Pa. broadens eligibility for food stamps, By Alfred Lubrano, July 31, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Javina Brown, who makes $9.75 an hour working for Boston Market, applied for food stamps in June but was denied. Her salary was $4 a month too high. As of this week, however, Brown and others like her will be eligible for food stamps. For the first time in nearly 30 years, Pennsylvania has raised the income limit for the program…”
Monthly Archives: July 2009
State Budget Cuts and Health Care Programs
States slash health care programs in budget crisis, By Susan Haigh (AP), July 29, 2009, The State: “Aurice Barlow knows what happens when someone can’t afford dental care. ‘I see people walking the streets with toothaches, teeth hanging out of their mouths,’ said the former nurse’s aide. At least 30 percent of the people in this city of 124,500 are impoverished. ‘Nobody cares,’ she says. Barlow is worried she’ll now become one of them. Washington is pouring $87 billion in federal stimulus money into the states to help maintain state-run Medicaid health care for the needy – and to handle the expected surge in enrollment. But Connecticut and other cash-strapped states say they still must slash spending on health care to cover massive budget deficits. At least 21 states have already restricted low-income children’s and families’ eligibility for health insurance or their access to services; at least 22 states and the District of Columbia are cutting services for low-income elderly or disabled patients…”
Report: Hunger in India
Report highlights hunger in India, July 31, 2009, BBC News: “India is emerging as the world centre of hunger and malnutrition, a report by Indian campaign group, the Navdanya Trust, says. The trust says that there are more than 200 million people – or one-in-four Indians – going without enough to eat. The prominent environmentalist Vandana Shiva, who runs the trust, said there were now more hungry people in India than in sub-Saharan Africa…”
Rhode Island Pre-Kindergarten Program
R.I. to offer its first public pre-K program, By Jennifer D. Jordan, July 27, 2009, Providence Journal: “For the first time, the state Department of Education is venturing into early childhood education by launching a small, high-quality pre-kindergarten program designed to level the playing field for low-income children who now start school at a significant disadvantage compared with middle- and upper-income students. Until now, Rhode Island has failed to support the notion of public early childhood education. It is one of just 12 states that does not offer public pre-K…”
Razing of Large Public Housing Projects – Atlanta, GA
Public housing moving out, By Dionne Walker (AP), July 29, 2009, Washington Times: “The nation’s bulldozer attack on crime and poverty soon will make Atlanta – home of the first public housing development – the first major city to eliminate all of its large housing projects. Cities from Boston to Los Angeles are following its lead. For more than 15 years, housing officials across the country have been razing the projects where about 1.2 million families live and replacing them with a mix of higher-rent and subsidized apartments and homes…”
Editorials: Budget Cuts and the Safety Net – California
- Cuts in safety net for children go far too deep, Editorial, July 29, 2009, San Jose Mercury News: “Tuesday marked a new low for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in his role as a guardian of the health of California’s children. With a stroke of his blue pencil, the governor axed an additional $50 million from the state’s Healthy Families program, which provides health insurance to California’s neediest children. That’s on top of the devastating $144 million in cuts to Healthy Families in the budget deal Schwarzenegger had negotiated with the Legislature last week…”
- Safety net takes hit in this budget, Editorial, July 29, 2009, Sacramento Bee: “Spending on health and welfare programs for the poor is the state government’s second most expensive item, after the public schools. Last year, California taxpayers spent about $29 billion on these services for their less fortunate neighbors. But in the current economic climate, even these essential programs are going under the knife…”
Poverty Rate in Italy
One in 20 Italians lives in absolute poverty, By Daniel Flynn, July 30, 2009, New York Times: “One in seven Italians scrapes by on less than 1,000 euros (£853) a month and roughly one in 20 lives in absolute poverty, unable to maintain a minimum standard of living, the national statistics agency said Thursday…”
Pensioners in Poverty – United Kingdom
- Benefits system has failed poor pensioners, say MPs, By Phillip Inman, July 30, 2009, The Guardian: “Means-tested benefits have failed to lift more than two million pensioners out of poverty, according to a group of MPs who are calling on the government to make a bigger effort to increase the incomes of poor people in retirement. A further one million pensioners live on less than 50% of average incomes, the report found, highlighting the increasing divide between those over-65s without private savings and workers in generous final salary pensions who can enjoy incomes equal to 80% to 90% of their pre-retirement salary when state benefits are included…”
- Pensioner poverty ‘unacceptable’, July 29, 2009, BBC News: “It is “unacceptable” that two million pensioners in the UK are still living in poverty, a group of MPs says. The Work and Pensions Committee says the figure is a third lower than it was in 1997, but wants ministers to commit to ending pensioner poverty altogether. It is also calling for the benefits system to be simplified for older people and the compulsory retirement age of 65 to be scrapped…”
New York City Homeless Policies
- Homeless families could face eviction over rules, By Julie Bosman, July 27, 2009, New York Times: “Homeless families can be kicked out of city shelters for repeatedly breaking rules like staying out past curfew or for refusing apartments offered to them, according to a tougher policy that takes effect Tuesday. The new policy gives the city greater latitude to push families out of the shelter system, which had swelled to a near-high of 9,720 families as of Sunday. Families could always be evicted for illegal behavior like bringing in drugs or weapons, but they can now be ousted for any of 28 violations, including failing to sign in and out or not keeping an active case file with city welfare agencies…”
- City aids homeless with one-way tickets home, By Julie Bosman, July 28, 2009, New York Times: “They are flown to Paris ($6,332), Orlando ($858.40), Johannesburg ($2,550.70), or most frequently, San Juan ($484.20). They are not executives on business trips or couples on honeymoons. Rather, all are families who have ended up homeless, and all the plane tickets are courtesy of the city of New York (one-way). The Bloomberg administration, which has struggled with a seemingly intractable problem of homelessness for years, has paid for more than 550 families to leave the city since 2007, as a way of keeping them out of the expensive shelter system, which costs $36,000 a year per family. All it takes is for a relative elsewhere to agree to take the family in…”
Report: 2009 Kids Count Databook
- Kids report shows data issues, By David Crary (AP), July 29, 2009, Knoxville New Sentinel: “Serious shortcomings in national data, including an outdated federal measure of household poverty, are undermining the task of identifying and assisting America’s most vulnerable children, according to a report issued Tuesday. The Annie E. Casey Foundation, in its annual Kids Count report on children’s health and well-being, says national efforts to track and analyze such trends ‘fall far short of what is possible, what is needed, and what is demanded’…”
- Granite State still first in children’s well-being, By Adam D. Krauss, July 29, 2009, Foster’s Daily Democrat: “The rankings are in, and once again the Granite State was deemed to be the best state for the well-being of children. But advocates aren’t resting on their state’s laurels…”
- Children faring worse in state, By Mike Averill, July 29, 2009, Tulsa World: “Oklahoma dropped to 44th nationally in child well-being, according to a national report that ranks states on 10 health indicators. The state ranked 43rd last year, 42nd in 2007 and 38th in 2003, according to the 2009 Kids Count Data Book, released annually by the Annie E. Casey Foundation…”
- Child poverty on the rise, By Martha Stoddard, July 29, 2009, Omaha World-Herald: “Iowa children are better off than those in Nebraska, according to a new national report. But the 2009 Kids Count Data Book shows growing numbers of children in both states living in poverty. The increases occurred even before the current recession hit last year…”
- More kids in state living in poverty, By Angela Mapes Turner, July 29, 2009, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “The ranks of Hoosier children living in poverty or with unemployed parents are growing, according to a state-by-state study on the well-being of America’s youth…”
- 24% of Alabama kids living in poverty, By Lydia Seabol Avant, July 29, 2009, Tuscaloosa News: “Almost a quarter of Alabama’s children live in poverty, according to a national Kids Count study released Tuesday. Alabama ranks 48th in the nation in the annual state-by-state analysis that examines the well-being of children. The study looks at 10 measures, including teen birth rate, child death rate, high school dropouts and the poverty rate…”
- Study: La. 49th in child welfare, By Sarah Chacko, July 29, 2009, Baton Rouge Advocate: “Despite improvements in key areas, including a decline in births to teenage mothers and high school dropouts, Louisiana again ranked second to last in a national study on child well-being released Tuesday. The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2009 Kids Count data book ranks Louisiana 49th out of 50 states – a place Louisiana has held for at least the past decade…”
- State is 47th in well-being of its children, By Nancy Cole, July 29, 2009, Arkansas Democrat Gazette: “Arkansas lags behind all but three states, ranking 47th in children’s health, education and economic well-being, according to a report released Tuesday by a national child-advocacy group…”
Use of Credit as a Safety Net in Low-income Households
Study finds lower earners use credit as safety net, Associated Press, July 28, 2009, New York Times: “Even before the recession hit full force, people who earn low and middle incomes were tapping credit cards to cover basic living expenses, medical costs and other necessities — and driving up their balances in the process. The average credit card debt for low- and middle-income households rose 3 percent to $9,827 from $9,536 three years earlier, according to a study released Tuesday by the New York-based nonprofit research and advocacy group Demos. About 42 percent of those surveyed in August said they had more debt than three years earlier, while 10 percent said they had the same amount. Less than half reported having less debt than three years earlier, when the group did its prior survey. Credit cards were used to cover basic living expenses like rent or mortgage payments, groceries and utilities by more than one-third of the households in the survey. And three out of four people who took part said they used their cards for essential spending like car repairs, home repairs and college expenses…”
Large Retailers Accepting Food Stamps
More retailers say yes to food stamps, By Jayne O’Donnell and Rachel Huggins, July 28, 2009, USA Today: “More retailers are accepting food stamps, as a record number of consumers are turning to government aid to pay for groceries. Nearly 39 million people received food stamps – now known as Electronic Benefit Transfers – in April 2009, up about 20% over April 2008. Retailers ranging from some Costco (COST) stores – yes, quarts of capers do qualify – to 7-Eleven to Target (TGT) are moving quickly to cater to cash-strapped customers…”
State Budget Cuts – California
- Governor signs budget, vetoes $650 million in spending, By Thadeus Greenson, July 29, 2009, Contra Costa Times: “With a stroke of his pen Tuesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made official what is perhaps the largest reduction in state services California has ever seen. But before signing his name to the state’s revised $85 billion budget, Schwarzenegger used his budget knife to deepen some of the cuts lawmakers approved last week, using his veto power to carve out another $656 million in spending reductions. Schwarzenegger’s vetoes — added to the more than $15 billion in cuts lawmakers approved Friday — drew sharp condemnation from some…”
- Schwarzenegger’s vetoes prompt Democratic threats, By Judy Lin (AP), July 29, 2009, San Francisco Chronicle: “Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a revised $85 billion budget and targeted welfare programs for deeper cuts, prompting opposition Democrats to threaten to block his political agenda during his final months in office…”
- County: Governor’s vetoes may hurt kids, elderly, poor, By Tony Burchyns, July 29, 2009, Vallejo Times-Herald: “Solano County officials scrambled Tuesday to analyze the latest round of cuts to California’s budget after the governor used his line-item veto power to save an additional $656 million. One top county official forecast longer waits for services, as well as an increase in the number of abused kids falling through the cracks of the so-called safety net designed to protect society’s most disadvantaged people…”
Child Welfare Reform – Florida
Florida shifts child-welfare system’s focus to saving families, By Erik Eckholm, July 24, 2009, New York Times: “After her daughter and a daughter-in-law were each jailed on drug charges last fall, Sylvia Kimble, 46, poor and with a deeply troubled history of her own, struggled to care for six grandchildren. Only a few years ago, officials here say, the safest path would have been to split up the children in foster care. Yet here they are, rambunctious children wrestling in her living room, Ms. Kimble encouraging her daughter’s out-patient drug rehabilitation while also arranging for summer camp and a family trip to a water park…”
Report: 2009 Kids Count Databook
- U.S. children likely worse off due to recession, By Carol Morello, July 28, 2009, Washington Post: “The well-being of American children changed only modestly during the boom years of this decade and undoubtedly has worsened since the onset of the recession, according to a report issued this morning. The Kids Count assessment by the Annie E. Casey Foundation examines 10 key indicators culled from the U.S. Census and other government statistics. The figures showed slight improvements in six areas since 2000, including infant mortality, high school dropout rates and the percentage of idle teens neither attending school nor working. But the report noted that teenage pregnancies, although still lower than in 2000, are again on the rise in all but nine states and the District…”
- Infant mortality rate significantly higher in Md., report claims, By Brent Jones, July 28, 2009, Baltimore Sun: “Maryland’s infant mortality rate has significantly increased, continuing an erratic trend since 2000 that has seen the state drop to 11th worst in the nation, according to the 2009 Kids Count Databook, an annual report released Tuesday by the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation…”
- Children’s lot in R.I. improves in 2008, By Colin Chazen, July 28, 2009, Providence Business News: “Rhode Island ranked 15th in the nation in overall children’s well-being in a nationwide report released by Kids Count today. The state moved up six places in the rankings from last year, led by improvements in the teen death rate and percentage of teens who are high school dropouts. Massachusetts was ranked fifth and Connecticut fourth, with the lowest scores concentrated in the South and the Southwest…”
Medicaid Coverage and Enrollment – Indiana, Colorado
- Holes in the safety net: Medicaid falls short just as some need it most, By Tom Curry and JoNel Aleccia, July 27, 2009, MSNBC.com: “Doctors at the Maple City Health Care Center, a neighborhood clinic where the toddler’s family receives most care, couldn’t diagnose the problem. The child needed to see a specialist, but no local dermatologist would agree to accept Medicaid, the government’s safety net plan. Instead, Antonia Mejorado, 33, has to drive nearly two hours to see a dermatologist willing to treat her daughter’s potentially serious illness…”
- Colorado Medicaid list swells to record, By Tim Hoover, July 28, 2009, Denver Post: “Colorado had a 14 percent spike in Medicaid enrollment in the budget year that ended in June, a record-setting rate that capped a year with the largest-ever number of people in the health insurance program. As of June 30, there were 467,556 Coloradans on Medicaid. That’s 79,488, or 20.5 percent, more than in the same month a year before. The June figure represented the highest total in the 40 years Colorado has been participating in the state and federally funded program, which covers low-income pregnant women, children, the elderly and the disabled. Nearly 10 percent of the state’s residents are now enrolled in Medicaid…”
Jobless Benefit Systems – Texas, California
- State’s jobless confront hurdles, By Peggy Fikac, July 26, 2009, Houston Chronicle: “For Jerry, the chance of unemployment benefits is the chance to breathe a little easier for a few weeks. He’d been used to a good salary as an IT consultant, but he’s been out of work for a year. He and his wife sold a car and cut back, but he still puts more on his credit card than he’d like. At 62, he is looking at jobs in neighboring states. Closer to his Panhandle home, he’s competing with high school kids for work…”
- California’s slow handling of appeals from workers denied unemployment benefits gets worse, By Marc Lifsher, July 28, 2009, Los Angeles Times: “California is so slow in handling appeals from workers denied unemployment benefits that it may take years to catch up, state officials say. And the backlog is getting worse. With unemployment now at 11.6% in California and rising, there is a record backlog of more than 82,500 Californians who have appeals pending on their eligibility for checks of as much as $475 a week. At the same time, the state is about to furlough for three days a month the judges and support staff who handle the appeals…”
Budget and Program Cuts – Washington DC, Illinois
- D.C. weighs welfare cut as budget gap looms, By Henri E. Cauvin, July 26, 2009, Washington Post: “The Fenty administration wants to save several million dollars by cutting back on welfare benefits for people who are not working or using the city’s help to find a job. The monthly benefit, which for a family of three is $428, would be cut in half for any recipient deemed employable who does not meet the work requirement for six months. If the recipient were to go another six months without complying, the District would be prepared to cut off benefits altogether, the city’s human services director told advocates for the poor last week…”
- State budget cuts leave safety net strained, By Ray Long, July 26, 2009, Chicago Tribune: “Illinois might have a working budget in place, but there is a broader story behind the numbers: Real people are hurting. If they have not lost care, they worry the thin reed of stability provided by non-profit, community-based organizations will disappear without state support. Cuts at social service agencies are tearing holes into safety nets for the state’s most vulnerable residents…”
- Parenting programs take big hit from budget cuts, By Dean Olsen, July 18, 2009, State Journal Register: “Hoping to become a cosmetologist someday, Theresa Mercado says she has drawn inspiration from fellow single mothers in a support group that met weekly at the Family Service Center of Sangamon County…”
Report: Poor Neighborhoods and Economic Mobility
Neighborhoods key to future income, study finds, By Alec MacGillis, July 27, 2009, Washington Post: “Researchers have found that being raised in poor neighborhoods plays a major role in explaining why African American children from middle-income families are far more likely than white children to slip down the income ladder as adults. The Pew Charitable Trusts Economic Mobility Project caused a stir two years ago by reporting that nearly half of African American children born to middle-class parents in the 1950s and ’60s had fallen to a lower economic status as adults, a rate of downward mobility far higher than that for whites. This week, Pew will release findings of a study that helps explain that economic fragility, pointing to the fact that middle-class blacks are far more likely than whites to live in high-poverty neighborhoods, which has a negative effect on even the better-off children raised there. The impact of neighborhoods is greater than other factors in children’s backgrounds, Pew concludes…”
Health Care Reform
- Reach of subsidies is critical issue for health plan, By Robert Pear, July 26, 2009, New York Times: “The major health care bills moving through Congress would require nearly all Americans to have health insurance. But as lawmakers struggle to achieve the goal of universal coverage, a critical question is whether the plans will be affordable to those who are currently uninsured…”
- Small business owners wary of health reform, By Guy Boulton, July 26, 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Dianne Wonder, owner of Alpha-Omega Cleaning in New Berlin, has followed the debate over health care reform closely through a variety of media outlets and e-mails from her representatives in Congress. ‘I find it very difficult to know what to believe because there is so much conflicting information,’ Wonder said. But she knows this: A payroll tax on employers who don’t provide health benefits would increase her business’ costs…”
- Hawaii law mandates health coverage, By Mark Niesse (AP), July 27, 2009, Charlotte Observer: “Hawaii’s 35-year-old mandate for companies to provide insurance to workers has brought something less than universal health care to the 50th state. President Obama’s home state poses some cautionary realities to any sweeping overhaul of the nation’s health care system as Congress considers a similar federal requirement that businesses provide health insurance to employees. Since the law passed 35 years ago, the percentage of uninsured in Hawaii has fallen to lower levels than nearly every other state, but there are coverage gaps. And cost-conscious business owners avoid the law by hiring more part-time workers, who aren’t required to be covered…”