborhoods of nearby Montana Vista.

Hinojosa, a homemaker whose husband makes a comfortable living, said she tries to help the less fortunate.

But on that warm March morning, she agreed that the poor don't really affect her much.

"I'm a little bit ashamed of it, but I guess living in an environment like this, where you don't really see needy people that much, you forget that it happens," she said. "You could go all day running your errands and never really realize that there are people who are starving and need your help. It's awful."

According to economics experts, people like Hinojosa -- who believe El Paso's higher-than-average poverty rate does not affect them -- are just plain wrong.

"People who are well above the poverty line, the middle class and the wealthy, should care about the poor because it affects them directly," said Tom Fullerton, a professor of economics at the University of Texas at El Paso.

"At the very basic level, high concentrations of poverty will hit the middle- and upper-class where it hurts: their pocketbooks," he said.

Fullerton said home and business owners in cities like El Paso -- with a 29.2 percent poverty rate -- tend to pay higher taxes.

An estimated 200,000 El Pasoans live in poverty, according to federal poverty guidelines. And an additional 100,000 El Pasoans are considered poor because they make less than 150 percent of the poverty-level income.

He offered this scenario:

"A middle-class family with a child who has a cold will go to the doctor's office and use their medical insurance," Fullerton said. "But a poor family will take that child to the emergency room of a public hospital, where the cost will come out of the tax base more often than not."

This scenario, Fullerton said, applies to other social services that are paid for by taxpayers.

In El Paso, more than half of local property taxes go to school districts.

Hinojosa has children at Lujan-Chavez and El Dorado High School.

Both are modern schools with adequate facilities. But because they belong to the property-poor Socorro Independent School District, both campuses must worry about proper funding every year.

Mary Benham, the Socorro district's chief financial officer, said every budgeting period for any school district in El Paso County is "a tough one."

"Our property value per student is $98,000, and the property-rich school districts are at $300,000 or above," Benham said.

"It doesn't matter if we have some nice neighborhoods. The fact is we are a property-poor school district just like every other district in El Paso," Benham said. "Every year is a battle. Every year we have to live on a tight budget and keep our expenses down."

Keeping expenses down means few -- if any -- luxuries for campuses, even if they serve neighborhoods with high concentrations of wealth.

In fact, the only feeder pattern in the county that does not qualify for the Title 1 funds the federal government reserves for poor students is the Franklin High School area.

But even students at the West Side school said the perception that everyone at Franklin comes from rich families is wrong.

"We have public housing around our school, and I bet everyone here knows someone who doesn't have a lot of money to throw around," said Franklin freshman Gracie Gonzalez.

"Maybe they don't know it ... but they probably know someone who is poor."

Gustavo Reveles Acosta may be reached at greveles@elpasotimes.com; 546-6133.

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Industries continue to shut down, relocate
By Ramon Bracamontes / El Paso Times
El Paso Times
Article Launched:04/01/2007 01:22:37 AM MDT

El Paso's economy has gone from mining in the late 1800s to copper refining to farming to the apparel industry and, most recently, to the plastic-injection molding plants of the late 1900s.

Each industry was a success in its own time, providing thousands of El Pasoans with jobs. Each is now basically gone, either replaced by machine or relocated to another country.

Either way, this city's inability to attract and sustain an industry that is not centered on the use of manual labor is one of the reasons experts say El Paso's unemployment remains high and average wages remain low, forcing thousands of El Pasoans to live in poverty.

"It's not for a lack of trying -- just things haven't worked out like expected," said Roberto Franco, the former director of the city's economic development department.

More than 200,000 El Pasoans live in poverty, according to the 2005 American Community Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau. Most have jobs but don't earn enough to leap the poverty line.

Franco, who now works for the city of Phoenix, said the perfect example of El Paso's ongoing struggle to find the right industry to turn the economy around can be illustrated in a comparison to Phoenix.

In the mid-1970s, Phoenix went after the semiconductor and computer industry. The city lured Motorola there, and that led to Phoenix's ability to lure major banks, corporate headquarters and professional sports teams.

During that same time, El Paso went after the plastic-injection molding industry and the twin -plant phenomenon -- banking on the city's ties to Mexico as a way into a new horizon.

"No one predicted that those jobs would leave town," he said.

The same thing happened in the copper, cotton and clothing industries.

Once known as the slacks capital of the world, the apparel industry in El Paso employed more than 21,000 people in the mid-1990s. Most have since relocated to other countries, taking their employees and others with them.

"If we wanted to continue in this business at any volume, we had no choice but to move," said Cesar Viramontes, president of International Garment Processors, which used to put the finishing touch on the jeans in El Paso.

Ramon Bracamontes may be reached at rbracamontes@elpasotimes.com; 546-6142.

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Financial struggles met with optimism
By Jake Rollow / El Paso Times
El Paso Times
Article Launched:04/01/2007 01:22:46 AM MDT

In battles that occur day after day and year after year, thousands of El Pasoans are taking on life below the poverty line, but that doesn't mean they're not winning.

Take Margarita Arvizu and Lorenza Alvarez. Both are Montana Vista mothers who continue to fight to make ends meet years after moving to El Paso from Juarez.

"Some (Juarenses) think we have everything," Arvizu said. "But really, we live just like them."

Arvizu's daily life involves stretching the $12,000 her husband earns annually as a mechanic to pay bills and keep the lights on at their mobile home and to feed, clothe and care for their three children.

When money's especially tight, she said, she'll bring home only basics like milk and eggs, figuring she can cook without some ingredients.

Even in those situations, she said, she shops without food stamps because her husband simply won't accept such a handout. Her strategy is to bargain-hunt before buying anything. "I go to the biggest stores and look for the best deals," Arvizu said.

According to a survey conducted by Belden Associates, the majority of low-income El Paso families are bargain-hunters -- in the sense that they shop at Wal-Mart. It is estimated that at least 200,000 El Pasoans live in poverty.

Known for having lower prices than its competitors, Wal-Mart draws 85 percent of El Paso families earning less than $25,000 annually, the survey found.

And, based on an informal study of grocery prices conducted by the El Paso Times, Wal-Mart shoppers are saving money -- between about $2 and $6 for each $40 spent.

The Belden survey found that another trend among El Paso's poor is limited Internet access. Among low-income residents, 59 percent had not used the Internet in the month before participating in the survey. This means people like Alvarez who are looking for work often do so by making phone calls to inquire with local organizations at a time when many employers post their job listings online. Alvarez said her family -- which includes her husband, a carpenter, and four children, two of whom also work -- does not have a computer.

The family does have a television, as do many low-income homes, although without cable. Arvizu smirked when asked whether she had a microwave, explaining that she does, but that it's not the newest model.

Some El Paso families go without phone service to escape the monthly bill, and rely on a neighbor or friend when calls must be made or received.

Arvizu and Alvarez said balancing bills on their incomes is a constant task. Arvizu said she paid what she must every day while holding on to what she can for the week to come.

Alvarez said that when there is no work for her husband, she must juggle her money -- paying the most pressing bill and holding off on others.

"Work or no work, we still have to pay bills," she said.

Despite the pressure, both women said they endure while making ends meet, and neither expressed feelings of defeat.

Their goal -- providing lives for their children that are better than their own -- is something they are proud to be accomplishing.

"We have to live life and enjoy it," Arvizu said.

Alvarez added: "You have to give thanks to God for the good and bad."

Jake Rollow may be reached atjrollow@elpasotimes.com; 546-6137.

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Enduring difficult days
By Zahira Torres and Jake Rollo / El Paso Times
El Paso Times
Article Launched:04/01/2007 01:22:43 AM MDT

From her new home in Northeast El Paso on Thursday night, Valerie Estrada recalled every barrier in her battle against poverty -- her mother's death, the years spent in foster care, becoming pregnant at an early age and the difficulty finding a stable job.

Across town at the Kennedy Brothers Apartments in the Lower Valley, Esperanza Rodriguez no longer considers life below the poverty line a problem.

After sacrificing to raise her four kids alone on meager wages, she's still poor by federal standards, but is comfortable and content.

The two women are among 200,000 El Pasoans who have struggled with poverty for much of their lives. While they acknowledge that life sometimes is tough, they continue to thrive, and have agreed to share their lives with the El Paso Times for the next five weeks.

Estrada family

Life has not been kind to Estrada, who, at times, worked various jobs to sustain her family, sought refuge in transitional living centers and government-funded housing, and found herself asking for payday loans just to make ends meet.

A single mother of four children until a month ago, Estrada takes pride in her efforts to secure a better life for her family.

"People think that because you are low-income, you are lazy and you really don't do anything," Estrada said. "I've never wanted to be looked at like that and I knew I was better than that, so I worked really hard to change my life."

The process has not been easy.

At 7 years old, Estrada was placed in foster care. At 13, her mother died. For the next few years, she was taken in by various relatives.

While still a teenager, Estrada became pregnant. Later, she had to escape an abusive relationship.

"I've struggled so much," Estrada said. "I would always try to pretend that nothing was wrong. I always tried to keep my composure -- for me and for my kids."

Estrada, who with her income alone falls below the poverty line, said she finally feels more secure with a job she loves, a month-old marriage and a new home that she bought with help from Habitat for Humanity.

Rodriguez family

Rodriguez keeps her two-bedroom apartment immaculately clean.

No dish is left dirty for long. For her garbage, she prefers using a plastic grocery-store bag hung on a doorknob for garbage instead of a large can under her sink. The bag is easier to carry out with her each day, maintaining the cycle of cleanliness.

Her kids say it was always this way.

"We might have been poor back then, but we were always clean," said one of her two daughters, Espy Belmontes.

Now 33, Belmontes is recalling memories of her childhood, when she and her siblings shared hand-me-down clothes and felt envious of other kids who were called into their homes at night because Church's Chicken had arrived. The Rodriguez family ate a lot of rice and beans.

But they always ate. Rodriguez worked as many as three jobs at a time to ensure this, wading the Rio Grande daily while they still lived in Juarez.

She kept working after they moved north of the river and gained legal residency.

Raising the kids alone in Segundo Barrio and then the Kennedy complex, she worked until recent years. Now she volunteers four days a week at a church and lives off the nearly $8,000 in disability she's paid each year.

The income level puts her below the poverty line, but Rodriguez says she has enough.

Even when her kids visit and find her refrigerator lacking, she doesn't ask them to make a trip to the store. They just do it.

"It's beautiful," she said.

Zahira Torres may be reached at ztorres@elpasotimes.com; 546-6156.

Jake Rollow may be reached at jrollow@elpasotimes.com; 546-6137.