110 Points on Poverty in Rhode Island

Proceedings from the December 5, 2005

Rhode Island Basic Needs Community Hearing for Elected Leaders

Presenters:
Poverty in Rhode Island (pages 1-4)
Douglas Johnson, Heritage Consulting Group
Elizabeth Burke Bryant, RI Kids Count
Kate Brewster, Poverty Institute
Ellen Frank, Poverty Institute
Jeanne Gategno, West Bay Community Action
Affordable Energy (pages 4-5)
Rev. John Holt, RI State Council of Churches
Elizabeth Arujo Haller, working mother of two
Henry Shelton, George Wiley Center
Julie Silvia, George Wiley Center
Housing & Homelessness (pages 5-9)
Eric Hirsch, Coalition for the Homeless
Jean Barry, WARM Shelter
Kamila Barzykowski, United Way of Rhode Island
Ben Gworek, Housing Network of RI
Rabbi Alan Flam, Swearer Center at Brown
Pauline Perkins Moye, Newport Housing Authority
Health Care (pages 10-11)
Rick Harris, NASW-RI
Stephanie Chafee, RI Free Clinic
Food Insecurity & Hunger (pages 11-13)
Kathleen Gorman, URI Feinstein Center for a Hunger-Free America
Bernie Beaudreau, RI Community Food Bank
Education & Training (pages 13-14)
Kate Brewster, Poverty Institute
Dawn Nardi, Poverty Institute
Summary Comments (pages 14-15)
Linda Katz, Poverty Institute
Ben Lessing, Family Resources

This document includes notes and excerpts from the December 5, 2005 hearing held at the
Rhode Island Community Food Bank, prepared by Bernie Beaudreau, January 2, 2006. The 184-
page complete transcript is available digitally. Email: bbeaudreau@rifoodbank.org for a copy.

December 5, 2005 Summary -- 1/4/2006-- page 1 of 16

Introduction

(Excerpt from opening comments by Douglas Johnson, PhD, Heritage Consulting & Chair of the
Board of Directors of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank)

What do we mean when we say that someone is living in poverty? What are the
implications in terms of quality of life? How does our state compare with its neighbors in
addressing the issues in poverty as manifested in food insecurity and hunger, one’ s ability to earn
a living wage, one’ s ability to secure and maintain a decent place to live, and obtain health care,
etc.? What message should we be sending to our leaders on matters of domestic policy to
address the root causes of poverty and inequality?

Today we will hear from individuals who will help us better understand the problems
here in our community. As a result, we will better equip ourselves to further challenge our local,
state and national leaders to pursue a more eclectic and aggressive approach to formulating and
implementing domestic policy -- policy that helps working families and individuals to achieve a
quality of life that includes more than just making ends meet. And, we need policy that is
inclusive of those who cannot take care of themselves through no fault of their own.

As will be evident from presentations made here today we have not done a good job in
this area at all. Poverty has not subsided. It continues to claim an increasing number of Rhode
Islanders. Let us hope that today’ s discussions help us to set the stage for a more intense
dialogue between our constituent communities and those that we elect to represent us at all levels
of government.

A. Poverty in Rhode Island

presenters: Douglas Johnson, Heritage Consulting Group, Elizabeth Burke Bryant, RI
Kids Count; Kate Brewster & Ellen Frank, Poverty Institute; Jeanne Gategno, West Bay
Community Action

1. The 2000 Census has 127,000 Rhode Islanders in poverty which is about 13% of the state’
s
population.

2. There are major disparities in poverty among racial and ethnic lines in Rhode Island:
nearly 30% of Rhode Island’ s blacks live below the poverty line as opposed to 9% of the
white population. For Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans, the poverty statistics were
36%, 22% and 38%, respectively.

3. Figures released by U.S. Census Bureau American Communities Survey at the end of
August 2005 show that the child poverty rate in Rhode Island has increased to 21%, up
from 17% in 2003, higher than the national child poverty rate which is 18.4%.

4. Approximately 50,000 Rhode Island children, more than one in five, live in a family with
an income at or below the federal poverty line ($15,219 for a family of three).

December 5, 2005 Summary -- 1/4/2006-- page 2 of 16

5. About 50% of Rhode Island’ s poor children are white but Latino and Black children are
more likely to be poor. While 9% percent of white children are poor, nearly one in two
Latino children is poor and more than one in three African American children is poor.

6. Rhode Island has the highest percentage of Latino children living in poverty in the nation.

7. While there are poor children in every one of Rhode Island’ s 39 cities and towns, about
three-quarters of Rhode Island’ s poor children live in the six core cities of Providence,
Pawtucket, Central Falls, Newport, Woonsocket and West Warwick. All of those cities
saw substantial increases in children in poverty in the decade from 1990 to 2000.

8. Forty percent of Providence and Central Falls children are poor. Providence is the third
poorest city in America, right behind Hartford, ranked one, and Brownsville, Texas, and
we’re tied with New Orleans. Almost a third of Woosocket’ s children are poor and a
quarter of Newport and Pawtucket’ s children live in poverty.

9. The Federal Poverty Level (FPL) is based on 1960s budgets where food costs were one-
third of the household budget. Housing and other costs over the decades have changed the
proportions. The FPL is an inadequate measure of need.

10. RI Standard of Need: A single working parent needs to make at least $11/hour with
subsidies to meet basic needs. FIP benefits have not been increased since 1985 resulting in
a decline in purchasing power due to inflation. SSI benefits, though indexed to inflation,
saw a reduction of the state’
s share of the subsidy decline in 2003, so that SSI benefits are
20 percent below the poverty level.

11. FPL of $20,000 for a two-parent family with two children might be close to meeting the
basic needs in some states, but not in Rhode Island. RI is very expensive to live and the
Providence metro area is ranked 11th most expensive in the US -- out of 435 metro areas.

12. Jobs in RI: over the last 4 years the RI median wage has declined while Connecticut and
Massachusetts as well as the country as a whole increased. The kinds of job openings
being created by the local economy are mostly low-skilled, low-wage jobs not requiring
any special training or education.

13. Only two of the top 20 job opening categories require a four-year college degree and most
pay less than the $11 per hour required to meet a family’s basic needs, including subsidies.

14. The working poor -- defined by the federal and state governments as earning below 200
percent of the FPL -- are showing up at food pantries, homeless shelters, social services in
increasing numbers.

15. At the same time, the economy has created high incomes, creating an even greater income
distribution disparity which inflates housing prices, etc. In Rhode Island the income ratio
of the 90th percentile income household to the 10th percentile household has increased from
3.0 in 1979 to 4.4 in 2004.

December 5, 2005 Summary -- 1/4/2006-- page 3 of 16

 16. Rhonda works 40 hours a week (160 hours per month) and takes home about $400 each
week, netting about $10 and hour. To pay her bills Rhonda has to work 115 hours a month
to pay her rent, 26 hours a month to pay gas and electric, 8 hours a month for her medical
co-pays, 12 hours a month to put gas in the car to get back and forth to work. That adds up
to 161 hours and she hasn’ t paid for food yet.

17. A working mother with one child. Her mortgage is $400 a month plus taxes. She has no
food stamps. She makes $18,000 a year. Her gas bill is $500 and electric bill $150 and she
has to decide: Does she pay the mortgage? Does she pay the utilities? Does she buy food?

18. Last year West Bay Community Action spent over $200,000 paying rent for people to keep
them out of shelters. All the CAP agencies in the state spent over $1,000,000 last year
paying rents to keep people from becoming homeless.

19. Two thousand families get food monthly from West Bay CAP’
s food pantry in Warwick.

20. If we don’ t pay for support services for low income families now, we will pay later. We
will pay when kids aren’ t functioning school. We will pay when more and more families
are in shelters. We will pay when more and more people are ill and can’ t work. And we
will pay when people cannot put gas in their car and can’ t go to work.

B. Affordable Energy Policy Proposals

presenters: Rev. John Holt, RI State Council of Churches; Elizabeth Arujo Haller,
working mother of two; Henry Shelton & Julie Silvia, George Wiley Center

21. Current legislative proposal for providing an extra grant, on top of the LIHEAP grant:
important that heating oil companies contribute their fair share to help create an affordable
energy plan. Target is households at 130 percent of the FPL and those protected under the
PUC regulations. The plan would have income from two streams: 1) a one-half to one
percent gross surcharge would generate $5 to $7 million to be used for gas and electric
customers; and, 2) a 1.25 percent surcharge on the wholesale price of fuel oil to generate $3
million in revenue, according to last year’
s prices. Some have estimated that at today’ s
prices, the surcharge would generate $7 or $8 million. These revenues would be a
permanent stream into a state fund administered by the CAPs, handled the same way as
LIHEAP but with case management added. This needs to be done immediately.

22. We need to take a serious look at how LIHEAP is administered, for example, having the oil
companies go out to bid rather than just naming a price to charge the LIHEAP program.
Over the longer term, we need to get very serious about putting pressure on the federal
government to increase LIHEAP funding. There are 100,000 households eligible for
LIHEAP but only 26,000 were in the program last year and this year will probably be less.

December 5, 2005 Summary -- 1/4/2006-- page 4 of 16

 23. The P.I.P. (Percentage of Income) worked for four years in the 1980s. We had the spirit in
the sixties and in the eighties. We’
re talking about 30,000 families we want to help. Last
year 27,000 people registered for LIHEAP. We know there are more out there.

24. Where’ s the money coming from? We have $12 million in LIHEAP. Then we have $6
million of the gross tax on energy. Now we have $16.5 million from the electric company
that they’ ve already promised to give back. They’re saying we’
ll give $8 million back for
low income and the elderly over a four year period.

25. We need $25 million for 30,000 households, three years to pay the back bill, and no more
shut-offs if they pay that percent of income. We need a P.I.P. that’
s passed as a first order
of business of the Legislature in January. By the end of the moratorium, this program
needs to start.

26. There are families who began their crisis four years ago. Rates have increased and we’ re at
a point of no return. And we continue to see rate increases. Incomes have not increased.
Moms on welfare are bringing in the same amount of money that folks brought in 17 years
ago. The only solution to this crisis is the percentage of income program. No amount of
charity is going to fix this. I’
ve talked to hundreds of families. I’
ve talked to hundreds of
disabled and elderly households. The bottom line is that these people pay as much as they
can every month and it is never enough.

27. Personal testimony of Elizabeth Arujo Haller: She is a working mother of two small
children. She spoke about the constant threat of being shut-off because of her back utility
bill. She doesn’ t have $360 every month to pay the gas company and she expects to be
shut off after the moratorium. Elizabeth has formed the Union of Consumers to fight shut-
offs and work for an affordable energy assistance program based on percentage of income
(P.I.P.) affordability.

C. Housing & Homelessness

presenters: Eric Hirsch, Coalition for the Homeless; Jean Barry, WARM Shelter; Kamila
Barzykowski, United Way of Rhode Island; Ben Gworek, Housing Network of RI; Rabbi Alan
Flam, Swearer Center at Brown; Pauline Perkins Moye, Newport Housing Authority

28. Homelessness is at the all time worse it’s ever been. In the last four years we’
ve seen a
dramatic escalation to 6,020 individuals over the past year. Nearly 800 families, over
200,000 bed nights in our shelters. This includes 1,564 children as well.

29. We have people living under completely unacceptable conditions and circumstances.
Someone explain to me how its acceptable, given the kinds of houses people are living in
the suburbs, given the number of empty bedrooms in those houses, that we have families
living in a room at Crossroads with no beds, no cots, young children living there, growing
up there. It’ s insane that we allow this kind of thing to continue.

December 5, 2005 Summary -- 1/4/2006-- page 5 of 16

30. Someone was nearly crushed to death by a bulldozer on the Route 195 project because
there were about 25 people squatting on land slated for that project. The bulldozer
approached someone sleeping under some boards. He jumped up in front of the bulldozer.
Fortunately he woke up or he would have been dead. A couple living there had their shack
with a heater in it bulldozed a few days after that. We managed to get a tent from the DOT.
They’ re now living in a tent. The numbers conceal the many individual stories of hardship.

31. One half of one percent of all people in the state were homeless last year. More than two
percent of all the black people in the state were homeless last year. More than one percent
for Hispanics. More than one and a half percent for Native Americans. And just about one
percent of all children under the age of five spent at least one night in a homeless shelter
last year.

32. Mentally ill people leaving hospitals and drug and alcohol addiction have been used as the
reasons for the rise in homelessness. Not good explanations. This crisis of homelessness
really began in the mid 1980s. Before that there really weren’ t that many homeless people.
Deinstitutionalization of the hospitals really occurred in the sixties and early seventies. A
lot of mentally ill people are now in jail or in nursing homes. In fact, we know the reason
for the increase in homelessness.

33. There are really two reasons for the growth of homelessness. One is the rise in income
inequality and the effect that has had on the housing market. The other is the fact that the
government has not done what it needed to do to pick up the slack.

34. The richest one-fifth of families were making $92,000 in the late 1970s. By the late 1990s
they were making $151,000. That’ s an increase of 61%. The poorest one-fifth of families
were making $12,000 in the late 1970s and $10,000 in the late 1990s. That’ s down 17%.
Literally it’
s a fact: the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

35. What impact does that have on the housing market? We’ re building a few trophy homes
but there is no subsidized housing construction going on in the state. If you don’
t build
middle income housing, there will be no housing stock to filter down to lower income
households.

36. We’ ve only built less than 500 units per year of multi-family housing per year over the past
15 years. And a lot of that is high-end condos, high-rent apartments in downtown
Providence.

37. Rental vacancy rates have gone from 10 percent to 4 percent from 1990 to the year 2000.
You can’ t really run a decent rental market with vacancy rates of under 7 or 9 percent.
Doesn’ t work. Average rent for available two bedroom apartment is $1,121 per month.

38. What kind of income do you need? If you’re a homeowner, you need $60,000 per year to
afford a home at 30% of income. If you’
re a renter, you need $45,000 per year at 30% of
income to afford that.

December 5, 2005 Summary -- 1/4/2006-- page 6 of 16

39. The only solution is for government to step in. We’ re going to be waiting indefinitely for
the private market to solve this problem. It will never happen.

40. What has the federal government done? Well it spent $83 billion on housing programs in
1978, now we’ re spending $29 billion. With escalating need, the federal government has
dropped the ball. The number of low and moderate income units in Rhode Island is now
about 35,000 but we have 155,000 households making under $35,000 a year. That’ s the
gap in terms of need right there. It is probably over 100,000 units. We need to produce
housing.

41. We have the Neighborhood Opportunities Program. The State’ s invested $21 million over
the last four years creating 545 units, 201 units of subsidized family housing, 141 units of
permanent supported housing.

42. We know how to end homelessness. This is what’ s frustrating to all of us. You end
homelessness by putting people in housing and associating services with that housing.
That’ s called permanent supported housing. Eighty-five percent of people that get into
permanent supported housing are still living there a year later. They’ re not homeless. We
know how to do it. It doesn’ t have to be with us. It just takes the resources and the
political will. This has brought in another $183 million of other funds, and produced an
estimated 5,400 jobs, many of them good jobs, construction jobs.

43. It is just unacceptable to have 6,000 people living under the circumstances they’
re living
under, in places that are meant for emergencies only. We have people who have been
living in shelters for five and six years. That doesn’t make senses. That’s immoral. And I
think we need to do whatever we need to do to end this now. We know how to end
homelessness, let’ s do it.

44. Nineteen beds at the WARM shelter in Westerly. Between 100 and 200 homeless in South
County. Motels are being used to house families. Last January, we came across a mom
and dad with four boys under the age of ten living in one room in a local motel.

45. In South County we have homelessness due to summer rentals. They have to be out by the
middle of May and what they do is to camp out in state parks during the summer time.
They camp in Burlingame. And they can only stay for two weeks then they have to pack
up and go to another campground. And they do this throughout the summer, going from
campground to campground from family and friends, a very disruptive type of lifestyle for
children. I think that state campgrounds should have ten percent of their sites for the
homeless so at least they can stay put for the summer.

46. We had a man working full time come to our shelter who left his apartment because he was
facing surgery and his health care did not cover everything that was needed. He needed
$2,700 in cash for the surgery that would allow him to be healthy so he could continue
work. His only choice was to leave his apartment and come live with us.

December 5, 2005 Summary -- 1/4/2006-- page 7 of 16

47. We have the issue of affordable housing but we also have this issue of health care. Health
care is going to drive many more people into homelessness. We also had a woman who
was working and in her own apartment whose child got sick and she had to take a few days
out of work. She went back to work but then she got sick. She couldn’ t pay her rent so got
evicted. So now she’ s living in a motel room paying $175 a week. She doesn’ t have the
ability to save any money for the damage deposit or first month’ s rent. So she’ s now stuck
in a system of living in hotel rooms. It’ s not right. It’
s wrong.

48. There is no family shelter in South County. Families have to be referred to Woonsocket,
Providence. Imagine the disruption. This business of moving families around is doing
tremendous harm to the mental health of our children.

49. In six years, housing prices have doubled. In 1999 the median price of a house was
$126,000. Today it is $265,000.

50. The same thing has happened to rents. The average rent now is $1,100 per month. In
order to be able to afford that rent, you would have to make $45,000 a year. People who
make average or low-income can only afford an apartment that costs $350 per month. Half
of Rhode Island households cannot afford, at 30% of income, the average rent.

51. There is a tremendous gap. Tens of thousands of Rhode Islanders are living in substandard
housing.

52. Reasons for housing crisis: lack of supply. There are more people coming into the state
for jobs than there are housing units for them. Price of land and local community zoning
regulations are driving up the costs of new units.

53. About half of the jobs being created in the state do not pay enough for affording rents or
home purchasing.

54. Homeless couple: Met them at Crossroads. Both are working but are homeless. One
living at Harrington Hall (men’ s shelter) and the woman at another shelter. They were
living on Federal Hill, paying $600 per month. They were evicted after the landlord raised
the rent to $1,200 because of the college student housing demand with students willing and
able to double up. This couple carried all they had in plastic bags. During the day they
work. After work they go the Crossroads and from there they are transported to their
individual shelters for the night.

55. Seen as a short-term emergency measure, four years ago churches and a temple opened
their basements for emergency shelters. Today they are in their fourth year, four churches
and a temple. Harrington Hall, which was supposed to be for winter emergencies only, is
now opened year round.

56. Policy initiatives: 1) increase supply of low and moderate income housing beginning with
a law requiring all communities in the state to have 10% of housing stock available to low
and moderate income housing; 2) Neighborhood Opportunities Program (NOP) was

December 5, 2005 Summary -- 1/4/2006-- page 8 of 16

 increased from $5 million/year to $7.5 million/year; 3) 2006 Bill for major bond issue for
housing construction; 4) Plan to end homelessness. Ten-year plan put together and
approved by Governor.

57. Permanent Supported Housing (PSH) is the first item in Plan (to end homelessness). PSH
is housing for people who are ill and need assistance – the chronically homeless. This
would save taxpayers the extraordinary costs of hospitalization and emergency room
services. Last year the state spent $300,000 to provide 50 people with PSH.

58. Several states have implemented PSH and have found that the program costs the same
amount or less to have people in PSH compared to living in emergency shelters.

59. Cost of housing increasing due to: large lot zoning, increasing land costs, finite amount of
developable land. Land costs amount to 50% of the overall production costs of a unit.

60. Housing development approval process is long and cumbersome with local zoning and
permitting authorities. One-stop development approval process – comprehensive
development process -- is beginning to help solve this problem at the municipal level.

61. Lack of state funding for subsidized housing production relative to neighboring states:
Connecticut and Massachusetts are spending $21 and $25, respectively, per capita on
housing production. Rhode Island is spending $7.50 per capita. We’ re not keeping up with
our neighboring states.

62. Director of Social Services for the Newport Housing Authority, Pauline Perkins Moye, sees
children every day, who are non-residents living with family members who are residents of
the Housing Authority. She’ s seen families who have been homeless the last three or four
years. These children and families are suffering. They have no stability, are not grounded,
and are not rooted. They can’ t focus, they can’
t do their homework.

63. People living in hotels. People paying $325/week in Pineapple Inn. How do they pay?
They work cleaning rooms. It’ s a sad situation. A little girl 12 years old was sleeping on a
bus, going out at 4:30 in afternoon. Anything could have happened to her. She could have
been kidnapped.

64. At the homeless shelters, four churches and one temple: I see mothers and fathers working
hard to be really good parents in a wide open kind of multi-purpose gymnasium space at
the synagogue, trying to read their children bedtime stories at night. These families get up
at six o’clock in the morning, get dressed – we don’ t have shower facilities at Temple
Emanuel unfortunately – parents getting up to take their children to child care or to school
and then getting ready themselves to go off to work. They’ re playing by all the rules and
they still don’t have a roof over their heads at night.

December 5, 2005 Summary -- 1/4/2006-- page 9 of 16

D. Health Care
presenters: Rick Harris, NASW-RI; Stephanie Chafee, RI Free Clinic

65. Health care in the U.S. is in a state of crisis: the number of uninsured non-elderly adults
has grown from 39.6 million in 2000 to 45.5 million in 2004. While the percent of
uninsured in Rhode Island at 10.8 percent is less than the national average of 15.8 percent,
this percentage still amounts to 100,000 Rhode Islanders without health insurance.

66. The size of Rhode Island firms and the cost of health care are the primary reasons health
insurance is not offered. In Rhode Island, 85 percent of the uninsured adult population
work full or part-time and 60 percent of the uninsured were low-income. The uninsured
visit the doctor less and hospital emergency rooms more than the insured. Fifty-three
percent of uninsured Rhode Islanders do not have a doctor or health care provider,
compared to 12 percent of the insured.

67. Nomar and his wife lost their health insurance when he lost his job in 2001. High blood
pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, osteoarthritis and anxiety required his taking six
medications routinely. Luckily they were helped by RI Free Clinic and he got his health
back and was able to find a job. Unfortunately the job has no health benefits and he and his
wife need to continue to use the services of RI Free Clinic. Their son is currently serving
with the U.S. forces in Iraq. Tragically, due to limited resources, the RI Free Clinic has to
turn away four times as many people seeking medical and health services than they can
serve.

68. The average cost of family health care insurance is the same as the annual income at
minimum wage in Rhode Island.

69. RI is in a somewhat better situation than other states. In 2005 Kids Count fact sheets
shows RI to be one of the best in the country for children’ s health care coverage, with 95%
of its 243,000 children having health insurance coverage. Only 5% of RI children do not
have health insurance (largely a result of the shortcomings of outreach) compared to 12%
nationally.

70. RI has one of the most expansive SCHIP (State Children’ s Health Insurance Program) in
the country. It covers children and families up to 185% of the poverty level, and up to
250% of the FPL for children of pregnant women with a co-pay.

71. Federal approaches to expanding health insurance coverage have included: 1) health
insurance tax credits for the uninsured; 2) expanding coverage through public programs
such as the Health Insurance Flexibility and Accountability Demonstration Initiative
(HIFA); c) an association health plan that would allow small employers to pool together to
buy coverage for their employees. None of these initiatives have yet to win wide public
support.

72. Sustained federal funding of SCHIP and Medicaid is critical. State expansion of SCHIP is
needed.

December 5, 2005 Summary -- 1/4/2006-- page 10 of 16

 73. We need to expand RIShare program to help 61,560 uninsured, full-time workers and
24,840 uninsured part-time workers.

E. Food Insecurity and Hunger

presenters: Kathleen Gorman, URI Feinstein Center for a Hunger-Free America
Bernie Beaudreau, RI Community Food Bank

74. One out of every eleven Rhode Islanders is food insecure. Food security is about both
quality and quantity of food. Food insecure means people do not know what they going to
eat, or how much they’ re going to have to spend on food, and it has to do with lacking
healthy food.

75. In Rhode Island, the percent of people who are food insecure and hungry is increasing over
time. In 2004, over 4.2 percent of all RI households experience food insecurity and hunger,
representing approximately 43,000 people. 12.1% of all RI households are food insecure.

76. Over half of the households that are food insecure are also participating in federal food
assistance programs (Food Stamps, School Meals and WIC). Cause for concern: these are
families already getting federal assistance and they’
re still food insecure. Also, 20% of
food insecure households already are getting food assistance from an emergency food
pantry and 3% are getting food from emergency meal sites.

77. The working poor. We have a large and growing number of people above the poverty line
that are low-income and working. URI Feinstein Center for a Hunger-Free America’ s
survey of 428 working poor households with children between 100% and 130% of poverty:
56% were found to be food insecure – a phenomenally high number – and 19%
experiencing hunger. In total, 45% of these households were participating in Food
Stamps, 49% participating in WIC, 79% were getting school breakfast and 88% were
getting school lunch.

78. The School Breakfast Program: 94% of RI schools participate but we have only 37% of
the eligible children in schools participating in the program.

79. Economic impact of the Food Stamp Program: RI has 53% participation rate meaning that
47% of those eligible are not participating –over 60,000 people. The program provides
about $81 per person per month for those participating in the program. If we could
increase participation by 8,000 individuals (13% of the 60,000), we would be bringing an
additional $648,000 per month – $7,776,000 annually -- from the federal government into
the state. The Food Stamp Program is another opportunity to bring money into the
economy, the retailers, generating $10 in economic activity for every $5 spent in food
stamps.

80. Research studies show that the effects of hunger and malnutrition on children are extremely
detrimental. If we don’t pay right now -- that children have housing, food and health care

December 5, 2005 Summary -- 1/4/2006-- page 11 of 16

 -- we’ re going to pay later. The cost of a malnourished child, in terms of the cost of time
out due to health issues, not being able to learn and achieve in school, not being able to get
a job, or ending up in the juvenile delinquency court system is extraordinarily high.

81. RI Community Food Bank has 431 member agencies that distribute food. Monthly
statistics from the 151 emergency food pantries indicate that there are approximately
51,000 people in Rhode Island who get food assistance through the Food Bank distribution
system. Typically people get a three to four day supply of food per month.

82. Over last two years the Food Bank’

s distribution network has had to cut back on the
amount of food given per household due to increased need and the decline in the donated
food supply.

83. Hunger has increased while emergency food distribution increased: Last year, the Food
Bank distributed 8.2 million pounds of food, a three-fold increase over the last ten years.
Over the last six years, hunger in RI has increased 60%, about 10% per year. As hard as
the Food Bank is working and as much as the federal nutrition programs have grown in
participation, we’ re not keeping up with the growth in need.

84. Sadly, 43% -- almost half – of the people served through the Food Bank network are
children. Elderly make up about 8% of the food recipients at food pantries. This speaks to
the relative difference in need but also the inability of the food pantry system to serve the
elderly.

85. About 36% of people served through the food pantries are white, 35% are Hispanic, almost
20% are African America, 3% American Indians, and 6% “ other.”

86. Lack of education increases the risk of going hungry. Education is very important in the
whole mix of responses to hunger but it has to be met with opportunities in the labor
market and the economy: 7% of pantry clients have a college degree.

87. People at food pantries often lack basic amenities. 23% do not have a telephone, creating
difficulty in communications and ability to access services; over half do not have their own
automobile; 6% do not have a place to cook a meal.

88. People at food pantries often have to choose between food and other basic needs: almost
half have to choose between paying their utility bills and buying food. 53% have to choose
between paying their rent and buying food; 31% have to choose between paying for health
care or medicines and buying food.

89. The working poor. From 1993 to 2001, over the course of the three food bank client
studies, the number of working adults going to food pantries has grown from 1 in 20 in
1993 to 1 in 5 in 2001. Working used to get people out of poverty and keep them from
hunger and homelessness.

December 5, 2005 Summary -- 1/4/2006-- page 12 of 16

 90. Kim (from Cumberland): An intact working family of mother, father and four children
needing to go to a food pantry every month. Both parents employed. The father made
$22/hour as a truck driver and was laid off. He took a $10/hour job and they can’ t make
ends meet. They are just above the eligibility line for assistance programs but are still poor
and in need of assistance.

91. In summary, the federal nutrition assistance programs in combination with the food
bank/food pantry network assistance have been proven to be inadequate. Government
programs have not been invested in over time. Right now in Congress there is an attempt
to further cut the Food Stamp program, making it harder for legal immigrants to access
food assistance.

F. Education and Job Training

presenters: Kate Brewster & Dawn Nardi, Poverty Institute

92. Adult education is key to participating in today’

s workforce, as we move from a
manufacturing to a service economy. It is also key to economic security. In RI, if you
have a high-school diploma or less, your median earnings are only $18,000 a year or less.
We know that is not enough income to meet basic needs.

93. The bad news is that RI has the lowest adult educational attainment rate in New England,
and we also have the lowest investment in adult education in the region, despite the greatest
need. In 2000, RI invested $29 per adult without a high school diploma or GED. In
Massachusetts, that investment was $71 per adult and in Connecticut it was almost $137.
The national average investment per adult was almost $59.

94. The good news is that Governor Carcieri and members of the General Assembly have taken
steps to improve the adult education and training system in the state. The state has hired an
adult basic education director who has set encouraging new and goals for the state:
increase investment to $30 million, the number of hours that each adult has access to goes
from 57 to 135 hours of training, and that 17,500 complete adult basic education annually.

95. We need to pay attention to families in the F.I.P program: last year between July 2004 and
June 2005, 1,400 parents we assess for adult literacy. 32% tested at a 6th grade level or
lower, 75% tested at a 12 th grade level or lower. We need to allow FIP clients assess to
education and training opportunities even while they’ re working.

96. Last year and the year before, ONE RI put in legislation to allow parents in the FIP who are
working 20 hours per week to also access 10 hours of education and training a week.
Unfortunately this legislation has not passed yet.

97. There are many people on cash assistance who are working who want to make more money
and want to access education and training opportunities.

December 5, 2005 Summary -- 1/4/2006-- page 13 of 16

 98. Dawn Nardi – a single mother and a college graduate and fully employed as the
Coordinator of the One RI coalition: I wouldn’ t be here today without access to education
and training. Twelve years ago she had to turn to welfare and she realized her barriers to
working, one being the lack of skills. After four months of job searching, she obtained a
low-wage, part-time job. She enrolled in a two-year college but was not allowed to attend
a four-year college. She did “ fight her way through” even though she lost her child care
and transportation benefits. She graduated with a 3.75 GPA, while working part-time and
raising her child. She feels she’s“ a success story” . Access to education and training is
vital.

99. Family economic stability getting worse, its not getting better. So a family’ s access to
education and training is so imperative to a family’s journey to self-sufficiency. Education
and training also needs to be seen as economic development. People who are off welfare
and gainfully employed are giving back to the economy.

G. Summary Statements: A Call for Leadership and Government Action

presenters: Linda Katz, Poverty Institute and Ben Lessing, Family Resources

100. The underlying theme here is that government must be involved with crafting the
solutions. Government is the place where minimum wage can be increased so that people
have enough money in their pockets through their earnings to pay their way.

101. Government is the place where we can maintain the Rite Care program and work with the
employers, with providers and with activists and come up with a solution in Rhode Island
to achieve universal health care so that nobody has to worry about how they’re going to
take their medications and what’ s going to happen when they get sick.

102. Government is the place where we can solve the housing crisis. It has already been
eloquently said that people are not going to do this out of the goodness of their hearts.
Without government pushing us forward to do the right thing, not just the charitable thing,
we will see drops in the bucket and not the flood of economic justice that we really need.

103. Rabbi Alan Flam spoke about “ justice, justice, we shall pursue” . I would say
“government, government we shall pursue” , government in combination with all of us
concerned citizens working together to craft solutions to close that gap between the haves
and have-nots.

104. It is unconscionable in our country that some people will have two houses or three houses
while some people have no place to put their heads to go to sleep at night. I really do
believe that in Rhode Island, we are a community of people who care, that we can be a
laboratory for showing how government can make investments and craft policies to close
that income gap.

December 5, 2005 Summary -- 1/4/2006-- page 14 of 16

105. We really have three levels of crisis that we’re dealing with today. The first is that we
have a moral crisis. We are on the verge of really creating a permanent underclass in our
state and in our society and it is happening very, very quickly over the last 20 years.

106. The second crisis is really about leadership. We are wonderful in this state for doing a
commission, a work group, an issue brief and they often lead to nowhere. Our elected
officials and officials in state agencies, as well as all of us, have really got to get on the
stick in terms of creating some change in the state. Leadership is sorely lacking here. We
have to take some responsibility for these issues.

107. The third crisis is really about business, in two particular ways. One is that in the
business of running this state we are creating so many unnecessary expenses. The obvious
example is the ACI. It is a growth industry. It’ s ridiculous. The training school is a
growth industry. Over one hundred million dollars is put into residential services annually.

108. There are so many things that we could do differently, just from a business perspective.
The fact that we don’ t bid oil contracts for LIHEAP. How crazy is that? Anyone who’ s
run an organization or a business would know better than that in terms of being able to look
for the best deal. The other side of is the lost opportunity in terms of work force, children
who are growing up in these situations.

109. Until we realize that poverty is a generational issue that, kids that are hungry, kids that
are homeless growing up in situations of neglect and so forth -- all of that comes back to
haunt us later in one form or another, whether its health care, whether its justice, whatever.
We’ ve got to get our hands around that.

110. From a provider standpoint, to our legislators: What we’ re asking for today is to give us
the tools. We really know how to address a lot of these issues, but we need the tools. We
don’ t need another commission. We don’ t need another issue brief. We need to get the job
done.

***

December 5, 2005 Summary -- 1/4/2006-- page 15 of 16

 December 5, 2005 Community Hearing Attendees
Elizabeth Arujo Haller, George Wiley Center
Jean Barry, WARM Shelter, Westerly
Kamila Barzykowski, United Way of RI
Nancy Beattie, Congressman Jim Langevin's Office
Bernie Beaudreau, RI Community Food Bank
Kate Brewster, Poverty Institute
Elizabeth Burke Bryant, RI Kids Count
Jesse Capece, Poverty Institute
Stephanie Chafee, RI Free Clinic
Maria Cimini, URI Feinstein Center for a Hunger-Free America
Rosie Connors, RI Community Food Bank
Jeanne M.S. Derham, Reporting Associates, Shorthand Reporters
Jim Dulle, City of Pawtucket
Carmen Ferguson, United Way of RI
Rabbi Alan Flam, Board of Rabbis
Ellen Frank, Poverty Institute
Jeanne Gategno, West Bay Community Action
Kathleen Gorman, URI Feinstein Center for a Hunger-Free America
Ben Gworek, Housing Works/SHAC
David Haller, resident
Tobias Haller, George Wiley Center
Rick Harris, NASW-RI
Eric Hirsch, RI Coalition for the Homeless
Rev. John Holt, RI State Council of Churches
Vladimir Ibarra, Lieutenant Governor's Office
Pat Jaehnig, R.C. Diocese of Providence
Douglas Johnson, Heritage Consulting Group
Linda Kane, Johnson & Wales University
Linda Katz, Poverty Institute
Lorraine Keeney, URI Partnership in Food, Hunger & Nutrition
Steve Klein, WPRO
Helen Lamphere, Brown University
Cong. Jim Langevin, US Representative
Nancy Langrall, Senator Jack Reed's Office
Sen. Bea Lanzi, RI Senate
Ben Lessing, Family Resources Community Action, Woonsocket
Michael Makuch, Johnson & Wales University
Cheryl Martone, Office of the Governor
Bob McDonough, RI DHS
Paula McFarland, RI Senate
Donna Montaquila, Northwest Woolen Mills
Pauline Perkins Moye, Newport Housing Authority
Dawn Nardi, Poverty Institute
Susan Neupauer, Grantmakers Council of RI
John Paglarini, Senator Chafee's Office
Sen. Juan Pichardo, RI Senate
Mitchell Pleshette, City of Providence
Henry Shelton, George Wiley Center
Julie Silvia, George Wiley Center
Rep. Tom Slater, State Representative
Amy Vitale, NASW-RI
Nondas Voll, Fund for Community Progress
Lisa Walker, Family Service of RI
Chris Young, Candidate for Mayor

December 5, 2005 Summary -- 1/4/2006-- page 16 of 16