MEGAN HENRY, Ohio Capital Journal — Ohio’s poverty rate was 13.4% in 2022 and the state’s child poverty rate was 17.7%, according to the latest report from the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies.
While the state’s overall poverty rate is the same as last year’s report for 2021, this is slightly higher than the national poverty rate of 12.6%. This is the 31st year the OACAA, which represents 48 agencies across the state, has issued a State of Poverty report.
“We cannot become numb to child poverty, so we cannot become known to poverty overall,” OACAA Executive Director Philip E. Cole said during a press conference.
Nearly a fifth of Ohio children under six were living in poverty in 2022, according to the report. About 18% of Ohio children ages 6 to 11 were living in poverty and 15.9% of Ohio children ages 12 to 17 were living in poverty.
“The life we will live is determined at birth,” Cole said. “While we know that poverty has many causes, your economic status at birth is a major one that has nothing to do with personal choices. … No one can choose where or to whom they’re born. It has to do with unequal access to important resources people need to thrive in life. If a person does not have access to the things needed to thrive, they will be worse off than others.”
This year’s report focused on poverty’s effect on children — particularly when it comes to housing, food insecurity, and health care.
“No demographic is immune from the effects of poverty,” said Tina Kassebaum, partner and principal Investigator of Strategic Research Group. “While children have no control over their housing situation, over their access to food or over their overall health care, they are deeply affected by these and other factors.”
Housing
Almost a fourth of Ohio children (23%) live in cost-burdened households — meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing.
Slightly more than half of Ohio children (53%) living in low-income households are cost-burdened, which puts them at a higher risk of dealing with housing insecurity.
“We saw landlords driving up rents during the pandemic by as much as 300%,” Cole said. “They are not coming down.”
Affordable housing is a problem nationwide. Ohioans need to be earning at least $20.81 an hour working a full-time job to be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment, according to a report earlier this year by Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio and the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
There are only 79 affordable and available units per 100 renter households for people who are at or below 50% area median income, according to OACAA’s report.
“The state needs to look at ways to actually pay contractors to build affordable housing,” Cole said.
Food insecurity
The overall food insecurity rate for Ohio is 11.8% and the food insecurity rate for Ohio children is 14.8%, according to the state of poverty report.
The pandemic-based expansion of SNAP benefits ended in February 2023 — meaning about 1.5 million Ohioans are receiving less money for food, according to the report.
On top of that, there are nearly 300 fewer WIC-authorized vendors in Ohio than there were in 2015.
Van Wert county has no WIC vendors at all. Cuyahoga County has 42 fewer WIC vendors and Franklin County has 30 fewer WIC vendors compared to 2015.
“One possibility is to increase direct funding to food banks and pantries,” Cole said. “Another is a significant tax credit for each member of the family so families have more money to buy food.”
State Reps. Lauren McNally, D-Youngstown, and Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson, introduced a bill last year that would provide a “Thriving Families Tax Credit.”
This would give middle and low-income families a tax credit to make up for the gap in pandemic-era benefits. However, House Bill 290 has not received any committee hearings.
Weinstein previously said the tax credit would be $1,000 per year per child aged 0 to 5 and $500 annually per child ages 6 to 17. Families with an annual income of $65,000 or less would qualify for the full benefit amount.
Healthcare
More than 86,000 Ohio children were unenrolled in Medicaid programs between March and September 2023. 4.6% of Ohio children are uninsured.
Ohio has a high infant mortality rate. The state’s overall infant mortality rate was 7.0 in 2021 and 14.2 for Black babies, according to the Ohio Department of Health. Infant mortality rate among Medicaid births (9.4) was nearly twice private insurance births (4.8), according to the poverty report.
Ohio has 13 maternity care deserts counties, meaning there is limited or no access to maternity health care services. There have been 28 closures of providers of labor and delivery services since 2014, according to the Ohio Hospital Association.
There was recently a groundbreaking for a new women and children’s hospital in Belpre at Memorial Health System’s Belpre Medical Campus in Washington County. This will be southeast Ohio’s only women and children’s hospital and is scheduled to open in fall 2026.
Data from the report
Scioto County in Southern Ohio had the highest overall poverty rate with 21.8% and the highest family poverty rate with 18.3%, according to the report.
For highest overall poverty rate, next was Athens County (21.6%), then Vinton County (20.9%) and Gallia County (20%).
Cuyahoga County’s overall poverty rate was 16.6%, Hamilton County’s was 15.6% and Franklin County’s was 15.1%.
When it came to the highest family poverty rate, Pike County had 16.6%, Adams County had 14.8% and Lawrence had 14.2%.
Black Ohioans have the highest poverty rate at 25.9%, followed by Hispanic/Latinos at 22%.