© 2024 Ideastream Public Media

1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
(216) 916-6100 | (877) 399-3307

WKSU is a public media service licensed to Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
WKSU, our public radio partners in Ohio and across the region and NPR are all continuing to work on stories on the latest developments with the coronavirus and COVID-19 so that we can keep you informed.

New Poverty Report Doesn't Show Full Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic

Philip Cole, Ex. Dir, Ohio Assn of Community Action Agencies
Jo Ingles
/
Statehouse News Bureau
Philip Cole, Ex. Dir, Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies

Local community agencies that serve Ohio’s poor say they’ve been inundated with requests for help with mortgages, rent, and utility assistance during the pandemic. But the full extent of the problem is not yet known.

Phillip Cole of the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies said in a normal year, the agency provides about $600 million dollars in programming. But he said this year, it’s handling much more.

“Some of the agencies have told me that their requests for assistance are up between 400-500%," Cole said.

Cole said the impact of COVID-19 is not showing up in all of the data yet. But he said he’s sure future numbers will reflect some of the pandemic-related struggles Ohioans are facing.

Copyright 2021 The Statehouse News Bureau. To see more, visit The Statehouse News Bureau.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.