U.S. Census estimates from 2007 are painting a grim picture for Cherokee County – especially for those residents who were already living on the margins anyway.

In the latest data available, statistics show nearly 32 percent of the county is living in poverty. Breaking the data down into subcategories also shows just how bad the economic crisis has hit Cherokee County in a matter of years: 31 percent of families with children under 18 are living in poverty, as are nearly 51 percent of single-mother households with children under age 18. Nearly 70 percent of households where a single mother is raising children under age 5 are below the poverty level.

As data from 2000 indicate, it’s a huge jump in a matter of years. Of all age groups at that time, between 18.6 and 19.2 percent lived in poverty, but estimates from 2005 showed that number at 21.2 percent.

Maps from the U.S. Census Bureau show Cherokee County as one of the most impoverished areas in Oklahoma. Outside the state, the closest regions experiencing higher amounts of poverty are counties along the southern end of the Mississippi River and the southwest counties of Texas.

“The new number is alarming, when all of a sudden it is 31.8 percent,” said Tom Lewis, CEO and founder of the Project O Si Yo based in Tahlequah. “The number represented here in poverty, just in Cherokee County, accounts for 4,000-7,000 additional mouths to feed monthly at approximately $140 per mouth.”

Lewis can’t recall seeing such a drastic change in this area in years. He recounts how Pottawatomi County was “hit this hard” in the late ‘20s and early ‘30s, making that county one of the first geographic areas to receive federal aid during the Depression era.

“In the past 40 years, I believe the only known geographical areas of the country was called the Rust Belt, where major steel production crashed, leaving entire communities and geographical sections of states in this type of condition. In all of these cases, the federal government was called upon to assist,” he said.

Lewis and others predict the global financial crisis could make aid difficult and short-term, resulting in long periods of time where no funding will be available. Some, like Lewis, even believe such strains could have a ripple effect that could cause a fiscal collapse of the state’s employment tax base and its monetary funds.

“This would include the drying up of the Oklahoma ‘Rainy Day’ fund; unemployment and underemployment causing a surge in needed services [like] food stamps and food banks, unemployment benefits, programs and retraining, any number of DHS or mental health support, etc.; with the loss of the funds these individuals pay into the state coffers,” he said.

Last month, O Si Yo had provided 7,000 nights of accommodations, meals, clean sheets and showers; over 4,000 hours of volunteer services; and over $250,000 in available services that had bloomed from a seed grant of only $24,000. The Project served nearly 200 homeless people in the county in its first 18 months.

Lewis previously announced that those involved with his project were working on a fundraiser to collect $23,000, which would help create a soup kitchen where up to 500 people could be served every day.

Norma Merriman, group leader of Human Services at the Cherokee Nation, says the tribe has seen a slow-but-steady increase in applications for many of its programs.

“We expect as unemployment numbers increase that the number of applications will increase,” said Merriman.

Last month, officials with a number of other area agencies, including shelters and churches, said requests for help had skyrocketed over the past few months, further solidifying the idea that many locals – some of whom have never had to request help before – are having harder times than perhaps ever in their lifetimes.