Poverty fails to slow interest in city

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Kim Gonda, vice president of marketing and communication for the Regional Chamber

By SHELBY SCHROEDER

Poverty in Youngstown is hurting people but not business interest.

YOUNGSTOWN — Businesses are looking to Youngstown to relocate, despite the city boasting one of the nation’s highest poverty rates.

Kim Gonda, vice president of marketing and communication for the Regional Chamber, said Census Bureau numbers indicating a 32.6 percent poverty rate in Youngstown come at a time when the chamber is dealing with many Valley-bound businesses.

The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, released Tuesday, rated Cleveland as the midsized city with the second-highest poverty level in the nation last year. Although Youngstown is not in the same size category, it has a higher poverty rate than Cleveland — and the highest among cities of Youngstown’s size.

But Gonda said interest in the city is at a new high for recent years.

“We are out there trying to attract new businesses,” she said of the chamber. “Right now we’ve never been as busy with projects.”

Gonda said Youngstown remains an ideal location for companies despite the poverty statistic.

But for food banks across the region, the numbers reported by the Census Bureau are less a statistic than an everyday reality.

Rebecca Martinez, of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Mahoning Valley, said area charities have seen a 38 percent increase in need from last year.

As the director of resource development for the local chapter of America’s Second Harvest, Martinez organizes food solicitation for some of the 155 hunger relief organizations in the tri-county region. She said she sees no visible sign of a decrease in the Valley’s poverty rate anytime soon.

“There’s nothing on the horizon that says these numbers will go down,” said Martinez, who said food banks are receiving requests for food by people who were once regular donors.

She said the number of people seeking donations is expected to increase dramatically over the next several months because of rising heating costs.

“The working class will be in even further crisis,” she said.

Gonda is optimistic the numbers will not dissuade outside interest in the region.

“The numbers are what they are,” said Gonda. “We know we have a lot of challenges in front of us.”

Mayor Jay Williams could not be reached to comment on the Census Bureau’s numbers.