Poverty in Olympia: City program seeks to aid vulnerable individuals

City is seeking public response to a new survey: A Roadmap for Economic Resiliency

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Olympia Strong, a program started during the early months of the pandemic, is continuing as a 12-month city program focused on helping build resiliency for the most economically vulnerable residents.

At the Olympia city council meeting last night, Strategic Projects manager Amy Buckler said Olympia Strong is the city's long-term strategy for economic resiliency, which she referred to as the ability to adapt and recover quickly from economic disruption.

Sectors targeted by the plan will include youth, single mothers, renters, people with disabilities and those whose income is below the poverty level.

The city is surveying members of the public for their opinions about what the priorities should be.  Here's a link to the survey

"COVID-19 pandemic is a good example of the type of economic disruption. We want to help our community build more resiliency by planning and implementing specific strategies that bolster the long-term economic durability of a region," Buckler said.

Olympia was also a partner in Thurston Strong, the pandemic-era program that invested more than $11 million to create programs to bolster recovery and promote the long-term economic durability of the region.

Olympia Strong focus

"With the implementation of the Thurston Strong plan, Olympia is now turning its attention to boost community resiliency," Buckler said.

Olympia Strong, according to Buckler, will dig into and try to understand the poverty rate in Olympia.

Citing a Thurston Regional Planning Council study and United Way’s ALICE Report, Buckler said about a third of Olympia's population is struggling to make ends meet. The acronym ALICE means asset limited, income constrained, and employed.

Buckler said about 30% of households are housing-cost burdened or spend more than 30% of their income on housing, namely rent or mortgage and utilities. Half of this number are severely cost-burdened or spending more than 50% of their income on housing.

"That means they have less income to save for things like education, retirement and health care,” Buckler clarified.

One of every six Olympia households

Buckler further claimed that Olympia has 16% or 8,896 households below the federal poverty line. She added the rate is twice that of Lacey or Tumwater.

"But we also know that the poverty rate doesn't tell the full story," Buckler said.

Buckler shared the 2019 United Way ALICE data, which looked specifically at children living in households that cannot meet their basic needs. The study found 12,634 children in Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater cannot afford the basics. Olympia’s population is 39% of the combined cities, suggesting that approximately 5,000 of its children are among those cited.

"The United Way's report also demonstrates that below ALICE families were the most negatively affected by the pandemic. They're certainly most affected by current inflation. So when we're thinking about long-term resiliency, these are some people to focus on," the program manager told the council members.

Buckler also showed a graph from the American Community Survey (ACS) in 2020, which demonstrated the educational attainment of a householder and compared that to the poverty rate.

"I have takeaways here. You can see that the poverty rate is much higher for those who have less than a high school degree or no college,” Buckler commented. “It tells us something about the power of education."

Buckler noted that the poverty rate is high for single-parent households, primarily females. "What this tells us is that if we want to make an impact, you might put some emphasis on these households."

Buckler expressed concern about the resiliency of renters, who comprised 53% of the Olympia population. "Not only do renters have less disposable income for other pressing needs, they also do not benefit from the appreciation and equity homeowners experienced. [They have] much more challenging time building wealth or even rainy day funds for emergencies.

During interviews with community members, Buckler said housing costs remain a big problem for students, workers and seniors.

While Olympia has provided opportunities to extend workforce options for people with disabilities, Buckler said a disparity remains in labor force participation between people with a disability and those without.

Another graph from ACS Buckler presented demonstrated a growing rate of disconnected youth in Olympia.

From 2.1% disconnected youth recorded in 2014, the numbers went up to 9.8% in 2019.

"What this means is 16 to 19-year-olds who are not in school, not high school graduates, and not in the labor force…we know many youths are struggling with a lack of hope, support, or a lack of resources and guidance," she said.

Buckler added that disconnected youth might be especially true for youth of low-income backgrounds or youth that are part of the LGBTQ community. "That group is suffering from higher rates of depression and thoughts of suicide. We know that this is due to societal discrimination [and] there are many reasons to be concerned about this."

"From an economic standpoint, we have to help these kids find comfort in our community and pathways to economic opportunity for their long-term resiliency," Buckler said, adding youth is among the topic they would be addressing in the greater issue.

Olympia Strong kicks off

Olympia Strong is a public 12-month process aiming to form a strategy that can best support the economic resiliency of residents, businesses, and the overall community, according to Buckler.

"We aim to sustain economic growth and help people overcome hardships, elevate more people of all backgrounds and abilities into financial stability, and attract investment and generate new revenue to fund community goals and needs," she said.

Olympia Strong, according to Buckler, has four phases. Its first phase, which started in April this year, includes setting a framework, and interviews with businesses and workforce partners, schools and other community organizations.

Between July and November, Olympia Strong workgroup will hold public engagement sessions in which city staff will identify goals and priorities.

Between December 2022 and April 2023, the workgroup will further focus on developing vision and actions.

Buckler said they are targeting implementation in May 2023 of programs developed from the research.

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  • BobJacobs

    The description of this program is absurdly broad. Sounds like the city of Olympia wants to be savior to over half of our population. Is this a legitimate role for local governments? Who will pay? And what about self-help?

    The focus needs to be significantly narrowed.

    Bob Jacobs

    Thursday, July 14, 2022 Report this