Poverty in Gary continues to get worse.
The rate of people who live in poverty increased from 38.8 percent in 2012 to 41 percent last year, according to new data released by the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey series for cities with more than 65,000 people.
Most of the increase was among residents ages 18 to 64, who saw the poverty rate increase from 34.5 percent to 38.7 percent.
The number of children younger than 18 living in poverty dropped one percentage point, but a large majority — 61.7 percent — remain stuck in poverty, according to the data.
Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson and a representative with the Gary Community School Corp. did not return messages seeking comment on the data.
Poverty also continues to afflict women more than men in Gary, no matter their employment status.
Of working people, 20.7 percent of women lived in poverty last year, compared with just 14.9 percent of men. For those who were unemployed, 58.6 of women lived in poverty, while 47.8 percent of men did.
“It’s really pretty striking,” said Jack Bloom, an associate professor of sociology and adjunct professor of minority studies and history at Indiana University Northwest.
Bloom noted that a “substantial” portion of the student body at IUN is made up of women, which makes the differences in their unemployment rate contrasted with men more startling.
“That you should have such a disparate effect, even when it at least appears that women are more likely to be educated, is pretty shocking,” he said.
The high number of women and children living in poverty, Bloom said, is likely partly attributable to Gary’s high rate of single mothers. According to the census data, more than half of the families in Gary — 9,854 out of 19,190 — last year were headed by a single mother with no male present.
Of those families, 50.6 percent lived in poverty, compared with just 13.6 percent of families headed by a married couple.
Leticia Turner is one of those single mothers. Unemployed and supporting a son with mental health issues, Turner was at Trinity United Church of Christ’s clothes giveaway program Friday morning to find needed items.
“We lack resources here,” she said.
She struggles to find help to get to a point where she can support herself, Turner said. She’s working to get her driver’s license back after legal problems, but until then, she can’t work any job that requires Sundays, as the Gary Public Transportation Corp. doesn’t operate on that day. Then there are the closing schools and lack of jobs in the city that make it even harder, she said.
“Everything is degrading,” she said. “I’m tired to where I just want to give up.”
Turner did praise the church for its programs, which also include a soup kitchen on Saturdays, a community garden, substance abuse help, guidance in understanding the new health care law and more.
“I love the people in the city but not how it’s governed,” she said.
Joyce Crockrom, who chairs the church’s clothing giveaway, called Somebody’s Closet, said the church sees its mission as helping the community.
Because the church’s programs are open to everyone, Crockrom said she isn’t sure how many of those they help actually live in poverty. However, they normally have a line of people waiting for them each Saturday they operate Somebody’s Closet, she said.
The church keeps a running list of the people they help and will call them whenever they’re going to have another program such as a clothing giveaway. That’s something that Turner said is missing from the whole; she wishes the city would do a better job of informing people about what resources are available to help people.
Crockrom said the fact that the church is in a high-poverty area doesn’t affect what they do; they would do it anyway because that’s their calling. But she added that the church does want to fight hunger and homelessness, two calling cards of poverty.
“There’s a lot to be done in Gary,” she said.
Whether enough is being done citywide, she said, Trinity is at least doing what it can.
“You gotta start somewhere,” Crockrom said.