The Gap

Natasha Vos

There have been a lot of conversations this year about the financial model that AmeriCorps VISTA uses to pay its members. Currently, the stipend for the year is set at 105% of the poverty line of the county that the member is serving in. For me, that means I can expect to receive around $11,400 for the year, or $442 every two weeks. The logic behind this is that we can have (in at least a small way) a shared experience with those living in the communities we serve. We intensively plan out budgets, enroll in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), seek out public transportation, and look for cheap housing. If anything, my experience has informed me that those living in poverty are actually the best at using financial resources, because they have so little to work with in many cases. I recognize the limitations of this model in its inability to account for factors such as family size and support, transportation, personal, physical and emotional health, education, etc. which is why I say a shared experience, 'in at least a small way'. Many AmeriCorps members elect to go through application processes for benefit programs such as SNAP, and recently the Healthcare Marketplace.

This year I turned 26. The only birthday milestone that you do not look forward to because you officially get the boot from your parents’ health care plan. As an AmeriCorps member in North Carolina, I fall in this health care limbo referred to as “the gap.” Try to follow me here because it gets a little complicated. I exist in an income level with my stipend that is too low to qualify for monthly federal tax credits to help me pay for the most basic health care plan. However, because North Carolina as a state did not expand Medicaid, this same income level (105% of the poverty line in Forsyth County), was too high to qualify me for Medicaid. The consolation prize? An exemption that would prevent me from being penalized on my taxes for not having health care.

Fortunately, being a second term AmeriCorps member I had earned my educational award of $5645 to be used towards my existing student loans. Because the education award is a taxable source of income, using it entirely this year, bumps me up into the next income bracket, qualifying me for tax credits and an affordable health care plan. Fantastic right? Here’s the drawback: the education award is a taxable source of income that taxes have not been taken out of, so I will end up owing several hundred dollars for using it all this year in addition to state taxes I will owe, because they are not taken out of our weekly paychecks. Many AmeriCorps members choose to use their education awards slowly over time to pay a minimum in taxes on them. I had to essentially do a cost benefit analysis. Not having health care was not an option. Purchasing my own plan would have cost me $200 per month, but using my education award would result in $300-400 in taxes once. Easy choice, but I’m still forking over a couple hundred dollars, which for someone making $11,400 a year, is challenging.

AmeriCorps offers its members a $6600 allowance per year to be used on approved health care costs, but you have to a have plan first. This is not a critique of AmeriCorps or its policies. This is using myself as a personal example to demonstrate challenges that low income individuals face to providing basic care for themselves and their families. I had the luxury of choosing to use my education award to ensure that I make enough to qualify for tax credits and an affordable health care plan. There are millions of families and individuals that do not have this luxury. The Affordable Care Act has provided healthcare to millions in this country for the first time. It has withstood many challenges to its constitutionality, and that should be (and has been) celebrated. But cracks have appeared that allowed states to choose whether to expand Medicaid and in over half of the states, that choice was no. However you feel about state’s rights, the fact is that because of North Carolina’s decision not to expand Medicaid millions of individuals and families still do not have health care. Progress is never content and we need to continue to find these gaps and close them.

VISTAs Raise Awareness About Hunger and Homelessness

Food and shelter are two of the basic necessities every person needs to build a stable life. But unfortunately for millions of Americans, these two basic needs are not met. Bringing focus to these issues is the National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week (HHAW). Traditionally held the week before Thanksgiving, HHAW gives communities the opportunity to reflect and take action on these issues.

At NC Campus Compact, our VISTA members utilize HHAW to educate their campus communities and provide students with opportunities to engage in their communities.

VISTA Annah Wells at Western Carolina University hosted a week of events in Cullowhee. The opening event, "Weigh the Waste," challenged students to think about food waste by measuring and visualizing over 225 of food thrown away at the dining hall during lunch. Annah also led three groups of students volunteer at the  Community Table and where volunteers unloaded trucks from larger food pantries with donations and served a hot meal to neighbors in need.  At the Hunger Banquet, students learned the realities of global poverty and world food distribution.  The week wrapped up with a Hunger Games Dodgeball event where students competed against other "tributes" in a fun game while learning about social injustice and unequal access to resources. Throughout the week students also participated in a "Live Below the Line Challenge" to see if students can live off of $1.25 a day for a week, the same budget the average American receiving food stamps has to spend on food.

UNCG students volunteer at BackPack Beginnings for HHAW.

At the University of North Carolina- Greensboro VISTA Allison Plitman planned seven events, one for every day of HHAW. The variety of programming offered students the opportunity to volunteer with servGSO at BackPack Beginnings and the Pathway Center, a film screening and panelist discussion, an Empty Bowls event, a Stop Hunger Now packing event, and Soup for Hoops. At Soup for Hoops, a canned food drive, UNCG student groups donated hundreds of cans of food at the men's Basketbath. All of the donations went to UNCG's on-campus food pantry, the Spartan Open Pantry.

“College is a great time to get engaged with the community,” said Allison. “It’s so fulfilling to make a difference, especially a tangible difference like packaging food or serving a meal.”

25 Meredith students participated in the HHAW bingo event.

At Meredith College second-year member Meghan Engstran held an event called "A Night of Chance: Bingo Under the Stars." The event caught the attention of the student population by offering what appeared to be an ordinary night of Bingo. But this game of bingo had a twist- winning a round of bingo does not grantee a satisfying prize. Each aspect of the event simulated situations a person dealing with homelessness or hunger might go through. Meghan states "The purpose of tweaking the bingo cards was to show that not everyone starts with the same and advantages in life."