Alberta Co-op Grocery

Race and Class in Multnomah County

Posted October 7th, 2010

opinion by Jhan Hochman, Working Owner email hidden; JavaScript is required

In Oregon, food stamp use is up 38.2% over the last year and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families cases are up 21.2% for one- and two-parent families.  The largest part of this increase is for unemployed and underemployed two-parent families.  Their numbers have surged by 67.4% in the last year.  Food bank use has also risen, with an increase of 13% across Oregon the past year.  Today, almost a third of food bank users have someone in the household working full time; in 2000, only a quarter had a full time worker in the family.

Against Oregon’s backdrop of increasing loss of wealth and rising poverty, PSU’s Sociology Department and The Coalition for Communities of Color have released the study, Communities of Color in Multnomah County: An Unsettling Profile (2010).  The following bulleted statements are quotes from the 152-page study and apply to Multnomah County.

• Communities of color earn half the incomes of whites, earning $16,636 per year, while white people earn $33,095 annually. Disparities close to this magnitude exist regardless of one’s family and household configuration.

• Poverty levels among our communities are at levels at least double those of whites. Our child poverty rate, collectively, is 33.3%, while that of white children is 12.5%.

• Educational attainment is stratified by race. While only 7% of whites did not graduate high school, 30% of communities of color did not.

• Disparities exist at the preschool level. By the time children enter kindergarten, there is a disparity that, depending on the measure, averages between 5% and 15% in readiness for learning scores. Most children of color are unable to access preschool programs, though they are overrepresented in Head Start initiatives.

• Communities of color have unemployment rates 35.7% higher than whites.

• Communities of color in Multnomah county suffer more than similar communities of color nationally.

• In the measures explored in this report (incomes, poverty, occupation and education), communities of color have between 15% and 20% worse outcomes. When we tally the disproportionate “hit” or additional income losses for communities of color living in the county, the average tally of such costs is $8,362/year.

While economic decline is affecting nearly everyone, people of color and immigrants are hit harder and so it’s time to figure out how ACG can become a greater asset to everyone it should serve.

Ideas: a bimonthly 97211 or neighborhood-specific  (King, Concordia, Woodlawn, etc.) sale?  Mailed coupons for staple foods to 97211 or a specific neighborhood?  Contacting local churches or organizations like the Coalition for Communities of Color for suggestions?  Making sure everyone in the proximate neighborhoods knows when ACG is hiring?

Better ideas, anyone?

The full report.
97211 census data.

Posted in General Information