Poverty Among Groton Single Mothers Higher Than State, County, New London

Rebecca Vazquez, 38, said she used to think she was going to get her own place and move out of Branford Manor. But it never happened.

Now two of her daughters live there with their children, too.

“We don’t want to be living on welfare. We don’t want to wait for a check,” she said. “It’s like, you can’t move up. You’re in Branford Manor.”

She is fighting a battle that a lot of single mothers are facing in Groton.

The U.S. Census recently reported 38.3 percent of single women in town with children under 18 lived below poverty during the period from 2005 to 2009, the most recent data available. The percentage of households headed by women in poverty in Groton is higher than the state (29.8 percent), New London County (27.9 percent) and neighboring New London (31.1 percent).

Current federal guidelines define poverty for a family of four - or a single mother with three children - as having an income of less than $22,350 a year.

The local group Children First Groton released a survey last month that showed families are stressed by the lack of affordable child care in town and reliable, accessible transportation. The survey also showed a need for greater access to affordable, preventative health care, nutritional food, stress reduction and financial management education.

When told of the statistics, Groton City Councilor William Jervis said he’ll bring up the issue of poverty among mothers at the City Council meeting tonight.

“It certainly bears looking into because there may be a need for greater services,” he said.

About the numbers

The American Community Survey is done yearly, though small communities are reported on less frequently.  The statistics are less current than recent 2010 census figures on population, but also more specific. The survey asks questions such as a person’s age, education, income, family and basic living expenses, so it is considered a measure of the economic well-being of different groups in a community.

The survey reports data in three- and five-year increments in communities with populations of 20,000 or more. Five-year data is considered more reliable than 3-year data, because the sample is largest, according to the census website.

Social workers said they are not surprised by the numbers, but believe they may be skewed. For example, they said women are becoming more savvy about income they declare, and may omit occasional money they receive from boyfriends or ex-husbands, particularly if that income is unreliable.

On the other hand, they said women have taken this approach because of a basic need to survive, and their situations have clearly worsened in the current job market.

Young mothers who started with the expectation that they’d get a menial job if they got one at all, have ended up applying at  fast food restaurants alongside people with college degrees, the social workers said.

Debbie Burke, one of the three social workers for the Groton Department of Human Services, said families call and they have no diapers or food.

Vicki Wydler, another social worker, said she sees women with children who lack a basic understanding of how they’re living relative to others, and how to improve their situations.

 “It’s not that they don’t aspire to anything else. They have no idea,” she said. “They don’t even know that there’s financial aid that would pay for their college experience.”

Of the roughly 80 people the two see, about one-third are single mothers.

School Children

To the extent that hardship among single mothers is reflected in their children, one of the places it appears is in the schools.

Jervis, the city councilor, said statistics on poverty should be considered in relation to any plans to close West Side Middle School, which serves neighborhoods including Branford Manor, a subsidized housing complex with 442 apartments.

The school is walking distance from the apartments.

Of the 255 students at West Side, 63 percent receive free or reduced-priced lunch. Some families do not have transportation - though it is unclear how many - and the school will sometimes meet with parents over the phone. West Side also runs a school-based health clinic, dental clinic and houses adult education classes.

Under the proposed school construction plan on the ballot before voters in May, West Side would remain a public school, but would become an early childhood center.  The students would be moved elsewhere temporarily during construction.

Superintendent Paul Kadri said recently that neighborhood services would continue, and of all of the neighborhoods in Groton, the area around West Side would benefit from greater access to early childhood education.

No Day Care, So She Quit Her Job

Ramona Taveras, 36, lives in a two-bedroom apartment with her four children in Branford Manor.  She had a job three years ago, working in the cafeteria at Pfizer, but she quit because of a day care problem. The neighbor who was watching her children got her own job, and Taveras couldn’t find an affordable alternative.

She has a general equivalency diploma, and wanted to go back to school to become a medical assistant.

So she gave that a try next. Her father took on watching her youngest, who was not in school yet.  He had to stop three months later. 

“My dad got sick, so it was too much,” said Taveras, who speaks Spanish and English. Her children are 5, 6, 10 and 16.  She said she wants a job during school hours, but can’t find one.

She has a car, but it’s in bad shape so she can’t travel far. She has not bought clothes in a year.

“Sometimes my father helps me. My sister, sometimes,” she said. Otherwise, she lives on food stamps and public assistance.

Her next door neighbor is also looking for work, to no avail.  The neighbor, who lives in a two-bedroom apartment, has five children.

Trading Food Stamps For Rides

Two weeks ago, Diane Schrage spent an hour and a half at the Groton Public Library trying to help a 30-year-old mother apply online for a cafeteria job.

The woman was fired from Walmart in Lisbon because she didn’t show up for one of her four-hour shifts. Then her car died. She has four children, no car, no computer, and lives in subsidized housing.

Schrage, a counselor with Groton Human Services, said they clicked “submit” for the online application and it wouldn’t take. The time was wasted.

“We scheduled another appointment ... but that job’s not going to be there,” she said.

Schrage has a caseload of 16 people. Eleven are single mothers.

When she started her job about 15 years ago, she said she advised parents on topics like potty training, discipline and getting the kids to bed. 

“These were parents who were basically worried about their child’s development,” she said. Now, she said, “Sally doesn’t want to potty train? I would love a case like that now. (Today) it’s, ‘I have no job and I’m so stressed, I’m taking it out on my children.’ These parents are in economic crisis.”

Of her 16 clients, four do not have cars. Others have cars, but no money for gas. Schrage said mothers who work in this situation must take public transportation to day care, take the bus to get to work, and then get everyone home the same way.

She said the federal “Cash for Clunkers” program took potentially affordable cars off the market and devastated the working poor.

“I don’t know who came up with that idea, but they deserve a swift kick in the (butt) and I’m willing to give it to them,” she said. “I’m that adamant about it.”

Trades have emerged in projects like Branford Manor: You give me cigarettes, I’ll drive you to the grocery store.  You drive me to the grocery store, I’ll buy you a gallon of milk with my food stamps.

 "I used to want to get my own place"

Vazquez grew up in New Jersey as one of six children. Her father drove a truck; her mother stayed home. 

She got pregnant when she was 15, dropped out of high school and had her first child on her 16th birthday.

She moved to Connecticut to be with her boyfriend, and they had two more children. He got a job at a pizza place, and they lived in New London for a time, she said. They married in 1995. 

But Vazquez said their apartment was infested with bugs, so she applied to live at Branford Manor.

She and her husband divorced in 2001. She worked a series of housekeeping jobs, then hurt her back at work in 2007.

She’s been on worker’s compensation, and can do a “light duty” job, but hasn’t been able to find one, she said. She wants to go back to school.

"I used to want to get my own place. And here it is, I've been here 19 years," she said.

Her two oldest daughters are also single parents, living in Branford Manor on public assistance. They receive child support, have high school diplomas and used to work; one at McDonalds and Pet Supply, and the other at Stop & Shop.  Now they can’t find jobs.

Vazquez’s youngest daughter, 18, lives with her and works part-time at Dunkin’ Donuts.  She wants to go back to school for cosmetology. Vazquez said she wants to try to make that happen.

Altagracia Alvarez, 43, has two sons, and a full-time job at Pfizer. She lives in Branford Manor and said she is doing all right now that she’s working. But she sees others struggling.

“Over here in Groton, people don’t have enough money to pay rent, to eat food, and they have four children sometimes. There are some people who work, but they don’t get enough to pay the rent,” she said.

Alvarez said that for one year, she did not work because she could not find child care.

“I had no people for babysitting,” she said.

Assessing Needs

Thames Valley Council for Community Action, Inc. runs the Little Learners Education Program on Central Avenue in Groton, which offers child care on a sliding fee scale. The program is full with 36 children enrolled, said Debbie Poirier, director.

There are 233 families on the waiting list, up 56 percent from the previous year.

 “There’s not enough affordable child care for children under the age of 3,” she said. Poirier said parents with older children have more options.

A little more than half of the children enrolled at Little Learners are from single parent households; about one-third of families served by the center are living below poverty level, she said.

Rick Calvert, chief operating officer for Child & Family Agency of Southeastern Connecticut, Inc., said United Way is in the midst of a survey to assess the most pressing community needs in eastern Connecticut. The assessment was discussed during a meeting last week, he said, and basic needs like food, housing and transportation are emerging as key items on the list.

Burke said she believes teaching children about options while they are still young could also help. To that end, she believes early childhood education could play a role.

“The time to learn discipline is not when you’re 18. It’s when you’re 1,” Burke said. “It’s the same thing with having goals. And believing that your life can be different."