- Food stamp use soars, and stigma fades, By Jason DeParle and Robert Gebeloff, November 28, 2009, New York Times: “With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children. It has grown so rapidly in places so diverse that it is becoming nearly as ordinary as the groceries it buys. More than 36 million people use inconspicuous plastic cards for staples like milk, bread and cheese, swiping them at counters in blighted cities and in suburbs pocked with foreclosure signs. Virtually all have incomes near or below the federal poverty line, but their eclectic ranks testify to the range of people struggling with basic needs. They include single mothers and married couples, the newly jobless and the chronically poor, longtime recipients of welfare checks and workers whose reduced hours or slender wages leave pantries bare…”
- Food stamp estimate sparks poverty debate, By Lindsey Tanner (AP), November 28, 2009, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “The estimate was startling and made headlines around the country: Almost half of all U.S. kids will be on food stamps at some time during childhood. How could it be true in the land of plenty, in the midst of an obesity epidemic, skeptics wondered. Surprisingly, many statisticians and policy analysts say the projection seems about right. Where they differ, along ideological lines, is in interpreting what it all means. Most would agree that people on food stamps aren’t necessarily starving, and some might not be even close to it. It’s also clear that people who need food stamps the most often don’t get them…”
- Food-stamp administration: Pa. ranks high, N.J. low, By Alfred Lubrano, November 28, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Critical of how some states administer food stamps for the hungriest Americans, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has ranked state performance, with Pennsylvania listed among the best and New Jersey among the worst. USDA officials indicated last week that certain states ‘have not served . . . taxpayers well,’ according to a letter from the agency to state food-stamp administrators that was first reported on by the Associated Press. The essential criticism is that although many people are eligible for food stamps through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, they do not receive them, in part because of bureaucratic processing difficulties…”
- One in six Alabamians get funds for food, By Kim Chandler, November 29, 2009, Birmingham News: “Nearly one in six Alabamians receive food assistance, according to the most recent numbers available from the state Department of Human Resources. The troubled economy is sending Alabamians in record numbers to sign up for help in feeding their families…”
Monthly Archives: November 2009
Infant Mortality Rates
Trying to explain a drop in infant mortality, By Erik Eckholm, November 26, 2009, New York Times: “Seven and a half months into Ta-Shai Pendleton’s first pregnancy, her child was stillborn. Then in early 2008, she bore a daughter prematurely. Soon after, Ms. Pendleton moved from a community in Racine that was thick with poverty to a better neighborhood in Madison. Here, for the first time, she had a full-term pregnancy. As she cradled her 2-month-old daughter recently, she described the fear and isolation she had experienced during her first two pregnancies, and the more embracing help she found 100 miles away with her third. In Madison, county nurses made frequent home visits, and she got more help from her new church. The lives and pregnancies of black mothers like Ms. Pendleton, 21, are now the subject of intense study as researchers confront one of the country’s most intractable health problems: the large racial gap in infant deaths, primarily due to a higher incidence among blacks of very premature births…”
Census Small Area Poverty Estimates
- Poverty rate jumps in rural America, By Bill Bishop, November 23, 2009, Daily Yonder: “The difference in poverty rates between rural and urban counties narrowed in the 1990s and through the first few years of this century. From 2003 to 2008, however, poverty rates in rural America jumped. The number of Americans living below the poverty line increased by more than 3.2 million between 2003 and 2008 – and a disproportionate number of those newly poor people live in rural America. Newly released figures from the U.S. Census Bureau show that 13.2% of Americans were living in poverty in 2008, the highest rate since 1997. In rural counties, however, that rate had climbed to 16.3%. The increase in the number of poor Americans was heavily weighted in rural communities. Rural counties were home to just over 16% of the nation’s population in 2008, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But 33% of the increase in the number of poor Americans from ’03 to ’08 – more than one million people – was found in rural counties…”
- Poverty figures rise among O.C. schoolchildren, By Scott Martindale, November 29, 2009, Orange County Register: “More than 12 percent of school-age children in Orange County are living in poverty – the highest level since 2005 – with 3.5 times that number receiving free or subsidized meals daily, according to federal poverty data released this month. The number of impoverished children ages 5 to 17 jumped by 6,188 in a single year, to an estimated 67,062 now in Orange County. Meanwhile, a much larger portion of the county’s students – 43 percent – is receiving free or subsidized meals in school…”
- Child poverty highest and rising in rural Oregon, By Betsy Hammond, November 29, 2009, The Oregonian: “Rates of childhood poverty vary tremendously around Oregon, with students in rural areas by far the most likely to live in impoverished households, according to new estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau. Statewide, the lowest rates are in Lake Oswego, Sherwood, Corbett and West Linn-Wilsonville. Six percent or fewer of school-age children in those districts live in households below the poverty level, the bureau reported this month…”
- Children living in poverty increases in Middle TN, By Janell Ross, November 27, 2009, The Tennessean: “While new U.S. Census Bureau figures show poverty has dropped in most of Middle Tennessee between 2007 and 2008, the area’s children remain disproportionately affected. Poverty for the population overall increased in Davidson and Wilson counties during the period but declined in nearby Rutherford, Sumner and Williamson counties. But children living in almost every part of the region were more likely than other age groups – including senior citizens – to live in poverty…”
Shift from TANF to Other Assistance Programs – Louisiana
Experts discern shift in welfare programs, By Sarah Chacko, November 15, 2009, Baton Rouge Advocate: “Many people leaving Louisiana’s state welfare rolls may have traded one government-assistance system for another, some social policy researchers say. The number of low-income families receiving state cash assistance has plummeted, which was the intended result of changes made to the welfare system in 1996, said Richard Burkhauser, an economics professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. But those statistics, often cited as evidence that more and more people are being lifted out of poverty, paint an incorrect picture, particularly when coupled with other government numbers, Burkhauser said. ‘We didn’t go far enough in devolving welfare programs in the states,’ he said. ‘It’s an even worse problem than it was before welfare reform.’ As part of the changes to welfare, people getting payments from a state-run program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, were cut off the rolls after a certain period of time. States were required to push more welfare recipients into jobs or training programs. However, as the state rolls decreased, the number of people receiving federal cash benefits for the disabled and the low-income elderly crept upward…”
Unemployment Insurance Fund – California
Another California crisis: Unemployment fund facing $7.4 billion deficit, By Denis C. Theriault, November 23, 2009, San Jose Mercury News: “Already grappling with one multibillion-dollar budget deficit, cash-strapped California now is facing a crisis in its unemployment insurance fund – source of the tens of millions paid each week to jobless residents. Amid record unemployment, the fund will likely finish the year $7.4 billion in the red, according to the latest projections from the state’s Employment Development Department. Just to keep checks coming, California has had to reach into Uncle Sam’s pockets for some $4.7 billion to date. The state must return what it borrows by 2011 – or face hundreds of millions in interest payments that would come at the expense of funding for schools, parks and social services…”
Unemployed Workers and Increasing Need for Assistance
- Michigan jobless crowd state aid offices, By Chris Christoff, November 22, 2009, Detroit Free Press: “Michigan’s welfare system is gorged with new clients who often wait hours in crowded state offices to get food stamps and medical care. People such as Tricia Baysdell, 30, of Troy, who, like many, is battling the worst economy of her life. Last week, she waited five hours with her 9-year-old son at the Department of Human Services office in Madison Heights to apply for food assistance and Medicaid. She gave up waiting so she could pick up her other two children from school. Baysdell’s husband was laid off this month from his $70,000-a-year job at an auto supplier. He has been diagnosed with chronic leukemia and can’t receive unemployment pay because he can no longer work…”
- Demand for public assistance tied to job losses, By Joan Barron, November 23, 2009, Casper Tribune: “With Wyoming’s unemployment rate topping the 7 percent mark, workers in Department of Family Services field offices in Wyoming are seeing more and more people lining up for food stamps and other public help. Heather Babbitt, Family Services economic assistance administrator; Coleen Collins, deputy economic assistance administrator; Jacqueline Petroski, consultant with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, and Juliette Rule, public information officer, gave an update last week on what the department is doing to help field workers handle the higher workload. ‘I think what happens is we see more people walking in the door, with the recession, to see what they’re eligible for,’ Collins said. The increase has been primarily in the food stamp and Medicaid programs…”
Jobless Benefit Appeals – North Carolina
Benefit Appeal: People denied unemployment payments fight for them because of tough job market, By John Murawski, November 23, 2009, Raleigh News and Observer: “When Jason Smith was fired from his job as a graphic designer earlier this year, he did what some might consider unusual: He filed for unemployment benefits. And when the Employment Security Commission denied his claim, Smith did something almost unheard of a few years ago. He hired a lawyer to take on his former boss for his weekly $371 benefits check. ‘I felt wrongly fired,’ Smith said. ‘I fight for the things I think I deserve.’ With the state’s unemployment rate at 10.8 percent, the scarcity of jobs is stiffening the resolve of the unemployed to collect their benefits — even when they’ve been fired. At the same time, many employers are just as determined to block the benefits because the payouts can increase a company’s costs…”
Young Black Men and Unemployment
Blacks hit hard by economy’s punch, By V. Dion Haynes, November 24, 2009, Washington Post: “These days, 24-year-old Delonta Spriggs spends much of his time cooped up in his mother’s one-bedroom apartment in Southwest Washington, the TV blaring soap operas hour after hour, trying to stay out of the streets and out of trouble, held captive by the economy. As a young black man, Spriggs belongs to a group that has been hit much harder than any other by unemployment. Joblessness for 16-to-24-year-old black men has reached Great Depression proportions — 34.5 percent in October, more than three times the rate for the general U.S. population. And last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that unemployment in the District, home to many young black men, rose to 11.9 percent from 11.4 percent, even as it stayed relatively stable in Virginia and Maryland…”
Child Poverty – Canada
- Two decades on, child poverty persists with no solution in sight, By Joe Friesen, November 22, 2009, Globe and Mail: “Twenty years ago this week Parliament voted unanimously to eliminate child poverty within a decade. It didn’t happen. Ten years on, it still hasn’t happened. The most recent statistics, taken in 2007 before the recession hit, show 637,000 children, or 9.5 per cent of all Canadian kids, living in poverty. Why has Canada failed where other wealthy countries succeeded? In part because voters and governments have balked at aggressively redistributing wealth. But that’s only a small part of the story. More significant, according to sociologist John Myles, is a sea-change in Canadian work and family life. Parents can be poor for a host of reasons, but the two most powerful predictors of a slide into poverty are the loss of a job or the breakup of a marriage…”
- 637,000 Canadian children living in poverty, By Laura Stone, November 24, 2009, Ottawa Citizen: “Some 637,000 Canadian children are still living in low-income families, 20 years after Ed Broadbent and other federal politicians unanimously agreed to end child poverty, according to a new report. The rate of child and family poverty has gone down only slightly over the past 18 years, to 9.5 per cent in 2007 from 11.9 per cent in 1989 – a ‘national disgrace,’ the former NDP leader says. The 2009 Report Card on Child and Family Poverty in Canada, released by the national awareness group Campaign 2000, says the most recent figure is 637,000 Canadian children who live in a family where a majority of money is spent on such necessities as food, clothing and shelter. Low income, two-parent families would need an additional $9,400 a year to bring their income up to the poverty line, it said…”
- 1 in 10 Canadian kids living in poverty: report, November 24, 2009, CBC News: “Canada’s child poverty rate has improved ‘slightly’ but the gap between rich and poor continues to grow, says Campaign 2000′s annual report card on child and family poverty. The proportion of children living in poverty declined by one-fifth between 1989 and 2007, to 9.5 per cent from 11.9 per cent, according to the report released Tuesday in Ottawa. However, 637,000 Canadian children – a number about equal to the population of Winnipeg – were still classified as poor. ‘That small change over 20 years is striking in light of an unprecedented period of growth since 1998 and in bold contrast to the growing gap between Canadian families with the highest income and those with the lowest income,’ the report stated. The group used Statistics Canada information from 2007 and said the poverty figures do not reflect the impact of the recent economic recession…”
Drug Testing and TANF – Arizona
Welfare recipients face drug tests, By Amy B. Wang, November 25, 2009, Arizona Republic: “On Tuesday, the Department of Economic Security began requiring urine tests for adult welfare recipients whom officials had ‘reasonable cause’ to believe were illegally using drugs. The tests are mandated by a new state law that prevents DES from giving cash assistance to adults who test positive for illegal-drug use. Officials believe the bill, which the Legislature passed during its third special session, could save the state $1.7 million a year in cash assistance. As of October, about 22,000 adults were receiving cash-assistance benefits as part of Arizona’s welfare program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families…”
Welfare Reform – Australia
- New law to quarantine all welfare payments, By Matthew Franklin, November 25, 2009, The Australian: “Welfare recipients across Australia face compulsory income-management under a Rudd government move to ensure their payments are not being wasted on alcohol, drugs or gambling. Under legislation to be introduced into the House of Representatives today, the government will have the power to require that 50 per cent of a welfare recipient’s payments be quarantined for spending on food and the essentials of life. The significant welfare reform, in part an extension of elements of the government’s controversial intervention into indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, is designed to protect children from neglect and reduce family violence…”
- Welfare control goes country-wide, By Yuko Narushima, November 25, 2009, Sydney Morning Herald: “Compulsory income management will be expanded to welfare recipients across the country to make the Government’s control of Aboriginal welfare comply with racial discrimination laws. From July 1, the measure that forces people in remote indigenous communities to allocate half their welfare payments to food, rent and clothing, will apply to all severely disadvantaged people…”
- Welfare measure attacked, By Yuko Narushima, November 26, 2009, Sydney Morning Herald: “Expanding income management across the country will demonise more people on flawed evidence that it benefits disadvantaged communities, social service, charity and church groups say. The controversial measure, introduced in 2007 as part of the Federal Government’s intervention into the Northern Territory, was yesterday extended to low socio-economic groups across the country…”
States and Food Stamp Administration
USDA concern growing as reports shows states struggle to administer food stamps, By Henry C. Jackson (AP), November 24, 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “With more Americans going hungry than ever before, the Agriculture Department is concerned that dozens of states aren’t adequately administering food stamp programs designed to provide food to low-income Americans. Several states have run the program in a way that is ‘problematic and resulted in a more complex and difficult enrollment process,’ the department said in a letter to state administrators dated Nov. 20 and obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press…”
Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP)
In survey, hard times before slump, By Sam Roberts, November 20, 2009 , New York Times: “Even before the recession, more than one in five Americans could not pay for basic needs without help from family, friends or outsiders, according to a survey by the Census Bureau. Fourteen percent of all Americans and 26 percent of blacks who responded to the 2005 survey reported that at sometime in the preceding year they were not able to meet essential expenses on their own, like paying bills for basic needs, avoiding foreclosure and buying sufficient food. ‘Presumably, this would be more severe than just being late with your utility payment,’ said Kurt J. Bauman, a bureau analyst. In addition to household income, a variety of measures of well-being were recorded in the bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation, which was released on Thursday…”
Food Assistance Programs
- R.I. emergency food programs see a one-year 30-percent surge, By Paul Davis, November 23, 2009, Providence Journal: “Two years ago, Robin McDuffie and her family often spent $150 a night for five meals at a favorite Spanish restaurant. On the menu? Lobster, filet mignon and arroz con pollo. Then her husband lost his mortgage-company job. Now, McDuffie spends a little more for a week’s worth of groceries — with money from the state. ‘We went from making a hundred grand to making four grand,’ says McDuffie, who attends a class on how to prepare healthful meals with less money. She no longer eats meat. ‘I never thought I’d have to do this,’ says the 38-year-old mother of three. In Rhode Island, where the unemployment rate is among the worst in the nation, the number of people who go to bed hungry is at a 10-year high, according to a new report from the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. ‘Poverty and hunger are facts of life for too many Rhode Islanders,’ says the report, to be released Monday…”
- Suburban food pantries struggle with record demand, By Ernst Lamothe Jr., November 23, 2009, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: “Mary Ellen McDowell has gotten accustomed to seeing crowds of people arrive during the holidays at Webster Community Chest, a food cupboard for area residents in need. However, this year is unlike any she’s experienced in the past decade, with a record number coming in for help. The worst recession since the Great Depression forced local suburban food cupboards to become more resourceful to provide the same services. Those who run the food cupboards say the problem isn’t going away and they are leaning on the public and themselves like never before…”
- Miss. charities struggle amid need, By Gary Pettus, November 22, 2009, Jackson Clarion-Ledger: “For the first time in its history, the Mississippi Food Network won’t be able to buy turkeys and distribute them to thousands of needy Mississippians at Thanksgiving. ‘We aren’t able to provide the turkeys and hams and some of the special foods we usually have,’ said Walker Satterwhite, executive director of the 25-year-old food bank, which supplies more than 300 churches and nonprofits in the state. The reason: a malnourished economy has caused turkey costs to soar and charitable donations to sink…”
State Budget Cuts – Tennessee
Bredesen’s TN budget options are grim, By Chas Sisk, November 23, 2009, The Tennessean: “Now the difficult decisions begin. State officials have suggested releasing nonviolent felons and closing group homes for children. They’ve called for increases in tuition at state universities and caps on benefits within the state’s medical insurance system. But as Gov. Phil Bredesen and his advisers draw up their budget proposal for the fiscal year that starts July 1, 2010, it’s uncertain how many of the dramatic measures described in hearings last week actually will be implemented. ‘It’s a difficult situation,’ he said. ‘I’m obviously going to try to mitigate the worst effects of this and move forward.’ State officials have said the government may need to trim as much as $1.5 billion from the $29 billion spending plan the state legislature passed in June. Since that budget was passed, tax receipts have continued to fall…”
Child Care Subsidies – Hawaii
- Hawaii may cut back preschool tuition subsidies to families, By Mary Vorsino, November 21, 2009, Honolulu Advertiser: “The state is considering drastic cuts in subsidies for preschool care for thousands of children from low- to moderate-income families, which in some cases would result in parents having to quadruple what they pay for care. The changes would affect subsidies that cut preschool tuition costs for the families of about 2,500 kids in licensed preschools and about 6,000 children in licensed-exempt care, according to the Good Beginnings Alliance. The decrease in subsidies is being sought as the state faces a worsening fiscal crisis, and as demand for the subsidies is increasing because of the economic downturn…”
- Child care crunch, By Gary T. Kubota, November 21, 2009, Honolulu Star Bulletin: “Makiki single parent Tara Berry said she fears she might have to leave her job as a social worker if she is unable to afford a preschool fee and has to care during the workday for her 2 1/2-year-old son because of cuts in state child care subsidies. Berry said her pay has been cut by state furloughs. ‘I can barely afford to pay what I pay right now,’ said Berry, who also is raising a 16-year-old son. ‘It’s going to affect me greatly.’ As the state Department of Human Services considers major cuts in preschool subsidies affecting several thousands of children, parents are worried how they will get more money for additional child care expenses in a sour economy…”
Homelessness and Housing – Bangor, ME
Homeless in Bangor, By Eric Russell, November 21, 2009, Bangor Daily News: “The signs of homelessness growing in Bangor are everywhere. They are just far enough off the beaten path to go unnoticed by many. People take shelter in makeshift camps under the Veterans’ Memorial Bridge. In the wooded area off Hammond Street known as The Pines. Inside jails and emergency rooms and the police station lobby. The trend is heart-wrenching and perpetual – and just might indicate the arrival of a perfect storm, according to experts. Bangor’s shelters are full. State and federal housing subsidies have either dried up or created unfathomable waiting lists. General assistance, which is supposed to be emergency and temporary funding, is stretched paper-thin. Additional social service cuts from the state seem imminent…”
Housing First Initiative – Canada
- Mental Health Commission begins 5-year project to help homeless Canadians, Canadian Press, November 23, 2009, Brandon Sun: “A research project that takes homeless people with mental illness off the streets in five cities and provides them with a safe place to live was officially launched Monday, the first such effort by the new Mental Health Commission of Canada. The pilot study, called the At Home/Chez Soi project, involves 2,285 people who are homeless and living with a mental illness in five cities – Moncton, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver. Altogether, 1,325 people will be given a place to live and social services over the course of the five-year study, while the others will receive services that are currently available. One of the goals is to find out more about what works well in providing services to homeless people…”
- Research project gets mentally ill Canadians off the streets, By Laura Stone, November 23, 2009, Vancouver Sun: “Sandra Dawson woke up one morning with a bright idea. She would quit her job as a video editor in Vancouver, take all her money out of the bank and move to Seattle. There, she would have a revelation. It didn’t happen. Penniless, Dawson moved back after a few days to her mother’s basement – another manic episode that shook her once stable life…”
Prison Nurseries – Ohio
Moms, children stay locked up together in Ohio, By Sharon Coolidge and Eileen Kelley, November 13, 2009, Cincinnati Enquirer: “The only thing missing from tiny Takeem Maffett’s world are black and white prison stripes. On the campus of the Ohio Reformatory for Women, convicts shuffle across from one spot to the next under watchful eyes. Takeem’s mother Takaya Patterson is exempt. In contrast to the other buildings at the sprawling complex surrounded by razor wire and blinding lights, the nursery is colorful and dotted with Sesame Street characters. Takeem’s mother wears a prison jumpsuit. Takeem, with cherub cheeks and long slender fingers, sleeps in her arms as she rocks. Just 2 months old, Takeem lives in prison. Under an unusual program, the state of Ohio lets Patterson raise him behind prison walls…”
States’ October Jobless Rates
- Cautious optimism as job losses slow, By Lisa Lambert, November 20, 2009, Washington Post: “The pace of job losses slowed in many U.S. states in October, and the unemployment rate slipped in hard-hit Michigan, the Labor Department said on Friday, hinting the recession may be easing in some areas. Michigan’s jobless rate fell to 15.1 percent in October from 15.3 percent in September, although it remains the highest in the United States. The rate in Nevada, the second-highest, dipped to 13 percent from 13.3 percent. Rhode Island was close behind at 12.9 percent, followed by California at 12.5 percent…”
- Most states see higher jobless rates, By Jeff Bater, November 20, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “Unemployment rose in 29 states in the U.S. during October, hinting the threat posed by weak labor markets to the economic recovery might be growing. Labor Department data Friday said 29 states and the District of Columbia recorded unemployment-rate increases from the prior month, while 13 states had rate decreases, and eight states had no rate change. A month earlier, Labor had said 23 states and the District of Columbia reported over-the-month unemployment rate increases in September, while 19 had decreases and eight states had no rate change…”