Two Cape Cods: Hidden Poverty on the Cape and Islands - Part 5
From: WCAI / WNAN
Series: Two Cape Cods: Hidden Poverty on the Cape and Islands
Length: 05:23
Each story is set in one of the fifteen towns on Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
Part 5: Sea Babies in Wellfleet
Struggling families must choose between spending $300 a week on childcare and forgoing a paycheck to stay home.
Also in the Two Cape Cods: Hidden Poverty on the Cape and Islands series
Two Cape Cods: Hidden Poverty on the Cape and Islands - Part 11
(05:00)
From: WCAI / WNAN
Meals on Wheels on the Vineyard: Much of the world knows Martha's Vineyard as a rich person's playground, but many locals are struggling to find adequate food and shelter.
Two Cape Cods: Hidden Poverty on the Cape and Islands - Part 10
(04:04)
From: WCAI / WNAN
Stressed Out in Eastham: According to a survey conducted by Barnstable County last year, 80% of the most needy households on the Cape wrestle with stress and anxiety.
Two Cape Cods: Hidden Poverty on the Cape and Islands - Part 9
(05:03)
From: WCAI / WNAN
The Winter Rental Shuffle in Sandwich: With off-season rental-housing prices skyrocketing, where are the working poor expected to look for shelter?
Two Cape Cods: Hidden Poverty on the Cape and Islands - Part 8
(04:52)
From: WCAI / WNAN
Homeless in Hyannis Part 2: Shelters housed more than 500 homeless people last year. But untold others live on friends' couches, in motel rooms, and in tents in the woods.
Two Cape Cods: Hidden Poverty on the Cape and Islands - Part 7
(05:05)
From: WCAI / WNAN
Homeless in Hyannis Part 1: Shelters housed more than 500 homeless people last year. But untold others live on friends' couches, in motel rooms, and in tents in the woods
Two Cape Cods: Hidden Poverty on the Cape and Islands - Part 6
(04:35)
From: WCAI / WNAN
Free and reduced lunch program statistics in Dennis indicate that there may be no accurate way to measure poverty.
Two Cape Cods: Hidden Poverty on the Cape and Islands - Part 12
(05:09)
From: WCAI / WNAN
Elderly Poor in Harwich: The ever-rising costs of living means that for a growing number of seniors, retirement has not been the life of leisure they may have expected.
Two Cape Cods: Hidden Poverty on the Cape and Islands - Part 13
(05:07)
From: WCAI / WNAN
Wampanoag in Mashpee: Of the 350 Wampanoag living in Mashpee today, 90% live from paycheck to paycheck, undeniably poor.
Two Cape Cods: Hidden Poverty on the Cape and Islands - Part 14
(04:52)
From: WCAI / WNAN
Youth Flight in Falmouth: If the next generation of teachers, nurses, and firefighters can't make the Cape their home, then who will serve and take care of the people who can?
Two Cape Cods: Hidden Poverty on the Cape and Islands - Part 15
(04:59)
From: WCAI / WNAN
Empty Nets in Provincetown: Cape Cod, a land named for its bounty of fish, doesn't have many commercial fishermen left.
Related Pieces
Piece Description
Each story is set in one of the fifteen towns on Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. Part 5: Sea Babies in Wellfleet Struggling families must choose between spending $300 a week on childcare and forgoing a paycheck to stay home.
Transcript
The lack of affordable, licensed childcare is a major dilemma for parents and businesses on the Cape and Islands. In many cases, parents are forced to decide between paying more than $300 a week for care, using unlicensed care, or simply staying home and losing income they may have received from a job.
When she was younger, 38-year-old Monica Keith Hammity admits she had a stereotype in her mind about who the people that ended up on public assistance.
Monica Keith Hammity: "A lot of times you think of it as someone who maybe has a problem with alcohol or drugs. And I would read articles in the Globe about generations of people on welfare, and you don't think of it as your neighbor who is out working, who is still struggling."
Hammiity lives with her four-year-old son and two-year-old daughter in her mom's retirement home in Eastham. Her husband left the household last year, and...
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