- Study: Homelessness up sharply in Minn., By Toni Randolph, March 31, 2010, Minnesota Public Radio: “The number of homeless people in Minnesota has risen sharply over the past three years, according to a study released Wednesday by the Wilder Foundation. The study counted 9,452 homeless people in Minnesota during a one-day survey conducted last October. That’s up 22 percent from 2006 levels. The uptick follows a six-year period of relative stability in the homeless numbers…”
- Ranks of homeless rising in Minnesota, By Warren Wolfe, March 30, 2010, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribunre: “Homelessness in Minnesota rose 22 percent in the past three years, reaching the highest level in at least two decades, according to initial findings from a statewide survey by Wilder Research of St. Paul. Analysts blamed the weak economy. There were 9,452 men, women and children in shelters, transitional housing and on the streets during the one-day survey conducted last October, up from 7,751 in 2006, according to findings being made public Wednesday…”
Monthly Archives: March 2010
Proposed Cuts to State TANF Program – Minnesota
Recipients say Pawlenty’s welfare cuts would be disastrous, By Madeleine Baran, March 30, 2010, Minnesota Public Radio: “On a recent afternoon, Ja’Na Dickens held her three-year-old son on her hip, sliced up a pineapple for her three children, and expressed her determination to lift her family out of poverty. The 22-year-old mom has a lot to overcome. Her youngest son, Ira, was born with a rare genetic condition, and doctors said he had a year to live. In the last year, however, Dickens’ life began to change. Ira’s health improved. He started receiving 24-hour nursing care at the family’s Plymouth apartment. Dickens enrolled as a part-time student at North Central University in Minneapolis, with the hopes of getting her bachelor’s degree in social work. But Dickens’ plans could run headlong into Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s plan for balancing the state’s budget. Her family is one of 7,000 households with a disabled family member who would lose hundreds of dollars a month under Pawlenty’s budget fix…”
Drug Testing of TANF Participants
Should welfare recipients get drug testing?, By Alan Greenblatt, March 31, 2010, National Public Radio: “Kasha Kelley believes that people on welfare need to spend their money on things like diapers and detergent – not drugs. Kelley, who has served in the Kansas state House since 2005, sponsored legislation to require a large share of the state’s welfare recipients to be tested for drug use, or risk losing their benefits. ‘I get a lot of constituents who mention their frustrations with neighbors they know are receiving some sort of public assistance,’ she says. ‘They don’t feel the money’s being used right when they know that drugs are being used in the house, and I would concur with that.’ The Kansas House passed Kelley’s bill overwhelmingly last year, but it has not won Senate approval. She hasn’t given up, though – and neither have legislators in at least nine other states who have introduced similar measures…”
Conditional Cash Transfer Program – New York City
City will stop paying the poor for good behavior, By Julie Bosman, March 30, 2010, New York Times: “An unusual and much-heralded program that gave poor families cash to encourage good behavior and self-sufficiency has so far had only modest effects on their lives and economic situation, according to an analysis the Bloomberg administration released on Tuesday. The three-year-old pilot project, the first of its kind in the country, gave parents payments for things like going to the dentist ($100) or holding down a full-time job ($150 per month). Children were rewarded for attending school regularly ($25 to $50 per month) or passing a high school Regents exam ($600). When the mayor announced the program, he said it would begin with private money and, if it worked, could be transformed into an ambitious permanent government program…”
Post-Earthquake Haiti
- Rebuilding Haiti, By Kenneth Kidd, March 28, 2010, Toronto Star: “The rows of mounded, soggy earth stand nearly a metre tall, all of them fashioned by hand and hoe. By one row, his knee braced against the side, a farm worker is plunging long green shoots into the soil, sweet potatoes in the making. He’ll toil like this for six days a week, six hours per, and take home the equivalent of roughly $14 (U.S.). Next week, or maybe the week after, he’ll tend to his own little plots of land, his other role in the complicated agricultural system that reigns in the Artibonite region, about halfway between Port-au-Prince and Cap Haïtien to the north. The Artibonite is laced with winding rivers and irrigation canals, like strands of leftover spagetti on a dinner plate. Sweet potatoes, bananas, mangoes, rice and corn all flourish, the rich soil yielding three full crops annually. But apart from a few mangoes, scarcely any of this horticultural largesse makes its way south along Rue nationale #1 to Port-au-Prince – a three-hour journey over a dusty, heavily potholed road whose hazards sometimes reduce speeds to 10 km/h. After such a trip, most Artibonite produce simply can’t compete with crops grown closer to the capital in poorer soil, much less against imported, subsidized food from the United States…”
- Quake accentuated chasm that has defined Haiti, By Simon Romero, March 27, 2010, New York Times: “The lights of the casino above this wrecked city beckoned as gamblers in freshly pressed clothes streamed to the roulette table and slot machines. In a restaurant nearby, diners quaffed Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Champagne and ate New Zealand lamb chops at prices rivaling those in Manhattan. A few yards away, hundreds of families displaced by the earthquake languished under tents and tarps, bathing themselves from buckets and relieving themselves in the street as barefoot children frolicked on pavement strewn with garbage. This is the Pétionville district of Port-au-Prince, a hillside bastion of Haiti’s well-heeled where a mangled sense of normalcy has taken hold after the earthquake in January. Business is bustling at the lavish boutiques, restaurants and nightclubs that have reopened in the breezy hills above the capital, while thousands of homeless and hungry people camp in the streets around them, sometimes literally on their doorstep…”
Special Diet Allowance Food Assistance Program – Ontario, CA
Poverty advocates decry loss of diet allowance, By Laurie Monsebraaten, March 25, 2010, Toronto Star: “Ontario is scrapping the Special Diet Allowance that helps people on social assistance pay extra food costs related to specific medical conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Confirming the pre-budget fears of anti-poverty advocates, the Liberal government cited last fall’s provincial auditor’s report, which found evidence of abuse in the welfare-based program. Instead, the budget is proposing a new nutritional supplement to be administered by the health ministry. The allowance program that provides up to $250 per month and helps about one in five people on social assistance ‘is not sustainable and is not achieving the intended results,’ budget documents say…”
State Budgets and the Recession
State debt woes grow too big to camouflage, By Mary Williams Walsh, March 29, 2010, New York Times: “California, New York and other states are showing many of the same signs of debt overload that recently took Greece to the brink – budgets that will not balance, accounting that masks debt, the use of derivatives to plug holes, and armies of retired public workers who are counting on benefits that are proving harder and harder to pay. And states are responding in sometimes desperate ways, raising concerns that they, too, could face a debt crisis…”
Free and Reduced-Price Lunch Program
Struggling families depend more on school lunches, By Heather Hollingsworth (AP), March 27, 2010, Washington Post: “For a couple tight weeks after taking in her sixth-grade stepson, Lisa Lewis fretted about how to pay for his school lunches. Unable to find a full-time job, the 37-year-old works part-time at a Kansas City, Kan., daycare, earning minimum wage. On that money alone, she supports herself, her unemployed husband, her stepson and her 11th-grade son. ‘I sometimes cry myself to sleep wondering how I am going to keep my family fed and things like that,’ Lewis said. ‘I’m making it but barely.’ Her worries were eased when she found out she could get government assistance to pay for the younger boy’s meals. Her older son already is part of the subsidized lunch program. In the midst of a blistering recession, more families are flocking to the federal program that gives students free or reduced-priced lunches. Schools are watching for who enrolls in the program because it gives teachers insight into life at home and officials consider it a barometer of poverty…”
Kids Count Report – Maine
A quarter of children in 3 counties at high risk level, By Meg Haskell, March 29, 2010, Bangor Daily News: “Children in Maine continue to live at unacceptable levels of poverty, according to the latest edition of Maine Kids Count, the annual survey of the physical, social, economic and educational well-being of the state’s youngsters. The report, now in its 16th year, is used to identify public policy issues and to guide change in matters affecting children. Other problems affecting Maine children and underscored in this year’s report are the state’s low median household income – $46,419 compared to $52,029 nationally – and a high incidence of juvenile mental and behavioral health problems…”
Foster Care Cuts – Indiana
Foster parents would get less cash under proposed Indiana cuts, By Charles D. Wilson and Carly Everson, March 29, 2010, Zanesville Times Recorder: “Indiana is trying to shift hundreds of foster children with medical, emotional or behavioral problems into cheaper care for children without special needs, a move that cuts payments to families who care for the state’s most challenged children. The change would give foster families less money to pay for therapy, food and clothing and other costs. And some fear that fewer families could volunteer for the job in the future because they’d have to cover the bills themselves. Foster parents who provide homes for special-needs children are paid up to $100 a day. Under the state’s new plan, many would receive $25 or less…”
General Assistance Medical Care – Minnesota
Pawlenty will sign health bill for poor, By Warren Wolfe and Baird Helgeson, March 24, 2010, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “With just a week to spare before thousands of low-income Minnesotans were scheduled to lose state-sponsored health coverage, the House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to approve a compromise measure that would extend the state’s General Assistance Medical Care program (GAMC). The 121-12 vote ended weeks of political battle that brought the program to the brink of death, after a veto by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and produced intense lobbying by the state’s hospitals, Catholic bishops and advocates for the poor. The measure, which passed the Senate last week, allows GAMC to survive in a pared-down form and continue serving about 30,000 of the state’s sickest and poorest residents…”
Extension of Jobless Benefits
Unemployment benefits set to expire April 5, By Ben Pershing, March 26, 2010, Washington Post: “Unemployment benefits are set to expire for at least a week on April 5, as Congress plans to break for two weeks without agreeing on an extension of the program. Last week, the House approved a $9 billion measure containing one-month extensions of unemployment insurance, COBRA health benefits and federal flood insurance. Senate Democrats hoped to have their chamber approve the same bill Thursday. But Republicans refused, complaining that the bill is not offset with spending cuts elsewhere. They said the same thing in early March, when Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) brought the chamber to a halt for five days over another extension that wasn’t offset…”
Health Reform and State Medicaid Programs
- Healthcare reform fallout: Which states are the winners?, By Ron Scherer, March 26, 2010, Christian Science Monitor: “Under the nation’s healthcare reform plan, the nation’s Medicaid system will grow as one of the main organizations to implement the goal of expanded medical coverage. But it appears that, from a financial standpoint, some states will be winners and some will be losers in this new arrangement. Here’s a look at why some states may stand to benefit. Later today, the Monitor will look at other states, which are complaining that it will cost their taxpayers a lot more money in the future. The biggest winners, state officials and Medicaid experts say, could be those states that have already taken an important step toward expanding their own Medicaid programs: covering childless adults…”
- Healthcare reform fallout: Which states could lose financially?, By Ron Scherer, March 26, 2010, Christian Science Monitor: “Under the new healthcare reform plan, 16 million more people are expected to join state Medicaid rolls. Recognizing the costs involved, lawmakers have tried to cushion the financial impact on states. But many governors believe the expansion of Medicaid will still be too costly for them. Medicaid is a key part of the plan to expand healthcare coverage in America. From a financial standpoint, some states stand to benefit from the Medicaid provisions – and other states believe they stand to lose. Eleven states, plus the District of Columbia, could come out as winners. They’re so-called expansion states, which already cover childless adults to some extent. They could gain because the federal government will absorb an increasing amount of their obligations…”
- S.C. Medicaid coverage to expand; cost to soar by $914 million, By John O’Connor, March 25, 2010, The State: “New federal health care legislation will cost the state of South Carolina and its taxpayers $914 million. That cost – the total of spending from July 1 to 2019 – will come as the state adds 480,000 low-income children and adults to a state health insurance program, as required by the new law, according to estimates by the state Department of Health and Human Services. The expansion represents a 4.4 percent increase in the $20.9 billion the state would have spent on Medicaid during that nine-year period, adding roughly $100 million a year to the state’s costs. With the state already facing a likely $1 billion budget shortfall next year, Republican lawmakers – who control the General Assembly – said the additional health care costs are one more reason they oppose implementing the law, which President Barack Obama signed Monday…”
- Medicaid cost to soar, state says, By Frank Gluck, March 2010, Fort Myers News-Press: “When state Attorney General Bill McCollum announced his lawsuit this week to block new federal health care legislation, he came armed with an intimidating figure for cash-strapped Florida – more than $1 billion. That is the projected annual cost of expanding the Medicaid rolls in 2019 and thereafter, according to the state agency that oversees the insurance program. The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration’s number, which assumes mass increases in Medicaid rolls in the coming decade, would amount to a 6 percent annual increase in the state’s current Medicaid costs…”
Food Stamp Application Process – Maryland
Social safety net to be quicker by June, By Brent Jones, March 26, 2010, Baltimore Sun: “Baltimore social service offices are planning to install an online intake system by June that could make the processing of food stamps and medical benefits applications up to 10 times faster, according to state human resource officials. The program was introduced at the city’s Hilton Heights office two months ago and is to expand to the seven other city offices in the summer. With the system, the center in West Baltimore has improved its rate of compliance with a state law governing the delivery of food stamps by more than a third, says Molly McGrath, the city’s director of social services…”
Poverty Rate – Washington, DC
Report finds rise in D.C. poverty to nearly 1 in 5 residents, By Tim Craig, March 25, 2010, Washington Post: “Nearly one out of five District residents lives at or below the poverty line, a statistic that helps expose a widening gap between the rich and the poor in the nation’s capital, according to a study released Tuesday by social justice organizations gearing up for the 2010 elections. The study, undertaken by the DC Fiscal Policy Institute on behalf of a coalition of more than 40 local organizations, concludes that last year the District experienced its biggest single-year increase in poverty since 1995. Based on unemployment rates and other data, the coalition estimates that the city has 106,500 residents — up 11,000 in a year — living at or below the poverty rate, which in 2009 was $21,800 for a family of four…”
Costs of Housing the Homeless
Apartment rents cheaper than stays in homeless shelters, By Marisol Bello, March 25, 2010, USA Today: “Cities, states and the federal government pay more to provide the homeless with short-term shelter and services than what it would cost to rent permanent housing, the U.S. government reports. A study of 9,000 families and individuals being released today by the Department of Housing and Urban Development finds that costs to house the newly homeless vary widely, depending on the type of shelter and social services provided by the six cities in the report. Emergency shelter for families was the most costly. In Washington, D.C., the average bill for a month in an emergency shelter ranges from $2,500 to $3,700. In Houston, the average is $1,391…”
Libraries and Internet Usage
Study: Third of Americans use library computers, By Donna Gordon Blankinship (AP), March 25, 2010, Lincoln Journal Star: “A third of Americans 14 and older _ about 77 million people _ use public library computers to look for jobs, connect with friends, do their homework and improve their lives, according to a new study released Thursday. It confirms what public libraries have been saying as they compete for public dollars to expand their services and high-speed Internet access: library use by the general public is widespread and not just among poor people. But researchers found that those living below the federal poverty line _ families of four with a household income of $22,000 or less _ had the highest use of library computers. Among those households, 44 percent reported using public library computers and Internet access during the past year…”
Race and School Suspensions
School suspensions lead to legal challenge, By Erik Eckholm, March 18, 2010, New York Times: “As school let out one day in January 2008, students from rival towns faced off. Two girls flailed away for several seconds and clusters of boys pummeled each other until teachers pulled them apart. The fistfights at Southside High School involved no weapons and no serious injuries, and in some ways seemed as old-fashioned as the country roads here in eastern North Carolina. But the punishment was strictly up-to-date: Sheriff’s deputies handcuffed and briefly arrested a dozen students. The school suspended seven of them for a short period and six others from the melee, including the two girls, for the entire semester. As extra punishment, the girls were told they could not attend Beaufort County’s alternative school for troubled students and were denied aid to study at home…”
Cuts to Health Care Programs – Arizona
- Fewer doctors, longer ER waits are expected, By Ken Alltucker, March 24, 2010, Arizona Republic: “Arizona hospitals say the Legislature’s steep cuts to health-care programs may trigger more hospital cuts and layoffs, longer emergency-room waits and a deepening doctor shortage. The budget cuts will eliminate health insurance for nearly 350,000 low-income adults and children enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program, leaving them few options for care. Hospital executives worry that they will have to absorb the cost and burden of providing treatment for the low-income residents and children until the more generous federal subsidies arrive in 2014 as part of the federal health-reform bill. Hospitals are required to provide care regardless of a patient’s ability to pay…”
- Arizona non-profit clinics fear lost funds, flood of uninsured patients, By Ginger Rough, March 24, 2010, Arizona Republic: “Arizona’s community health centers, a vital safety net for the uninsured and the working poor, are bracing for an onslaught of new patients and preparing to roll back their services after two state health-care programs were killed and the state’s Medicaid spending was slashed. New patients cut off from government insurance programs could flood the centers, and the centers would not have reimbursements from those programs to cover the full cost of providing care. The 16 federally qualified centers, which are non-profits and operate more than 130 clinics in mostly rural and underserved areas, rely mainly on state and federal insurance and federal grants to operate…”
National Assessment of Educational Progress
- Reading scores lagging compared with math, By Sam Dillon, March 24, 2010, New York Times: “The nation’s schoolchildren have made little or no progress in reading proficiency in recent years, according to results released Wednesday from the largest nationwide reading test. The trend of sluggish achievement contrasts with dramatic gains made in mathematics during the same period. ‘The nation has done a really good job improving math skills,’ said Mark Schneider, a vice president at the American Institutes for Research and a former official at the Education Department, which oversees the test, known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress. ‘In contrast, we have made only marginal improvements in reading skills…’”
- Reading scores stalled despite ‘No Child Left Behind,’ report finds, By Nick Anderson and Bill Turque, March 24, 2010, Washington Post: “The nation’s students are mired at a basic level of reading in fourth and eighth grades, their achievement in recent years largely stagnant, according to a federal report Wednesday that suggests a dwindling academic payoff from the landmark No Child Left Behind law. But reading performance has climbed in D.C. elementary schools, a significant counterpoint to the national trend, even though the city’s scores remain far below average. The report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that fourth-grade reading scores stalled after the law took effect in 2002, rose modestly in 2007, then stalled again in 2009. Eighth-grade scores showed a slight uptick since 2007 — 1 point on a scale of 500 — but no gain over the seven-year span when President George W. Bush’s program for school reform was in high gear. Only in Kentucky did reading scores rise significantly in both grades from 2007 to 2009…”
- State’s fourth-grade readers lose ground, By Amy Hetzner, March 24, 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “The latest scorecard gauging how well Wisconsin’s students read compared with their classmates in other states showed little change from previous years, but the rest of the nation’s fourth-graders have been catching up and Wisconsin’s black students now rank behind those in every other state. ‘Holding steady is not good enough,’ state schools Superintendent Tony Evers said about the results. ‘Despite increasing poverty that has a negative impact on student learning, we must do more to improve the reading achievement of all students in Wisconsin.’ Fourth-graders in Wisconsin posted an average score of 220 on the 500-point reading test administered in 2009 as part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the nation’s report card. That represented a three-point drop from two years before and translated to a 33% proficiency rate…”