POVERTY – Social Services

Social service workers seeing more middle class clientele

A social service center in Phoenix is seeing a change in its clientele. People once considered high-income are now coming in to seek utility and rental assistance. Since the center only has a set amount of funds per month, the new clientele creates a challenge to stretch any available money. Cronkite News reporter Brittny Goodsell shows us two clients who are new to the center.

By Brittny Goodsell

PHOENIX – When the economy went down, business at social service agencies went up.

The number of people asking for assistance with things such as rent and utilities is so high that people are being turned away, said Jennifer Turk, center supervisor at Travis L. Williams Family Services Center in Phoenix.

To get seen by a social worker, clients battle through a first-come, first served process. Turk said the phone lines open at 8 a.m. each Monday. Receptionists take calls and make appointments for the available slots.

Calls come in by the thousands, Turk says. But there is only room for less than 250 appointments per week.

“We’re social workers at heart,” Turk said. “We have chosen this career because we want to help people. So the last thing a social worker wants to do is tell someone, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t help you.’”

The client base is also changing. Turk said she now sees people who had high-paying jobs and who face big mortgage payments. Sharon Martinez, a visitor who fits that description, said keeping a positive mindset is most important.

“To me this is a challenge,” Martinez said. “It’s an opportunity to get into something more interesting, to get to know myself better.”

Arizona is the 14th-worst state in the nation in its percentage of people below the poverty level, according to 2010 U.S. Census Bureau statistics. The national average is 13.8 percent; Arizona stands at 15.3 percent.

Click on the map above to see where Arizona measures in terms of poverty levels. Information taken from U.S. Census Bureau 2010.


Jennifer Turk, center supervisor at Travis L. Williams Family Services Center in Phoenix, said seeing kids in low-income situations is a hard part of her job because the kids don’t often understand what circumstances have caused their parents to have money one day but not the next.


Signs like this one at Phoenix Workforce Connection serve as a job board for clients.


This social services center in Phoenix provides rental and utility assistance to clients as well as help with financing, counseling and life skills. The center is open to Phoenix residents only.