Published: June 19, 2008 12:00 am            

Poverty as real as the pawn shop

A single mother tries to hold down her job and feed her children, but she worries she'll lose the house.

A father desperately tries to provide for his family, but becomes so frustrated he buys a gun and holds up the local Quick Cash.

These were just a few of the scenarios played out at a poverty simulation Thursday evening. The event was put on by the Norman Justice Alliance, a group of Normanites from many social service and religious organizations.

The group hosted the poverty simulation so Norman residents would be bolstered into action, to realize that poverty is real.

"Families are struggling every day to make ends meet," said Linda Terrell, executive director of the Center for Children and Families, a social services agency in Norman. As an illustration, she said nearly 40 percent of Norman children come from families who are struggling enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches at school.

About 100 people came to the poverty simulation at McFarlin Memorial United Methodist Church to experience for a night what it feels like to be in poverty. Each participant was given a role they acted out for an hour. The hour was broken up into 15-minute "weeks," in which the toddlers had to go to day care, the kids to school and the parents to work.

Stations set up around the room acted as businesses and social services, such as the day care, Super Mart, Quick Cash, bank, mortgage company and DHS.

Police officers walked around and threw teenagers in jail for selling drugs or placed unsupervised toddlers in custody.

Kathy King played the part of a single mother in a middle-class neighborhood. She had a job, but struggled to pay her bills, which were due nearly every week to rude utilities clerks.

"I was in panic mode the whole time," she said. And in that frame of mind, she did things she never would have done otherwise. She said she got ripped off by a payday loan company because she didn't know there was another option and she needed cash right away.

Nearly everyone participating in the simulation afterward expressed the frustration and anxiety they felt.

"Constant mess" is how Tom Schott described it.

"I spent the week in constant anxiety," he said.

He became so desperate that by the end of the hour he was doing something he never imagined -- he bought a gun from the pawn shop and held up the clerks at the Quick Cash.

"I finally got to the end of it and was just like, the easiest thing to do is just steal," said Schott, a deacon at St. Thomas More Catholic Church.

He said his heist also was motivated by the bad treatment he'd gotten from the Quick Cash clerks the entire hour.

"They treat you like dirt, most of them," he said. "They never paid out the full worth of the stereo or microwave you were hawking. They gave outrageous interest rates on payday loans and charged extra if you ran out of transportation cards to get to them."

David Wilson, a counselor at Jackson Elementary School, said the simulation gave him a greater level of understanding for people in poverty.

"We judge people for what appear to be really bizarre decisions," he said. But in the simulation he saw the desperation that led to those decisions.

"It makes me far more understanding, far more accepting," Wilson said.

He said as he played the part of a 13-year-old he began to understand why teenagers act out. He said he felt a sense of empowerment as he sold drugs to make money when his parents couldn't provide.

After the simulation, the participants were gathered into small groups to discuss what they learned. Some problems in Norman were identified.

Edwin Kessler said the simulation showed how important transportation is to those in poverty. Norman should focus on making CART more accessible and convenient for those in need.

"Maybe this will stimulate people to do something," Kessler said of the event Thursday.

Doug Forsyth said the paperwork needed at each station in the simulation was infuriating. The social service organizations need to network their systems so that those in need don't have to sit through mountains of paperwork to get help, he said.

King said the simulation made her realize that those in need could be right where she lives.

"They really could be living next door," she said.

Schott said this simulation changed his view of those in need.

"This was great for me," he said. "I mean, I had no idea it was a struggle just every day of life."

Julianna Parker 366-3541 jparker@normantranscript.com

        

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