Between raising her four children in Pittsburgh's North Side and working full time, Bridgette Johnson knows the challenges of being a single mother.
Ms. Johnson works 40 hours a week at a fast-food restaurant and cares for her children, ages 15, 12, 7 and 5. And she does it all without owning a car, which means taking the bus or a ride-sharing service to work and appointments.
“I'm ... pretty much on my own, trying to figure stuff out with kids,” Ms. Johnson said recently in an interview at her home in the city's Observatory Hill neighborhood.
Single moms like Ms. Johnson, their strengths and the challenges they face, are the focus of a new report, released Monday by The Pittsburgh Foundation.
During the Great Recession that began in 2007, poverty grew among single female-headed households in Allegheny County. Their incomes have not risen as the economy recovered, notes the report, “A Qualitative Study of Single Mothers in Allegheny County: A 100 Percent Pittsburgh Project.”
In Allegheny County, 28 percent of households are headed by a single mother, but they account for 72 percent of all families with children in poverty, according to census data cited in the report.
“Single mothers are a significant share of residents in the Pittsburgh region who have been left behind,” the report states.
The foundation chose to study the issue in depth because its research showed this demographic — along with youth ages 12 to 24 — is “most directly and devastatingly affected by poverty.” As part of its research, the foundation spoke with dozens of single mothers.
“Our staff recognizes that the people most affected by these issues also are the experts who should be involved in crafting the solutions,” Jeanne Pearlman, senior vice president for program and policy, said in a statement. “Single mothers must be at the center of efforts to change the systems that so directly impact every aspect of their lives.”
The study highlights structural barriers these mothers and their children face to exiting poverty, such as:
• The low and declining value of cash assistance benefits, at $403 per month, an amount unchanged in Pennsylvania since 1990.
• High housing costs and affordable housing often being located in areas of concentrated poverty.
• The high costs of child care and lack of funding for subsidized child care programs.
• An inadequate public transportation system for taking children to day care, getting to work, purchasing groceries, and getting to appointments.
• Barriers, like the cost of tuition, to earning more money through more training or skills.
Being a single mother is “very challenging,” Ms. Johnson said.
She said she has found support through programs and services at the nonprofit Providence Connections, a North Side center that works to strengthen families.
The challenges described in the study are also familiar to mother Janetta Harrison.
To take her daughter to see the dentist or pediatrician, it's two bus rides from their home in Fineview to Lawrenceville, then another two buses home.
“It's hard to raise [someone] on your own,” Ms. Harrison said. “You've got to be strong for them. You take one step at a time.” The resilience of such mothers, despite the barriers they face, is also a theme of the report.
The study recommends:
• Improving services by expanded operating hours,and co-locating services together, plus expanding child care hours and transportation access.
• Supporting strategies that help women build skills and income, such as financial management, providing more access to home ownership and living wage jobs.
• Direct cash assistance to families with children to bring their incomes above the poverty level.
• Supporting programs that give emotional support such as emergency child care and respite care, and supporting informal gatherings with other single moms.
• Eliminating stigma by service providers and staff in programs that serve single moms.
• Eliminating stigma by making public assistance benefit cards look more like debit cards, and educating landlords about the housing choice voucher program, commonly called Section 8, to encourage acceptance of it.
• Providing opportunities for advocacy.
Said Ms. Johnson, “There's a lot of things I want to do, but it's like, when you become a mom, you give up what you want to take care of your children. Not having support, it makes it even harder.”
Michelle McMurray, the foundation's senior program officer for health and human services, led the research effort. The full report is available online.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today launched online a special report on the effects of concentrated poverty on children and families, including a look at the ramifications in seven communities, and an exploration of one such community, Rankin.
Kate Giammarise: kgiammarise@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3909.
First Published: January 14, 2019, 5:36 p.m.
