After more than 20 years in operation, the Magnolia Helpline is closing shop, having helped hundreds of people with emergency money for such necessities as housing expenses, food, medicines, gasoline and transportation for disabled and senior citizens.
Greg Carnese, manager at Leroux Fine Apparel in the Village and a member of the Magnolia Helpline board, said that at the end of March the organization would no longer be taking donations.
Carnese explained that the poverty level in Seattle was low, and a check with Seattle's Population and Demographics Web site shows an estimated poverty level of 11 percent in 2004, with 64,068 people living under the poverty line out of a population of 572,600.
That's a little better than the 1999 United States average of 12.7 percent (35.9 million people). Magnolia, based on the last official census in 2000, had numbers even lower, with 489 people out of a population of 11,670-or 4 percent-living in poverty.
The numbers for King County suggest that the gentrification of areas like Magnolia and Madison Park (with poverty around 5.5 percent) may be driving the less fortunate out of the city to other areas in Puget Sound. The county data for 2004 shows that the median income fell 3 percent from the previous year, and that the poverty level rose from just over 7 percent to more than 10 percent.
Carnese pointed out that there are fewer low-income housing choices in Magnolia, with Section 8 housing being replaced by condominiums. The Low Income Housing Institute Web site shows 21 townhouse-style units available in Magnolia.
There are no numbers for the current poverty levels in Magnolia.
Carnese said that calls to the Helpline, which used to average around 1,000 a month, have fallen off to around 150, and that the cost of administering the Helpline threatens to exceed the amount of help given.
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