POCKET OF POVERTY

	October 14 ,1999
	Spencer Michels profiles a town that's down on its luck.

SPENCER MICHELS: The residents of Madera, California, in the hot, agricultural Central Valley, are in a frustrating struggle to catch up with the rest of the economy. While the national unemployment rate hovers near 4 percent, this town of 36,000 has been battered economically. Joblessness reaches 19 percent in the winter. And 33 percent of the population live below the poverty line. JIM TAUBERT: Our self-esteem is a little low right now. SPENCER MICHELS: Jim Jaubert heads Madera's redevelopment agency. He is perplexed by the economic forces that have laid his city and many others low, while the rest of the country enjoys unprecedented boom times. JIM TAUBERT: We've got a per capita income that has actually declined during this period of national and state economic growth. SPENCER MICHELS: The Department of Housing and Urban Development recently identified Madera and dozens of other cities in 23 states as economically distressed. The report said these places left behind in the new economy are likely to face long-term economic troubles if they are not able to address core problems now. Poverty in towns like this is not as obvious as in Appalachia or the inner city. In fact, in Madera, some neighborhoods have homes selling for as much as $160,000 or more. Similar homes would cost two or three times more in San Francisco. Newcomers, seeking employment in Madera or commuting to nearby Fresno, have come here seeking a lower cost of living. But while towns like Madera may not look poor, the telltale signs are just beneath the surface. The percentage of renters in Madera is very high. At several sites throughout the town, free food is distributed to the needy every week, and there's always plenty of takers. In Madera's schools, 80 percent of the students are on free or subsidized lunches. Free Head Start programs for the children of migrant farm workers are operating at capacity. The people of Madera thought they were making progress in solving their problem. Two new prisons nearby meant thousands of jobs. And using civic efforts and tax incentives, the town attracted new industry. But mysteriously, the level of poverty remained. JIM TAUBERT: It doesn't make sense; but yet, I mean, we know those statistics are accurate. We've had a tremendous amount of industrial activity. In the last 18 months alone, we've had over...over 600,000 square feet of new manufacturing construction, creating three to five hundred jobs ultimately at build-out. JAMES GLYNN: Three hundred jobs is significant, but it doesn't nearly cut into the total problem that we have. SPENCER MICHELS: Sociologist James Glynn, who lives in Madera and writes about its economic problems, explains that Madera is hobbled by its farm base. JAMES GLYNN: Nationwide, less than 2 percent of the population is involved with farming. Here in the Fresno/Madera area, it's 20 percent. These are not areas that pay well, they are not areas of growth, not the kind of things that would raise a standard of living or raise the per capita income of a family. SPENCER MICHELS: Part of that problem is that the population is growing more rapidly than the job base. Many of the new residents are recent immigrants, mostly from Mexico, attracted by family already here and the expectation of farm jobs. Farm wages are low, and the work is seasonal, leaving some workers without jobs much of the year. And even the seasonal work is less available than it used to be. Also, these unskilled workers cannot meet the demands of today's farming technology. On Rick Cosyns' 3,000-acre farm, just outside Madera, the almonds are harvested mechanically. One man operates a shaker, reducing the number of workers. And mechanical grape harvesters have replaced dozens of humans. Cosyns also says that for the jobs that are available, many potential workers don't get hired because they lack skills that farm jobs increasingly require. RICK COSYNS, Farmer: Agriculture can no longer be asked to employ the unskilled. As you can see by this equipment we have, it takes some skills and coordination to run this, and now there's also mechanical pruners that are being used widely in the industry, and I think more so that we have an unskilled labor force that makes up the large portion of the employment that's there. SPENCER MICHELS: Justino Lopez does the hiring for Cosyns' farms. JUSTINO LOPEZ: We have openings here almost all the time, because we farm thousands ofacres. There's people there, but they're not the qualified people, the people that come to better themselves. SPENCER MICHELS: Those unable to get farm work are also unable to work in any new industries that are attracted. More than a year ago, UpRight opened this factory in Madera's industrial park to manufacture aerial work platforms. It employs 200 workers, many of them highly skilled. Soon it will expand and add another 300 employees. But upright's vice president, Grant Melocik, has concerns about filling those jobs. GRANT MELOCIK, Manager, UpRight, Inc.: To us, the unemployment problem in this area is really a skills problem, not an unemployment problem. Certainly, the unemployment rate indicates that there are many people out there in need of jobs. When we interview them, they lack the skills, especially for critical areas like welding or machinists or what we would call end-of-the-line technicians. SPENCER MICHELS: UpRight is addressing the problem itself. It is teaching 18 new workers and some entry-level job holders how to weld. In another classroom, newcomers are taught the basics of electronics. Most of these students have no college background. Head Start coordinator Carmen Garcia, who has lived in Madera most of her life, thinks the town's youth must be somehow inspired to move themselves up in the world. CARMEN GARCIA: All these families, you know, their income is way below the federal guidelines. That's why they qualify. I don't consider myself low income. I'm one of the middle class, most of my family. So I think if you're motivated enough, you can go from a lower class to a middle and upper class, if you're motivated to continue on with your education. SPENCER MICHELS: Getting an education has not been easy in Madera. Until three years ago, there were few places to take classes past high school. Now a community college has set up a center near town, and is building a new campus, in an attempt to provide training. Sociologist Glynn, who teaches there, thinks the college may solve another problem for Madera: The lack of professional role models. JAMES GLYNN: We're talking about, you know, accountants, engineers, lawyers, physicians, that sort of thing. One of the problems with some of the companies that have come into town, that have brought some jobs here, is that the management of those companies don't live in Madera, so that that element of the professional class is not here in the city to be observed by the people and to be participating in the community as a whole. SPENCER MICHELS: Glynn says without professionals, the people in Madera lack a vision of better jobs. He realizes that Madera is caught in a Catch 22. The town's poor economy and image are keeping the professional and entrepreneurial class away, just the people it needs to improve itself. While the federal government has identified Madera and other cities as poor, city officials say Madera can't look to the federal government for help through tax incentives for businesses and other aid programs. That's the opinion of Bob Brown, the town's assistant city manager. BOB BROWN: Most of the federal programs have... the ones that they're talking about here, have so many strings, so many guidelines, that... and so many auditing requirements and monitoring requirements and reporting requirements, that that small agencies like Madera, we don't have the staff, we don't have the expertise to be able to not only apply for the funds, but if we're successful in competing for them, getting those funds to apply them in our communities. SPENCER MICHELS: In the meantime, Brown and others say they'll continue to wage a kind of private war on poverty despite the frustration over how difficult it is to bridge the gap between the booming economy and places like Madera that have been left behind.