WS Chronicle

BY CASH MICHAELS 

FOR THE CHRONICLE

Two Forsyth County state House members are co-sponsoring a bill to create a statewide poverty task. That measure has been currently referred to House Appropriations Committee for review.

Representatives Evelyn Terry and Edward Hanes Jr. are among the co-sponsors of HB 410 – “Root Out Poverty/Task Force Funds” is listed as “an act creating a statewide poverty task force, establishing two new personnel positions in the Department of Health and Human Services dedicated to poverty reduction and economic recovery, and appropriating funds for those purposes.”

In establishing the poverty task force, the bill reads in part that “… poverty in this state is widespread, especially among minorities and in rural areas and other parts of the state that have lost significant numbers of jobs.” The bill continues that, “a statewide coordinated effort is required to maximize the State’s resources to reduce and potentially eradicate poverty among citizens able and willing to work.”

Among the 15 members of the task force the measure is recommending be appointed are three members of the general public, one member recommended by the NC NAACP, and one member recommended by the NC Latino Coalition. Once convened, the bill states, “ The task force shall identify long- and short-range goals for eliminating poverty in North Carolina and Develop a coordinated, integrated, ongoing approach among State agencies, departments, and institutions to reduce poverty in the State by establishing and implementing poverty reduction targets.”

Rep. Hanes did not respond to a request for comment, but Rep. Terry did, saying, “Just read the results recently published on the status of poverty in Winston-Salem by the [Poverty] Thought Force. While many witnessed this evolving, others watched and provided pabulum.”

Rep. Terry was referring to 56-page final report last February of the 18-member Poverty Thought Force, a task force created by Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines in the fall of 2015 to examine all aspects of poverty in Winston-Salem, and report back with plausible community-based solutions.

When that final report was finally issued, the Thought Force recommended that the city designate a “poverty czar,” what Mayor Joines called “… someone who would be an individual who would live with this every day.” That person would be in charge of coordinating the efforts of the various government and nonprofit agencies addressing all levels.

“Evidence-based facts now prove permanent spirals of poverty,” Terry added. “There’s also a correlation between the two PICs – Poverty Industrial Complex and Prison Industrial Complex.”

Republican Forsyth representatives Donny Lambeth, Debra Conrad and Julia Howard did not respond to requests for comments for this story.