VALDOSTA — Sylvester “Buck” Sharpe’s shattered plastic porch chairs lay across the highway from his Thomas County house. Other chair parts are strewn in his yard.

Wide strips of the tin roof on his house are stacked in the yard. Another large piece dangles from the roof over the front of the dwelling. Downed trees behind Sharpe’s house and on the land next door attest to the strong wind, storms and tornado that hit on Sunday, Jan. 22.

But even before the storm, things were not good for 52-year-old Sharpe.

He is paralyzed from the waist down from injuries in a 1994 traffic crash. He is wheelchair-bound, and the family dwelling in which he lives was not in good shape before weather further damaged its condition.

Sharpe has lived in the house for more than 30 years. He was born here. His mother grew up here, and her grandmother raised a family in the small dwelling.

Sharpe never married.

“I guess I’ve never been that lucky to get married, if they call it luck,” he said.

Father of three grown children, Sharpe farmed, operated heavy equipment and did upholstery work before the traffic accident that left his back broken in three places.

He receives $815 monthly in Social Security disability benefits. “That’s it.”

He must decide each month whether to buy food or let a bill go unpaid until the next month. He has electricity bills, a loan and medical bills.

“It’s very hard to make it stretch,” said Sharpe, sitting in his wheelchair in the front yard of the house.

Sharpe does not have money to repair the house, which needed considerable work before the inclement weather.

“First,” he said, “you’ve got to come up with the money to build another one. I don’t have those kind of funds.”

There was no insurance on the house. Sharpe said he realizes the structure was not up to code, and he doubts he could have secured insurance because of its condition.

“I don’t want anyone to think I just didn’t get it,” he said.

Sharpe’s bathroom and kitchen are inoperable. He sometimes grills on his front porch, but most of his meals are prepared by his mother, Luanna Thurman, who works at Georgia Crate and lives near her son.

Although the house is barely inhabitable, Sharpe said the dwelling has sentimental value. He recalls visiting his grandmother here, noting that his mother grew up in the house.

Sharpe talked to an agency about a new house, but he is not optimistic about the outcome.

“We’ll just have to wait it out and see,” Sharpe said.

Meanwhile, he said he must persevere and do the best he can with the time he has left.

Sharpe is not alone.

In Georgia and Florida, more than four million people live below the poverty line, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Sharpe is just one of the millions of people across Georgia and North Florida who face the daily struggle of not having enough, of living on a scrappy income that fails to provide basic needs. An implosion of a person’s quality of life is often the result.

In the SunLight Project’s coverage area — Dalton, Milledgeville, Moultrie, Tifton, Thomasville and Valdosta, Ga., along with Live Oak, Jasper and Mayo, Fla., and the surrounding counties — the number of people in poverty soars high above the national average.

The region’s poverty rates, meaning the percentage of people living below the poverty line, ranges from a staggering 46.8 percent in Milledgeville to a comparatively low 23.8 percent in Dalton, according to the census data.

While the city of Dalton has a lower poverty rate than much of the rest of Georgia and North Florida, at less than 24 percent of the city population, even that lower number is far above poverty levels across the United States.

The national rate is 13.5 percent.

According to TalkPoverty, a project of the Center for American Progress, there is a stark racial disparity in poverty rates in the SunLight Project coverage area. The rate for blacks and hispanics is double the rate for whites.

In Georgia, for example, poverty among whites in 2016 stood at 12.5 percent while the rate for blacks was 24.8 percent and the rate for hispanics 27.5 percent.

In Florida, poverty for whites for the last year was 13.6 percent with the rate for blacks at 25.2 percent and hispanics at 20.6 percent, according to the center.

Past the numbers and statistics, poverty has many names and faces. A mom with three kids working as a waitress while trying to become a nurse. A man who chooses to help his grandchildren instead of getting sorely needed dentures. A formerly homeless couple who now have housing but still struggle to pay the rent and put food on the table for themselves and their children.

Although America boasts the world’s largest economy, people living in poverty can be found anywhere.

Defining Poverty

The federal government comes up with two numbers each year to define who is poor and who is not.

The first, called the Federal Poverty Guideline, is based on a family’s income and determines who has access to welfare programs such as food stamps and Medicaid.

The second is the Federal Poverty Threshold, which takes into account a family’s income plus cash benefits, such as workers’ compensation or Social Security. The number is used mainly for stats, for determining how many people live in poverty.

Though two different numbers playing separate roles, the guideline and threshold are roughly the same amount.

For a single person, the poverty line is an income of about $12,000 per year. For a household of two, it’s about $16,000. For a family of four, poverty means making less than approximately $24,000.

Living below the poverty line means not having enough money for the necessities of life: food, shelter, transportation, medical care, etc.

A person in poverty may have some or all of the necessities but not to a sufficient degree.

“When people can’t get their basic needs met, they can’t do other good things with their life,” Roz Johnson said.

Johnson is the chief clinical officer at Behavioral Health Services of South Georgia, which provides care for people struggling with mental illness and substance abuse. She is also a member of the Homeless Task Force in Lowndes County.

In Lowndes, with a population of 113,000, one in four people are impoverished. In the county’s biggest city, Valdosta, with approximately 56,000 people, the number jumps to 35 percent.

Referencing Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Johnson said people who lack basic provisions have trouble contributing to the community and reaching their full potential. Going without primary necessities impacts all areas of a person’s life, including employment, education and child care, she said.

And the fallout starts at a young age.

The Education Impact

“No kid can be expected to learn all the capitals of the states if they haven’t eaten that day, or if they don’t have on shoes that fit,” Stacey Beckham said.

Beckham is the director of communications for the Tift County Board of Education.

In Tift, a county of about 40,000, the poverty rate is 27 percent.

But when it comes to children, the number spikes. Less than 40 percent of Tift County’s children are impoverished.

Beckham said school systems must often step in to meet needs left unfilled by families and the rest of the community.

“We’ve got to meet those basic needs if we’re going to educate them,” Beckham said.

Randy Weldon, CEO of the Southwest Georgia Community Action Council, said educating the young is key to combating poverty.

Weldon’s non-profit offers social services to more than a dozen counties. The organization spends a little more than two-thirds of its $30 million budget on Head Start programs, which provide intensive education services to toddlers through kindergarten.

One thing setting Head Start apart is nutrition and health components for low-income students.

Children in the program receive dental exams as well as eye and ear screenings, Weldon said. Detecting and correcting a problem in one of those areas can mean the difference between academic success and failure.

Head Start also provides breakfast, lunch and two snacks daily to the students.

“Our goal is for them to be on par when they enter kindergarten,” Weldon said.

In Milledgeville, a city of 19,000, almost half of the residents live in poverty. The median household income is $21,000.

Sandy Baxter is executive director for Communities in Schools of Milledgeville-Baldwin County. Her organization works to improve learning environments for students by tutoring them or buying them clothing they need but can’t afford, among many other things.

Baxter said impoverished children face many specific challenges daily.

Many low-income parents aren’t able to give children the attention they need, which impacts a child’s learning, Baxter said.

“(They’re) not bad parents, but they’re working two jobs to keep a roof over their head, so there’s very little time to interact with their student at home,” Baxter said. “The statistics show that children living in poverty need a lot more help to bring them up to the same level.

“If we don’t provide the skills they need – especially literacy and making sure we read to them and that they understand the vocabulary – they’re not going to be able to understand even the simplest of stories that we read.

“Many of these students come to school already with a ton of baggage, and with all that baggage it’s really difficult for them to sit there and learn. Unfortunately, children have many, many worries that children shouldn’t have.”

With education equating to earnings in the workforce, some explanation of an area’s income disparity can be explained by the level of education attained by those residents.

In Moultrie, a town of about 14,000, the poverty rate is 36 percent. The city’s high school graduation rate of 72.3 percent lags behind the national rate of 86.7 percent. Additionally, only about one in every eight people in Moultrie hold a bachelor’s or higher college degree.

The Health Care Impact

“I don’t need money in my pocket, I need money in my mouth.”

For Moultrie resident James Johnson, that statement epitomizes his greatest need. To emphasize his point, Johnson, 62, opened his mouth wide to display a mouth filled with broken, crooked and missing teeth.

Johnson isn’t alone; some 38 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 64 did not see a dentist in the previous 12 months, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For black Americans such as Johnson, the number in his age group who did not receive dental care during the past year increases to more than 45 percent, and is nearly 50 percent for hispanics.

A 2011-12 health survey showed that 91 percent of adults have tooth decay, with 27 percent of them going untreated. And for the poor, the numbers are even worse, with 81.5 percent going without a dental exam in the previous year.

For Johnson, who was picking up a plate at Union Missionary Baptist Church’s “Feed the Hungry” lunch on Jan. 25, the issue is cost. He has dental insurance through his employer but “insurance don’t cover everything,” he said.

“Money gonna talk, everything else don’t talk,” said Johnson, who was heading to his job with a group of co-workers in a van. “I need dentures.”

With grandchildren to help support, Johnson can’t raise the money for one thing that would make a world of difference in his life and health.

“I need (dentures) before anything else,” he said. “I’m going through a whole lot. I need any kind of insurance, any kind of help.”

Families often need assistance with medical expenses.

Weldon’s Community Action Council assists the elderly, who may be confused by the medical system, and younger people, who may not realize they can set up a payment plan for hospital bills, he said.

“A lot of times they may have medical bills that are the problem,” he said. “We’ll even call and mediate and try to work out a payment plan. We can (also) refer them to resources that can help.”

In Dalton, a city of 34,000 that is about half hispanic, almost a quarter of the residents accounted for by the Census Bureau live in poverty.

A 31-year-old Dalton resident said it can be almost impossible to climb out of difficult financial straits once you’re in them. The mother of two boys and one girl works as a waitress.

Her children qualify for PeachCare, a state program that provides health insurance to children in low-income families.

“They do get health care but there are so many children and so few providers,” she said. “You don’t get to have a doctor. They see whichever doctor is available.”

Trying to make enough money while caring for children is a difficult balancing act for her and many people in the same situation.

“Take child care. If you want to work, you have to have child care. But it is expensive,” she said. “On the cheap end, it’s $75 to $80 a week. And that’s for one child. I have three. I don’t have to pay for after-school care, but most people don’t get off work at 2.”

The struggling mother caught a big break when someone with the Whitfield County Division of Family and Children’s Services put her in touch with the Salvation Army.

The family now lives rent-free in transitional housing provided by the Salvation Army in Dalton.

“The Salvation Army has been the only place that really helped. You can give somebody food or money, but to get yourself out of that cycle you need a support team,” she said. “It has allowed me to work and go to school and to be a mother.”

She praised her boss, saying she is grateful for the flexible hours that allow her to go to Georgia Northwestern Technical College, where she is studying to be a registered nurse, and still be a mother to her children.

But there’s a downside.

“Today, I made $14,” she said. “Sometimes, it’s packed out and you can do great. But it isn’t reliable. It’s hard to make a budget and keep a budget if you don’t know each day how much you are going to make. People don’t realize we live on tips.”

Sometimes people in these situations have to make tough budget decisions, having to decide whether to drive without car insurance or allow utilities to be shut off.

All Hands on Deck

In Suwannee County, Fla., LueAnne Edwards, 31, lives below the poverty line with five children and one more on the way.

She and her boyfriend of nine years were homeless after they lost their jobs in 2015.

They were living with his sister in a small house when United Way of Suwannee Valley, an organization that collects money and distributes funds to assist people, helped them afford a new home.

United Way worked with Edwards and her family to get situated in a house by paying their first-month rent, deposit and utility bill.

“I don’t know what we would have done without their help,” Edwards said. “It was so hard after we lost our home. I didn’t have zip.”

Suwannee County, with a population of about 44,000, has a 23.6 percent poverty rate. Neighboring Lafayette County (population 8,600) has a similar rate of 23.8 percent. But in nearby Hamilton County (population 14,300), the rate reaches almost 32 percent.

When Edwards and her boyfriend found a place that fit both the size of their family and their tight budget, it was near Christmas time, which was good because she didn’t have any money for Christmas presents.

“The home was their Christmas presents,” Edwards said.

But since finding a new place to live, Edwards still struggles to pay rent and have enough left over to keep everyone fed.

She joked she should just mail her paychecks directly to the bill companies.

After all the bills are paid, Edwards said they have about $50 left. With that money, she buys enough milk for breakfast and plenty of rice for everything else. Luckily, she had mostly boys, so they all can wear the same thing, she said.

“We’re very resourceful,” she said. “We kind of have to be.”

As far as the future goes, Edwards is days away from having her sixth child, but she has a certified nursing assistant certificate and plans on going back to school after the delivery. Her boyfriend is working in sales right now, but has always wanted to work for the sheriff’s office.

Even if they both start working again, with another child on the way, life will still be tough for Edwards and her family below the poverty line.

Helping Edwards and people such as her is not the work of a single organization or government agency. In cities and counties everywhere, a smattering of groups, businesses, churches, nonprofits and governments provide a mosaic of services and care to those in need.

There are state and federal welfare programs, homeless shelters, food banks, soup kitchens, health departments, career centers, clothes closets and housing projects, to name a few.

Milledgeville’s Café Central soup kitchen provides meals for locals in need every Tuesday from the kitchen of a local church.

Soup kitchen volunteers feed between 500 and 600 people each week. Café Central was the idea of director Ann Bowen and her pastor to give meals to hungry people who came to the church in need of food.

Ed Culver is a soup kitchen regular. Culver, 60, lives off disability checks from the government for an injured shoulder.

Culver expressed a positive outlook on his life in poverty, citing patience with one’s circumstances and a lack of desire for frivolous things as a powerful buffer against adversity.

“It’s easy for me to make ends meet because I know my budget,” Culver said. “I don’t get food stamps, and I don’t get any assistance from the government besides my disability (checks).

“I buy food, pay my bills, and take care of my personal needs. I may not have many extra dollars to spend, but I don’t drink, I don’t do drugs, and just go with the basic stuff.”

Robert Hill is the chairman of Greater Works Ministries in Dalton, an organization that provides meals, clothing, hot showers and medical assistance to those in need.

Hill said he has seen the number of people seeking assistance grow during the 23 years since the ministry opened its doors.

“The biggest problem is that the jobs aren’t here like they were 20 years ago,” he said. “It used to be that someone could leave a job in the (carpet) mills and immediately find another job. The jobs aren’t there like that now, and many people just don’t have the education required for the jobs that are there.”

An average of 25 families come in each Tuesday and about 10 on Sunday mornings, when Greater Works opens its food bank. And they’re not all homeless, Hill said, like some might expect.

“These aren’t homeless people. They aren’t even necessarily people who are out of work. We’ve got people come in who maybe work for a fast-food place and are on short time. When you are working 20 hours a week at minimum wage, it’s hard to make it,” Hill said.

The SunLight Project team of journalists who contributed to this report includes Thomas Lynn, Charles Oliver, Eve Guevara, Alan Mauldin, along with the writers, Patti Dozier and team leader John Stephen. Jordan Barela and Will Woolever also contributed to the report.

To contact the team, email sunlightproject@gaflnews.com