Syracuse's poverty rate ranks number 1 out of 100 cities for having the highest concentrations of poverty among Blacks and Hispanics. The 2015 findings were published by a Rutgers University Professor. We decided to examine some of the local efforts to eradicate poverty.
Syracusans often seek out a cool spot on a hot summer’s day but, for those inside the Mary Nelson Youth Center, it serves as way to meet others, read a book from the library or even get some breakfast for kids. Azia Clark recently relocated to Syracuse from New York City.
“This is my getaway. My getaway from chaos. I come here and just relax and bring my daughter to school, breakfast or school lunch or... we come here for the activities they have or pantry or... you know.”
The young woman remains upbeat even though she’s dealing with life challenges. Her father recently died. She smiles as her daughter is eating cereal and her baby boy smiles at us from his stroller. The Center’s Resource, Director Billy Denham El explains those living in poverty are welcome to drop by for assistance anytime. He’s serious about eradicating poverty.
“We’re dealing kind of like with an instant self-gratification right now. As soon as we do something, you can see the outcome of it immediately and I think that’s what boosts the hope that we have as a community and what the youth have... and the elders and adults that come through this center they have. Which is why everybody is putting their collective efforts in to making this center a better place.”
You get the sense that Denham El is passionate about helping others and his knowledge about poverty is credible. He’s recorded several https://youtu.be/3WBqiMxbsAI">You Tube videos.
“Maybe they are not aware that they are in poverty. See one thing about poverty is that it can alter your mental condition too. It can change your psychology. You begin to have conduct and behavior that would not be becoming of you or your people decades prior. You know what I’m saying? You begin to change the way you do things because you’re in a survival mode.”
The center offers social, life and skill building programs for people transitioning out on parole or just out of jail. Residents can also learn how to earn their GED or seek additional career training.
ERADICATING POVERTY TAKES A MOVEMENT
Denham El feels it’s a matter of people starting to take action and seize the attention of Syracuse politicians.
“Maybe you stop shopping in the stores, maybe you don’t take the Centro buses, maybe there’s (are) certain things that you can do to make the city say well... what’s going on... what’s happening over here, over there. Even though it’s up to the community themselves to recognize the elements and to become proactive in changing their condition in the community. The only way the admin is going to hear anything we’re saying is through numbers, political process.”
Denham adds the idea is to demand change by taking a holistic, individual approach. He would also like to see vacant homes being sold to people to remodel and taken away from the city’s land bank.
Hispanics who can’t speak English often reach out to the Spanish Action League on the city’s West Side for interpreters and instruction on learning English. They also act as family advocates in the school district or wherever they need to converse including a medical appointment. Otherwise, Executive Director Rita Paniagua says not being able to construct sentences creates barriers to get out of poverty.
“Because when we start educating them, and helping them navigate their status quo in a better way then, little by little, it’s got to be their choice. You can’t tell people how they’re going to live from today on. They need to buy into the process. So, you need education at the core for all of this. An educated community makes better choices for themselves and their families.”
Quite often, Paniagua says they need help with their careers, landing a job and finding housing. The league offers a specific English teaching program for youth.
EVEN EDUCATED HISPANICS FIND THEMSELVES IN POVERTY IN SYRACUSE
There is another reason why some Hispanics with careers in their native country can’t land employment in Syracuse once they relocate here. Paniagua compares the issue to some type of growing phenomena.
“We have a lot of people who are professional in their countries; however, they need to validate their careers in the US to be able to the professionals who they are. We have a whole segment of the community that it takes them years of learning English because they come with no English... language a huge barrier to all of this. We need to teach them the language first so they can compete at level.”
A Rutgers study found in 2013 Syracuse had highest-in-the-nation concentrations of poverty. In certain neighborhoods 62 percent of Hispanics lived in poverty and in some areas 65 percent of blacks were in poverty. The following year, the city’s overall population showed 58-percent poverty for Hispanics and 42-percent for blacks.
The issue of poverty is always top of mind for Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner. She says her administration is constantly looking at mitigating the pernicious effects of poverty. She feels education is the key. More young people could learn the construction trades while in school. Miner points to more job vacancies as those workers continue to retire.
“So we’re looking to use our students. Those that want to acquire those skills to be able to do it in high school and put them in either apprenticeship programs or pre-apprenticeship programs. These are really efforts that take a long time to materialize and see the benefit of.”
The City recently passed an urban jobs agreement which requires developers who are awarded city contracts to hire a set minimum of city residents. Miner wants to see similar terms included into projects during Phase Two of the Joint Schools Construction Board.
EDUCATION IS THE WAY TO COMBAT POVERTY
Miner is looking at the results of a city-wide tuition free education program.
“I think education is the number one way to cure and end poverty. But you’re not going to invest in education and 9 months later see the benefit of it. It’s a 12 to 16 year process. We’re starting to see some of those children that we paid for in the first Say Yes classes come back as teachers working in other areas of the community.”
The Mayor says plenty of jobs go unfilled by light manufacturers because of a lack of skilled workers. It’s an issue her administration is working on collaboratively with light manufacturers to address.
Common Councilor Khalid Bey says he understands the importance of educating kids, but he feels it’s all too futuristic. He argues that goals need to be more refined to handle the present demand for a solution.
“If you talk about bringing entry level work in here. Very deliberate effort to employ, very targeted, unemployed grown people. People between the ages of 21 and 45. Very targeted, very surgical and these neighborhoods slowly begin to chip away at unemployment, which will in time certainly reduce our ranking in the national poverty polls.”
Bey adds he’s galvanizing support to develop programs that would attract entry level positions for the chronically unemployed or underemployed residents. He says by getting those city residents back in the game, it would automatically reduce their dependency on public assistance.
ADDRESSING POVERTY THROUGH EMPLOYMENT
Councilor Bey is a fan of diversifying funding for job programs in the city, so more than one program receives government support.
“Often times, programs that’ll provide legitimate services get left by the wayside because of familiarity, right? Because of relationship, because of cronyism. We have to break away also from this... ‘well you know, we’re giving the money to them to do what you’re doing’ as if they’re going to touch 9.3 percent of the unemployment in the city. They’re not going to. So there’s nothing wrong with us funding more than one program to get the best bang for our buck. To me, that’s government’s responsibility to kind of spread the wealth around a little bit to ensure that we’re reaching as many people as possible.”
As proof that skills can be taught at a very young age, Mike Atkins and others are training kids on how to maintain a garden. The Helping Hands Urban Community Garden at Dr. Martin Luther King School appears vibrant in color. Atkins points out the lettuce is almost ready. He and others acquaint students with gardening for the first time.
“And when you start to show them this seed now turns into a vegetable that you nurtured, you came out here, you poured water on that, the kids start to take pride.”
Atkins says most kids in the Southside neighborhoods live in rental units and don’t have yards, so they would never get to experience what goes into a garden. He says it also provides them with nutrition to bring home to their parents and grandparents. Someday he hopes their efforts will lead to jobs for youth several blocks away at a Greenhouse he dreams of being built.
FEEDING KIDS AND FAMILIES FROM THE GROUND UP
For Atkins he says it’s the many volunteers and support from Onondaga County. He managed to secure support from the County’s Agricultural Task Force. They used recycled rafters from a home and built 5 plant beds and added rain barrels. Atkins feels the garden is a chance to show kids that a plant is like a lifeline and to illustrate the importance of volunteering.
An actual job training program that’s getting struggling adults into construction careers is the Empire State Minority Contractors. The grant program just recently graduated 17 adult students. 40 year-old Tyrone White says he’s worked all his life and is currently unemployed. Up until this point, he feels his efforts have never really amounted to much. He lives on the South side off a side street near the I-81 overpass... a project he hopes to be laying concrete for.
“I want my kids to go outside and say… my Daddy’s working on that… cause I got two grandkids also. Just to be proud of the city, be proud of your community. Help build up your community instead of tearing down your community.”
His sister, Tess Maria White has been out of work for roughly about four years. She predicts the skills she’s learned in the class will open up many possibilities for her as a single mother of two.
“Somewhere in construction doing it somewhere. Me being a female, ya know, out there with a hammer and a jack saws, portable saw, circular saws. I’m certified in everything.”
The transferrable skills taught in the Empire State Minority Contractors program through the South Side Innovation Center is something Otis Jennings says prepares students for a variety of work.
“What I’m looking to do is to get to the students who just finished our class work on a major construction project doing major commercial work within the city. So they can have the pride to walk by a building and say I... ya know, something I had to do with that building.”
Jennings adds upon completion of the 14 week program, students often go the non-union route or take a test to join a union to begin an apprenticeship.
JOBS PROGRAMS THAT LEAD TO A PATH OUT OF POVERTY
Jennings says about 1 or 2 students drop the class if they feel it’s not a good career path for them but, the majority of students are prompt and bring enthusiasm. In the end, he says those students create opportunity for their future. They’re taught how vitally important it is to measure and to perform construction jobs to standards and specs.
There appears to be many avenues to assist people in poverty. Whether it’s having Spanish translators to break down language barriers, a meal or career resources at the Mary Nelson Youth Center, or growing a community garden at a school for skills and nutrition… it shows the needs of the inner city residents are all too real. According to U-S Census data released last year, the overall poverty rate in the city is 34.4 percent. The median household income is just over $31,000 dollars which is $20,000 less than the national average. And perhaps the most disturbing of all... 51 percent or approximately one out of every two children - in Syracuse - is living in poverty. The problem doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon but, the efforts of residents to find ways to overcome the poverty issue remains strong.
