Census | Nearly 20 percent of Horry County residents living in poverty

Myrtle Beach resident Keith Brown is happy helping others, but despite his social security disability pay and some food stamps, he finds himself among the growing number of poor in Horry County and struggles to make ends meet.

Brown, 34, was at Helping Hand of Myrtle Beach Tuesday helping agency clients carry groceries before picking up his own bag.

“With the economy being the way it is, I don’t know,” he said shaking his head.

About one in five Horry County residents is now living in poverty, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Tuesday.

The degree of poverty in Horry County rose steadily between 2000 and 2010 and jumped nearly 4 percent in the last year, according to the Census. In 2009 about 15.8 percent of Horry County residents lived in poverty, which jumped to 19.5 percent in 2010, according to the Census.

The Census Bureau calculates the poverty rate estimates by combining survey data, population estimates and administrative records.

Like Brown, many of those who would be classified as poor, turn to local agencies for help.

Helping Hand of Myrtle Beach has already served more Horry County residents than it did all of last year, which was a record breaking year for the agency, which provides short-term rental assistance, transportation assistance, help paying utility bills and operates a food pantry, said Lisa Buie, a counselor at Helping Hand of Myrtle Beach.

“We’ve seen a lot more of the working poor,” she said. One major challenge is that sometimes once a person gets a job their food stamps are reduced and they are left struggling to feed themselves and their families, Buie said.

As a result there has been an increase in the number of requests for food, which for the last two months nearly depleted all the food in the food pantry, she said. There have been some additional donations for the holiday season, so there is enough food for now, but she is worried how long it will be before there isn’t much left, Buie said.

Helping Hand of Myrtle Beach is generally for short-term assistance but refers out area residents who may need other help, she said.

“We’re seeing more and more people that need something long term. It’s not because they’re not trying, they’re not finding anything,” Buie said, adding that the tourism focus of the economy makes it hard to find work especially at this time of year.

Rick Mason knows that well, he had some short-term jobs but they ended with the tourist season and he is struggling to find work, he said. Mason had a well-paying timeshare sales job, a nice home and expensive clothes until the economy collapsed and he found himself jobless. He said his money just ran out and he was facing a first night of homelessness on Tuesday.

“I literally went from filet mignon to food stamps,” Mason said.

Most of the increase in need for the services at Salvation Army of Horry County is a result of lost jobs or reduced hours, said Brenda Ryan, the director of social services at Salvation Army of Horry County.

The Salvation Army has seen a dramatic increase in need from area residents asking for food, clothes and help paying for utilities, she said. Requests to participate in the non-profit’s annual Angel Tree gift drive were high and had to be capped at 1,200 even though there was more need, Ryan said.

“A lot of first-timers are coming into the office, very humble, saying, ‘I need help. I’ve never had to ask for help before’,” she said.

It is sometimes easy to get stuck in a bubble and not think about what it’s like for families with similar desires to go without water for a week because they are making difficult choices about what bills to pay, Ryan said.

“It really is real. The problems are real. People are suffering. People are hurting,” she said.

Community Kitchen in Myrtle Beach, which serves breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday and lunches on Saturday, is serving more meals than ever, especially to people who are looking for work or work part-time and can’t make ends meet, said Community Kitchen co-director Nancy Cribb.

“We have a very, very mixed client base,” she said. “We certainly serve the chronic homeless in our area but we also see people who are just marginalized by the downturn in the economy.”

Those clients may live in an apartment or hotel room but can’t afford to pay rent, medication costs and buy food, so they eat at the Community Kitchen, she said.

The increase in Horry County residents is also reflected in the growing numbers that apply for some form of government assistance.

The total amounts of food stamp benefits Horry County residents got has increased about 57 percent in the past two years and about 11 percent in the past year, according to the S.C. Department of Social Services. An average of 24, 818 households a month received food from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which was formerly known as the food stamp program, between July 2010 and June 2011.

In Horry County Schools about 63 percent of all students in the school lunch program receive free or reduced-price lunches, according to an October report from the school district. The number is about even, down less than a percent from a similar report in March, according to the school district.

The number of students receiving free and reduced-price lunches spiked a couple years ago when the economy took a major downturn, but since then the numbers have held steady, said Laura Farmer, the district’s director of food services. A lot of families may not qualify for the program but are receiving other assistance, such as food stamps, she said.

Teal Britton, Horry County Schools spokesperson, said the district’s only reporting mechanism for gauging need is the free and reduced lunch program figures, which represent the combined total household income and how many live in the house.

Need is hard to quantify across the board because of the variety of situations, from people who won’t ask for help, to those in combined families who may be working but are considered homeless, living with others because they can’t pay rent, she said.

“It does not necessarily take into account children who may need a warm coat or who need new shoes, or family situations where the electricity been turned off,” Britton said. “Those are not always things the school itself helps with, but if a school is aware of a family in crisis, it would direct them to services in the community.”

Staff reporter Vicki Grooms contributed to this report.