Census figures show one-third of Muncie lives in poverty

Until she found part-time work last month, Mulroony washed her clothes in her bathtub.

"I still don't really make it," she said. "I have always been fortunate enough to have food on the table and a roof over my head, except one time when I was homeless."

Mulroony is one of more than 18,000 people in Muncie who were living in poverty in 2006, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics released this week. That number represents 32.6 percent of the city's population, and ranks Muncie as the ninth most impoverished among cities with populations of more than 65,000.