WASHINGTON -- Evelyn Dortch left her husband more than a decade ago, got a college degree and now makes enough to support her four children and stay off welfare.
The 2000 census showed poverty rates declined for families led by single mothers like Dortch during the 1990s. Welfare reform, a booming economy, greater acceptance of single mothers in the workplace and crackdowns on deadbeat dads contributed to the trend, experts say.
Nevertheless, more than one-third of families led by single mothers still live below the poverty level, census data show. Many who left welfare rolls in the 1990s simply nudged themselves up to "working poor" status and are particularly vulnerable to the economic slowdown since then, said William O'Hare of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a child advocacy group.
Dortch makes just $22,000, barely above the poverty line. Still, she calls herself a "welfare success story." She collected welfare off and on until 1999, when she graduated from college with a social work degree.
Now Dortch works full time at a community development outreach program and plans to move her family -- her children are 11 to 16 years old -- out of public housing in St. Albans, W.Va.
"Education was my ticket out of poverty and to gaining my self-respect," she said. "When Congress considers welfare reform, education needs to be the first priority, not employment."
Numbers improving
The census showed 34 percent of households led by a single mother with a child under 18 lived in poverty in 1999, an improvement from 42 percent in 1989. The Census Bureau asks about a person's economic status in the calendar year before forms are distributed.
For all families, poverty rates improved from 10 percent to 9 percent, while the rate for all residents improved from 13 percent to 12 percent, the census found.
Poverty levels differ according to a household's makeup. For instance, in 1999, the poverty threshold for a family of five, including four children, was $19,578. By comparison, the threshold for a three-person household with one child was $13,410.
Poverty data for single mothers refers to women who live with either their own child or a related child at home. Previous surveys show most of these children are the women's offspring.
Sherry Dana of Springfield, Va., divorced five years ago and raises a 13-year-old daughter on her own. While the $400 her ex-husband provides each month helps cover the mortgage and pay for food, she said smaller items for her daughter, like a pair of jeans or a doctor's visit, affect her wallet the most.
"All I know is that single parents have it tough," she said. "The incredible amount of work and the struggle to juggle."
Income and poverty data come from the 2000 census long form questionnaire distributed to about one in six American households.
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On the Net: http://www.census.gov/
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