THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 2, 1994 TAG: 9409300001
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Long : 110 lines
We have developed a subculture that's not acceptable. These people are the most underemployed, the most undereducated, the most underchurched; they are the most underdisciplined people in our society.
Norfolk Councilman Herb Collins stands by his statement last week about the problems of public housing downtown. Sweeping generalizations are always grist for critics, and Mr. Collins has gotten his share.
It is important to note the inelegance and exaggeration of his observation: Lack of employment, education, faith and discipline is hardly unique to public- housing tenants, or to African Americans. It is even more important to note the degree of truth in his observation: If not Norfolk's ``most'' underemployed, undereducated, unchurched, undisciplined communities, these neighborhoods - Young Terrace, Calvert Square, Tidewater Gardens, Diggs Town - are among them.
Their proximity to the proposed MacArthur Center adds to the urgent need for real solutions there. As plans develop for partial HUD financing of Nordstrom and the interest of both HUD and Nordstrom in job training and availability for nearby residents, the center adds to the solutions available.
And real solutions require honest talk, a commodity hard to come by on any subject with the racial element Norfolk's public housing has. If Councilman Collins, who is black, hit a nerve with some of the 98 percent of Norfolk public-housing tenants who are black, he also hit a chord. Reversing the employment, educational and disciplinary impoverishment of these neighborhoods will require more effort from the city at coordinating public assistance and self-help. It will require more effort from residents as well.
The numbers, from special reports prepared by Norfolk's Department of City Planning from the 1990 Census, are revealing.
Society's poorest families are those headed by unmarried women, and that has been even more true in Norfolk than in other central cities. Almost 55 percent of Norfolk's poor, according to the 1990 census, were female householder families with related children. In Diggs Town/Oakleaf Forest, 66.8 percent of female-headed households, 85.9 percent of children under 6 and 80.4 percent of related children under 18 live below the poverty level; in Young Terrace, 80.4 percent, 90.6 percent and 90.7 percent, respectively. In Calvert Square, 64.2 percent of families live below poverty level, and 74.5 percent of female-headed households, 90.6 percent of children under 6, 94 percent of children ages 6 to 11 do. In Tidewater Gardens, 65.8 percent of families, 71.1 percent of female-headed households and 83 percent of children from infancy to age 11 are poor.
Why are these households headed by women poor? Among the reasons: Unlike 55.3 percent of all women in Norfolk, 54.5 percent of white women and 55.8 percent of black women, most of these women in public housing do not work. And most women, like most men, who live in public housing and work hold relatively low-paying jobs.
In Young Terrace, 58.6 percent of women do not participate in the labor force, including 62.1 percent of women with children under 6, 15.7 percent of women with children age 6 to 17 and 76 percent of women with infants and teenagers. In Calvert Square, 63.2 percent of women do not work, including 57.1 percent of women with children under 6, 43.9 percent of women with children 6 to 17 and 64.6 percent of women with infants and teenagers. In Tidewater Gardens, 56 percent of women do not work, including 54.7 percent of women with children under 6, 57.9 percent of children age 6 to 17 and 47.4 percent of women with infants and teenagers. In Diggs Town/Oakleaf Forest, 60.5 percent of women do not work, including 53.7 percent of women with children under 6, 45.1 percent of women with children 6 to 17 and 64.8 percent of women with infants and teenagers.
Of these four neighborhoods, only Tidewater Gardens posts a gain (19.1 percent) in overall employment in 1990 over 1980. The number of employed people in Young Terrace during that period dropped 36.3 percent; in Calvert Square, 30.2 percent; in Diggs Town, 28.8 percent. In 1990 most of the employed in these neighborhoods worked in service industries and sales and as laborers. In 1990 Young Terrace showed a 6.9 percent increase, up to 31 people from 29 in 1980, in managerial and professional jobs. Calvert Square showed a 54.5 percent increase, from 22 people in managerial and professional posts, to 34. Tidewater Gardens showed a 36.4 percent loss, down from 1980's 11 to 7. And Diggs Town showed a 57.4 percent loss, down from 101 in 1980 to 43 in 1990.
Why the large number in low-paying jobs? Among the reasons: a lack of education. In Young Terrace, 24 percent of residents have a high-school diploma. In Calvert Square, 35 percent. In Tidewater Gardens, 33 percent. In Diggs Park, 34 percent. The percentage of high-school graduates citywide: 72.7 percent. According to the state superintendent of schools' report for 1992-93, only 38.4 percent of Norfolk students who began the ninth grade in 1989 and should have graduated four years later graduated in 1993. And reporter Jon Glass only recently doc-u-ment-ed how even more dismal is the graduation rate for students who live in public housing: Sixty-two percent of them do not graduate. And 63 percent of those who do graduate have a D average.
Numbers never tell a whole story. But the numbers regarding these communities demonstrate the degree of difficulty not only in solving the problems but in straightforwardly describing and defining them. Councilman Collins is criticized for addressing this issue bluntly. But poverty, employment and education are inextricably linked. A neighborhood without schooling and skills cannot compete for the better-paying jobs no matter how nearby a new mall.
Nordstrom has promised the availability of jobs, some 1,500 of them, to its near neighbors. It has not guaranteed them - cannot guarantee them - because a job requires more than a paycheck: It is preparation and performance and an ethic that takes pride in pursuing the one and delivering the other. The city of Norfolk is developing programs to prepare public-housing residents for employment at MacArthur Center. That isn't easy. But the harder part - preparing and performing - is the residents'. Councilman Collins has made that essential point. He and his critics alike can now move on the next: finding the kinds of reform and encouragement to help it happen. by CNB