(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second in a series on the community needs assessment conducted by the United Way of Central Arkansas.)
Community members who participated in the community needs assessment conducted last year by the United Way of Central Arkansas identified a lack of public transportation as the number two need in the community.
According to information provided by the United Way, 71 percent of respondents rated lack of public transportation as a 4 or 5 on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most important issue in the community.
Samantha Huseas, executive director of the United Way of Central Arkansas, said the lack of public transportation affects people who cannot afford private transportation.
"What it means for them is they have to live within walking distance of work. It may raise their rent higher than they can really afford to pay, or it may limit the number of places they can work," she said.
Also according to information provided by the United Way, the demographic areas most affected by the lack of public transportation are the working poor, single parent households, the disabled, senior citizens and those living in rural areas of the county.
Mike Huddleston, a consumer credit counselor with Consumer Credit Counseling Service, said the increased cost of gas has become a hardship on people who were already living paycheck to paycheck.
"If they were paying $100 a month (for gas), now it's $200 a month. When you're used to $100 a month and now it's $200 a month, you've got to give up something, and you're barely making it week to week," he said.
His clients are also telling him about the "double-edged sword" of not being able to afford to fuel an SUV or eight-cylinder vehicle and not being able to sell one either because "car lots don't want them," he said.
Huddleston said he does not believe the problem of high gas prices is going away and said he believes public transportation will be very important to Conway.
Consumer Credit Counseling Service also administers the United Way's revolving auto loan, which helps customers who have borderline credit or cannot afford a vehicle. Huddleston said the loan is for up to $5,000, and the customer pays it back interest-free over 36 months.
"It's a program that helps some people," he said. "I've noticed it helps maybe a single mother of one or two kids who's working making minimum wage, not on (welfare), trying to make a living. It makes me feel good to be involved in the process and help them get transportation and improve their situation."
The Boys and Girls Club of Faulkner County has suffered a setback in the area of transportation. Executive Director Mike Neuhofel said the Conway School District will no longer provide transportation for the 250 children who attend the two Conway centers. He said the clubs "aren't traditional in the sense that kids can walk to them" from their homes, so transportation is a necessary part of the program.
"It is a critical blow to us," he said.
For now, the club is reaching out to other United Way agencies that have vans in an effort to collaborate, as well as reaching out to local churches that have vans that sit idle during the week, Neuhofel said.
A number of United Way partner agencies provide transportation programs for their clients, including Bethlehem House, the Women's Shelter of Central Arkansas and My House.
In an interview with the Log Cabin Democrat regarding allocations, Huseas said the board of the United Way looked favorably upon those agencies that had collaborated for transportation or had a contingency plan where transportation was concerned.
"Because transportation needs ranked high on the needs assessment, and because costs are going up, for those programs that have a transportation component, that was a factor in the amount of funding the transportation component received," she said in the interview.
There may be hope for public transportation in Conway.
The city council recently approved funding for a year-long transit feasibility study. Mayor Tab Townsell said the federal government funded 80 percent of the $171,120 study, with the city paying 20 percent. The study will determine how feasible public transit is in the city and, if feasible, what the most efficient methods would be, Townsell said.
He added one thing that puts Conway in a better position for a public transit system is the presence of colleges and relatively large concentrations of students at apartments, which can help in the creation of profitable routes and elevated rider levels.
Townsell said he is anxiously looking forward to the results of the study.
(Staff writer Rachel Parker Dickerson can be reached by e-mail at rachel.dickerson@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1277. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)
