Poverty simulation allows Yumans to experience hardship

With $1,324 in income and $1,875 in expenses, it's a more than $500 difference — that can make it difficult to keep a family of five afloat.

That's just what about 100 Yumans experienced Thursday with a poverty simulation sponsored by several local and state agencies.

The Department of Economic Security, the Western Arizona Council of Governments (WACOG), the Yuma Community Food Bank, the City of Yuma, Crossroads Mission and Cenpatico Behavioral Health of Arizona all helped sponsor the event.

After signing in, each participant was given a “family,” including a list of monthly expenses and a profile.

For some, there was only one person in the family working — and for others, they started out the exercise homeless.

In the course of an hour, broken into 15 minute increments to signify one week each, the participants had to: go to work, school, pay bills on time, buy groceries and other necessities in life — all that and find time to apply for services such as food stamps and unemployment.

But this isn't a simulation for almost one in four Yuma County residents: 21.5 percent of the population lives in poverty, nine percent more than the national average. Arizona comes in at 14.7 percent.

“Ladies and gentlemen, poverty is not a game,” said Alma Clark, with WACOG.

The statistics and situations used in the simulation are real, she said.

And the goal is to “motivate (people) to become involved in activities to help eliminate poverty in this country,” she said.

The sound of a whistle signaled the start of each 15-minute increment started.

Participants dashed from one station to another — that's after a flurry of activity to figure out who would care for children if they weren't in school and how the various family members would get from one place to another. That's because to go anywhere, a person had to have a transportation pass — and that cost $1.

Norma Ames was part of a family with one parent who had recently been laid off, leaving them with only one income, three children and the issues that come along as a result. One of Ames' “children” ended up in juvenile hall.

“We didn't have enough time to pay our bills,” she said.

In addition, the children got sick a lot, she said — and that caused more problems and cost more money.

Jerry Garcia said he learned several things after going through the simulation.

“How tough it was, how tough it is to support a family,” said Garcia, who played the role of a mother of three with a recently laid-off husband.

Stephanie A. Wilken can be reached at swilken@yumasun.com or 539-6857.