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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Number of needy growing


Paul Donnolo, left, shows Brian Goetz of the Sunrise Rotary Club around the Community Action Partnership's food bank Friday in Coeur d'Alene, where Donnolo is director of community services. Goetz dropped off a $900 donation from the group for the June bike-ride fund-raiser. 
 (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)

Divorce stole Sharon Hayes’ perspective, security and status and knocked the formerly middle-income mother of two daughters into the poor zone.

That’s when Hayes joined the rapidly growing lineup for help at the Community Action Partnership.

“I had never imagined being in that situation,” Hayes said recently. “We were the (“Leave It to Beaver”) Cleavers. I always thought those programs were for people who didn’t want to work.”

In 2002, 22,953 people in North Idaho lived in poverty, the most recent year for which the U.S. Census Bureau has statistics. Hayes recently joined that group. Her family lived last year on less than $15,260, the federal poverty rate for a family of three.

The Community Action Partnership is a nonprofit agency that throws lifelines to Idaho’s financially sinking families. The agency manages federal energy assistance and commodities programs. It survives on federal funding and private donations to operate food banks, help people pay for gas, rent, medications and utilities and arrange rides to job trainings and interviews.”Every year, our numbers grow by 10 percent,” said Paul Donnolo, director of the action agency’s Panhandle office, which serves the five northern counties. “We saw 11,381 clients in 1997. Last year, that number was 23,678.”

In 2000, the agency served 15,097 people, nearly 1,500 more than the year before. By 2003, the number was up to 20,003. The agency distributed 300 food boxes per month in 1997. Now it gives out 600 boxes a month.

Hayes’ situation is familiar to Donnolo. People move to North Idaho expecting higher wages and lower rents, he said. The average living wage in Idaho for one adult with two children is $18.82 an hour, according to the Northwest Job Gap Study. The study was conducted with help from the University of Washington and Seattle University for the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations, a four-state network of action agencies.

Researchers based the living wage, adjusted for family size, on the amount needed for food, housing, utilities, health care, child care, household and personal items, savings and taxes. The Job Gap study showed that 78 percent of jobs in Idaho pay less than $18.82 an hour and that an average of 10 people apply for each job opening at that wage.

“This is such a tough place to be low-income,” Donnolo said. “We have a high cost of living. People are trained to work in the resource industry and are unskilled for other work. We have long cold winters, rural isolation, lack of transportation.”

The average hourly wage among the 110,170 workers in the five northern counties this year is $14.73, according to Idaho Commerce and Labor. The hourly wage in more than half those jobs ranges from $6.93 to $11.74.

“A lot of people new to the area expect higher wages, rent a house for $850 a month and end up earning $7 an hour,” Donnolo said.

Eighty percent of the agency’s $2 million annual budget is for federal programs and the staff to run them, so Donnolo began a benefit bike ride two years ago to fatten the coffers that help clients pay for rent, medication, utilities and transportation.

The Cycle Against Poverty on the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes raised $24,327 in its first two years. Hayes was one of the beneficiaries.

While she was married, Hayes worked part time. Her family lived comfortably. Hayes handed out gift baskets in her community during the holidays.

Divorce rocked her emotionally and financially, she said. She quit her job to move from Shoshone County to Post Falls. Her landlord was kind while she looked for work, but Hayes still had one daughter at home to support and no income. Her final two paychecks were her only money. A neighbor, who works at Community Action Partnership, observed Hayes’ deepening worry lines and offered her agency’s help.

The agency paid part of Hayes’ rent and discovered she was eligible for federal assistance with heating bills. It linked her to a discount phone program that enabled her to take calls about jobs. She found work.

“They were unbelievable,” she said. “I didn’t want to ask for help or admit that I needed any. They helped me gain some self-esteem.”

This year’s Cycle Against Poverty will be June 18. Coeur d’Alene’s Sunrise Rotary Club has donated $900 to the benefit. Vertical Earth Performance Sports will provide support along the 72-mile trail. Donnolo still is looking for someone to supply T-shirts for the ride.

He said money raised at the first two benefits helped 250 families in Coeur d’Alene.