By Clay Barbour, charlotte.com, March 21, 2009
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Waters, 40, is one of thousands of Chester County residents out of work. The county's unemployment rate has climbed to 19.6 percent.
That figure represents those receiving benefits. Experts say the true number is closer to 40 percent.
Last week, Mark Sanford became the first governor to turn down part of his state's share of federal economic stimulus money. For South Carolina, that meant losing about $700 million.
That money would have extended unemployment pay by another 13 weeks and, for the first time, given jobless benefits to part-time employees.
CHESTER, S.C. Every month Tammy Waters sits down at her kitchen table and writes out a list of bills on a piece of notebook paper.
Delinquent utilities: $1,050
Truck payment: $400
Groceries for two: $300
Gas: $160
Furniture payment: $190
Medical: $1,000
Waters then writes down what she has to cover them, $1,000 – the total of her monthly unemployment benefits.
“No matter how you add it up, there just isn't enough,” she says. “But I guess I'm lucky. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have my unemployment.”
Waters, 40, is one of thousands of Chester County residents out of work. The county's unemployment rate has climbed to 19.6 percent.
That figure represents those receiving benefits. Experts say the true number is closer to 40 percent.
Last week, Mark Sanford became the first governor to turn down part of his state's share of federal economic stimulus money. For South Carolina, that meant losing about $700 million.
That money would have extended unemployment pay by another 13 weeks and, for the first time, given jobless benefits to part-time employees.
State legislators have said they plan to override the governor, but it is still unclear if they have the authority.
Sanford made national news. But behind the headlines, 66 miles from the Statehouse, sits Chester County. Here, half the residents receive food stamps and the only thing scarcer than jobs is hope.
“There is just a general sense of helplessness,” says Willy Sherrod, a consultant with the county's Department of Social Services. “They can't find jobs and they can't afford to move. They feel trapped and scared, and they don't see things changing anytime soon.”
Benefits gone; need remains
It's 10 a.m. and the Chester County Employment Security Commission office is packed.
On one side, people wait to speak with counselors or use the agency's computers.
On the other, a crowd sits patiently to interview for jobs at a new Bojangles'.
The franchise owner has 50 spots to fill. By the end of the day he will meet more than 150 applicants.
S.C. residents are eligible for a maximum of 46 weeks of unemployment benefits, topping out at $351 a week.
Zachary Booker, Chester's assistant ESC director, said many people here have already exhausted their eligibility. Still, they come for help.
“That's probably the toughest thing we deal with,” he says. “How do you tell people that there is just no money left to give?”
The job market has gotten so bad that the county's three temporary employment agencies have closed.
DSS plans to fill that void by creating its own version of a temp agency.
“The hope is, word will get around and people who need yard work done or something built can call us and we can go to the list,” Sherrod says. “It's not much, but in this economy you do what you can.”
DSS is a common stop for the unemployed. The county has some 32,000 residents. About 16,000 receive food stamps.
“They are knocking our doors down, looking for help with food, medicine, baby diapers. We try to do as much as we can, but …” Sherrod says, leaving the sentence hanging in the air.
‘It's a ghost town now'
It wasn't always this way.
For years the county about 50 miles south of Charlotte enjoyed relative prosperity.
A person could work in one of the textile mills, like Springs, Pillowtex or J.P. Stevens, and make a decent living.
Today teachers at Chester High School are forced to advise their students to not only get a good education, but to leave town.
“We have to be realistic,” says guidance counselor Phyllis Williams. “There has to be something to come back to, and there just isn't.”
Census data show that in 2000 the county had 11,798 jobs and 34,000 people, with a median age of 36.
In 2008, the latest available numbers, the jobs had dropped to 9,703 and the population to 32,000. The median age rose to almost 40.
Ed Scates, 59, worked in the mills ever since he came back to Chester from Vietnam. He was a material manager at Springs for 21 years, until the company phased out his job. Then he went to work for Roush Industries, another plant in town.
That plant closed four years ago. Ever since Scates has been scratching out a living minding the Cox Auction Co., an auction house and antique store in downtown Chester.
“I'm just barely getting by” Scates says, in between bites of fried chicken and mashed potatoes at Gene's restaurant, a local landmark. “But what are you gonna do? Things ain't ever going to be like they were.”
Drive through one of Chester's neighborhoods and you'll pass several stately Southern homes; many are boarded up or in disrepair.
Downtown, the buildings are as clean and colorful as a box of crayons. But there is little activity.
Scates points to Gadsden Street, the city's main thoroughfare.
It's almost 1 p.m. and the street is nearly empty. The occasional car passes by. Every so often a person crosses the street, never looking up to see if it's safe.
“It's a ghost town now,” says Cathy Devett, a waitress standing nearby.
Without jobs or prospects
Even Gov. Sanford's most ardent supporters in Chester were stung by his rejection of the stimulus money.
“I guess he has his reasons,” says Johnny Fleming. “But we sure as hell could have used that money around here.”
Fleming, 42, worked for Springs for 12 years. He was laid off two years ago and ever since has been “scheming and scamming and doing what I can just to make a living.”
He used up his unemployment more than a year back. Since then Fleming and his wife, Brenda, have run a consignment store in downtown Chester, along with three other former mill workers.
The couple lives in a trailer left to him by his parents. Otherwise, Fleming says, they could be homeless.
“My last year at Springs, with overtime, I made $64,000,” he says. “These days I am robbing Peter to pay Paul. I am hustling, but that is all I can do.”
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., says he has heard such stories many times. He said the governor is right to worry about the long-term effects of changing the state's rules regarding unemployment, but Graham said he is also worried about the people without jobs or prospects.
“It is tough all across the state,” he says. “You have a lot of people getting up early and staying up late, and they can't find work.”
Officials in Chester have tried to attract new development. In October the Institute for Business and Home Safety announced it would open a facility here, hiring about 18 people. The company breaks ground next month and is expected to be up and running in a year.
Southeastern Petroleum is scheduled to open a processing plant in six months that should employ 10.
For now, the economy has cost the county anything bigger. The new JRS Custom Fabrication plant was supposed to mean 170 jobs. So far the company has hired five and, according to Karlisa Parker, the county economic development director, the project is on hold.
Even worse, Poly-America, a plastics company, had announced plans for a center that could mean 400 new jobs, but that project is also on hold, Parker says.
“We are starting to have people feeling us out again,” she says. “But even at that, they tell us it will take some time.”
Stress takes its toll
Tammy Waters has always taken pride in being independent. She's held a job since she was 15, managed to put two kids through college and attended night school to get her accounting degree.
Being out of work and broke has been hard
For seven years she worked as a customer-service representative in Charlotte, with a company that handled photos for Wal-Mart.
During that time she watched her oldest daughter graduate from USC Spartanburg, her youngest daughter start college there and her son, J.T., grow into a young man.
In November 2007, her company went bankrupt. Sears bought it out, and she lost her job.
Since then, Waters has watched her savings dry up and fallen behind on her bills.
Because she worked in Charlotte, she receives unemployment from North Carolina. The state recently accepted its stimulus money, which has extended maximum unemployment benefits to 72 weeks. But Waters knows it's only a matter of time before that runs out.
“I have applied for hundreds of jobs, online and in person,” she says. “Something has to change soon. It just has to.”
Waters now lives on a tight budget. No Internet. No cable. No home phone. She receives food stamps and clips coupons. If her 15-year-old son wants to see a movie, she has to save up for it.
The stress from the past year has taken its toll.
Last month Waters had to go to the doctor for what seemed like heart problems. The bill from the visit topped $800.
“I am barely holding on and trying to keep a positive face,” Waters says. “I don't want J.T. to see what I am going through. But Lord, I don't know how much more of this I can take.”
cbarbour@charlotteobserver.com
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/597/story/612647.html
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