MERCER COUNTY

Mercer County residents want to earn paychecks that allow them to meet basic needs but don’t think employers need to ensure affordable housing, according to results from a recent meeting and survey on poverty.

Mercer County Community Action Agency participated in a nationwide town hall meeting called "Dialogue on Poverty 2000" in May.

Results from that meeting were recently released by the National Association of Community Ac-tion Agencies.

Hundreds of local affiliates conducted meetings intended to survey a cross-section of communities for their opinions on public policy issues affecting the poor.

About 40 Mercer County residents, elected officials, business leaders and social agency members attended the Sharon event.

Nearly 70 local residents participated in the survey of opinions about a national policy on poverty, improving jobs and income, meeting basic needs, and providing decent, safe and affordable housing.

Of the 68 Mercer County residents that participated two-thirds were women and one-quarter were black. Gary Cervone, MCCAA chief administrative officer, said the agency didn’t target minorities when selecting participants.

African Americans make up about 4 percent of Mercer County’s population according to the 1990 Census.

"That’s just who happened to show up," said Cervone, also adding that the county female popula-tion is higher than the male.

Household incomes of participants ranged from $10,000 to more than $90,000 a year.

Cervone said the national results will be presented to Congress to influence public policy deci-sions.

Local results will be analyzed and used to plan advocacy programs such as campaigns for wages high enough to support families, Cervone said.

While Mercer County seemed to follow national trends, the county does has a lower percentage favoring some survey categories than the national average.

That may have been due to the right-wing mentality of many Mercer County residents and not local demographics, Cervone said.

"We think it’s just opinion and perhaps Mercer County is more conservative," he said.

For example, 72.7 percent of local residents surveyed consider it important that full-time workers earn a living wage.

However, the national average in support of a living wage was 92.6 percent.

A living wage is earnings sufficient to allow employees to meet such basic needs as housing, transportation and child care in the area they live, Cervone said.

"Every community is different," Cervone said. "A living wage may be significantly higher than minimum wage."

Mercer County residents mostly echoed the national average regarding meeting basic needs.

Nationally and locally, more than 90 percent of citizens want families to receive all eligible public program benefits and every citizen to be able to purchase health insurance. More than 90 percent want more educational programs and the federal government to fully fund child-care and youth-development programs.

The biggest difference between the local and national averages had to do with housing programs.

While the national average shows 73.8 percent of citizens believe employers should provide down payment assistance and mortgage payment guarantees for low-income homebuyers, only 47.1 per-cent of Mercer County residents surveyed are in favor of such "employer-assisted housing" pro-grams.

"We need to look at this further," Cervone said. "Apparently the opinion is that in this county that’s not something employers should be involved in."