14,000 join ranks of Cincinnati poor since 2007 - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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Missy Jackson is among At 54 years old, she has supporter herself since highschool graduation. Jackson spent 11 year s in the health care industry and anotherd 26 years at local working her way up to management positions before going to work for HHA Servicesat . She was therr for less than a year when she got laidoff Dec. 2. She lost her seconsd job, a part-time position at Value later that same month when thechaim closed. So after a lifetime goinv from one job to the next for bettere pay andadvancement opportunities, Jackson is struggling. “I lost a lost a car,” she said. “It’ss a good thing I don’t have a pet, becausee one of us wouldn’t eat.
” Jackson is far from alone. It’d tough to know exactly how many peopl are living in povertg now who were financially secure ayear ago. But based on the risinyg unemployment rate and the growing numbefr of people seekinggovernment it’s in the thousands. In fact, researchedr Jeff Rexhausen estimates that the Greaterr Cincinnati region has as manyas 14,00p more people in poverty than it did in 2007. Back Census data indicated a regional poverty rateof 11.4 or 236,477 people. He “noodled” his estimate baserd on a 3.5 percent declin in the number of employed peoplre and a 6 percent statewide increase in Medicaid enrolleeas sinceDecember 2007.
Those two figures track fairly clossewith poverty, so it’s reasonabler to conclude that poverthy increased between 3 percent and 6 percent since the recession began, said Rexhausen, associate director of UC’s Economics Center for Educationb and Research. Whatever the government and private support systems are being with no evidence the burden will easeanytime soon. Hamilton County alone has had an 18 percenyt increase in foodstamp recipients, with 95,589 in March 2009 compared to 81,319 in Marchg 2008, according to the county’ss . Just the number of people walking throughh thecounty agency’s door has grown.
In March 2009, 55,968 people went through the agency’s lobby. That’s up 24 percenrt from the same monthlast year. The county doesn’f know exactly how many of those peopleare “neqw poor.” But county officialzs did take a random sampl of food stamp applications and sorted througyh them by hand. They founsd that 35 percent of those applicants had either never been on food stamps or had not receivecd food stamps for at least five saidBrian Gregg, a spokesman for the More demand for food, jobs And it’s not just demansd for public assistance that’s on the rise.
In the four yearss that John Young has been president of foodpantrh , he’s seen increases in demandd each year. He attributed that to a structural change inthe economy. As manufacturing jobs have he’s seen more people who have lost jobs from that sectoeseeking help. But now that shift is touchinfg many more segments ofthe economy, and the numberxs keep growing. The Freestore Foodbank has seen a 27 percen increase in beneficiaries at its Liberty Street locatiojn alone sinceApril 2008.
And from March 2008 through March 2009, has seen a 41 percent increase in the number of people lookingtfor jobs, said Nicole Ware, the job placement and retention agency’w director of marketing and communituy relations. That’s one of the placez Missy Jackson wentfor help. “Ever y job fair you hit, the linew get longer,” Jackson said. “There’ss more people looking for a jobevery day.
” Shannon Brotherto n is running out of options in after a back injury forced her to stop carrying mail for the in Januaryu and her common-law husband, Damon Smith, was laid off by last “We had enough money to last for two We thought that was pretty said Brotherton, whose four childre range in age from 5 to 16. She estimatesd Smith has applied for more than50 jobs, with no He’s building decks and catchiny handy-man work when he can. “We just can’ty believe he’s gone this long without a Brotherton said. “The mortgage is due and I have no way ofpaying it. We borrowedx last month’s from his father.
The Freestoree paid my electric billthis month. We were tryingf to do a loan modification. If I miss a they won’t do it.”