Charities can't keep up with deepening poverty

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-charity27-2008nov27,0,6792739.story

Charities can't keep up with deepening poverty
Need is being felt in the white-collar workforce, with the souring economy upending professionals who were once considered reliable donors to charities.
By Duke Helfand
November 27, 2008

Catholic Charities of Orange County assembled Thanksgiving dinners for 500 families this week, filling plastic bags with frozen turkeys, cranberry sauce and other fixings. But word of the free food attracted 920 families, many of whom left empty-handed when the Santa Ana agency doled out the goods.

"There were tears in our eyes as we had to turn people away," said executive director Terrie Montminy, who referred families elsewhere for food or invited them back the next day for smaller packages.

Westside Children's Center puts books in the hands of preschoolers
Charities across the country are facing the same stress this year as their busiest season approaches. Aid organizations are hobbled by dwindling resources and soaring demands for food, clothing, money and other necessities.

And it's not only the desperately poor who are banging on their doors.

The web of poverty is expanding into the white-collar workforce, with the souring economy upending professionals who were once considered reliable contributors. The director of one Phoenix charity, for instance, says that some of his donors have become his clients.

Charity administrators, pastors and rabbis are forecasting a bleak holiday season and an even more troubling year ahead, given government cutbacks and contributors tightening their belts in response to the deteriorating economy.

The crisis occurs at an alarming time: Such philanthropic groups typically collect most of their revenue at the end of the year, when donors open their wallets to qualify for tax write-offs. As resources vanish, however, the threads of the nation's extensive social safety nets are fraying, leaving single mothers, elderly shut-ins and others ever more vulnerable.

"The number of people and families who are forced to seek help is going to continue to grow exponentially in the next year," said Nancy Volpert, director of public policy at Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles. "The safety net is being stretched very thin."

Already, increasing numbers of people who were once prosperous are having to ask for help, according to a variety of accounts.

[JeffR]

1. The nation doesn't have "extensive social safety nets".

Actually, the safety nets are laughable (or would be if they weren't so tragic) compared to most other Western democracies. Maybe now that the upper echelons of society are beginning to realize that, they'll clue in to what the poor have known for years.