Recession cut into employment for half of working adults, study says, By Michael A. Fletcher, June 30, 2010, Washington Post: “The recession has directly hit more than half of the nation’s working adults, pushing them into unemployment, pay cuts, reduced hours at work or part-time jobs, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. The economic shock has jolted many Americans into a new, more austere reality, which is likely to have lasting consequences for an economy fueled mostly by consumer spending. More than six in 10 Americans say they have cut down on borrowing and spending, the survey found. The reason: Nearly half of the survey’s respondents say they are in worse financial shape as a result of the downturn, which destroyed 20 percent of Americans’ wealth…”

• California welfare cards can be used in many casino ATMs, By Jack Dolan, June 24, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “California welfare recipients are able to use state-issued debit cards to withdraw cash on gaming floors in more than half of the casinos in the state, a Los Angeles Times review of records found. The cards, provided by the Department of Social Services to help recipients feed and clothe their families, work in automated teller machines at 32 of 58 tribal casinos and 47 of 90 state-licensed poker rooms, the review found. State officials said Wednesday they were working to determine how much money had been withdrawn from casino ATMs by people using the welfare debit cards…”
• Confusion over use of welfare debit cards at casinos, By Clark Mason, June 29, 2010, Santa Rosa Press Democrat: “Several Indian casinos on the North Coast and a poker cardroom in Petaluma are listed among gambling venues where welfare recipients have used state-issued debit cards to withdraw cash. In the wake of a newspaper story that found California welfare recipients could use their cards in a majority of the 57 casinos in the state, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger moved to ensure the ATMs at the casinos no longer accept the cards. But a spokesman for the governor said Monday that it could be several weeks before the welfare cards are deactivated at the gambling establishments. ‘We said we need to prohibit these cards from being used in casinos,’ said Governor’s spokesman Aaron McLear. ‘They’re going through the process of reprogramming them now.’ Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, said it is ‘deeply disturbing’ that welfare recipients are using the debit cards to gamble. Casinos are ‘taking advantage of folks that are on welfare and allowing them to use welfare debit cards to gamble and lose at the tables and slots,’ said Huffman. ‘Already, people view casinos as preying on the poor. This only fuels the perception,’ he said. He also said it is upsetting that it was allowed to happen at all. ‘It clearly tells us we have some work to do and ought to take some simple, but firm steps right away to make sure it never happens again,’ he said. After last week’s publication of a Los Angeles Times story on the topic, state officials acknowledged welfare recipients used the debit cards to withdraw more than $1.8 million in taxpayer cash in casinos and card rooms between October 2009 and last month…”

Health-care overhaul will improve insurance options for part-time workers, By Michelle Andrews, June 29, 2010, Washington Post: “Sarah Rose Nordgren works 25 to 30 hours a week as a waitress at an upscale restaurant in Chapel Hill, N.C. She also tutors high- schoolers on their college entrance essays and has an editorial internship at a book publisher. But if something were to go seriously wrong with her health, she’d be in trouble because none of her three jobs offers health insurance. She’s been looking for a full-time job with benefits for several months, but there’s nothing on the horizon. So she shuttles between jobs and hopes that she stays healthy. Nordgren’s situation is not unusual. Fewer than a third of employers that offer health insurance make it available to their part-time workers, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Kaiser Health News is a program of the foundation.) And even if health insurance benefits are offered, part-timers, who often work in lower-paid retail, restaurant and service jobs, may not be able to afford them…”

Right-to-know law gives India’s poor a lever, By Lydia Polgreen, June 28, 2010, New York Times: “Chanchala Devi always wanted a house. Not a mud-and-stick hut, like her current home in this desolate village in the mineral-rich, corruption-corroded state of Jharkhand, but a proper brick-and-mortar house. When she heard that a government program for the poor would give her about $700 to build that house, she applied immediately. As an impoverished day laborer from a downtrodden caste, she was an ideal candidate for the grant. Yet she waited four years, watching as wealthier neighbors got grants and built sturdy houses, while she and her three children slept beneath a leaky roof of tree branches and crumbling clay tiles. Two months ago she took advantage of India’s powerful and wildly popular Right to Information law. With help from a local activist, she filed a request at a local government office to find out who had gotten the grants while she waited, and why. Within days a local bureaucrat had good news: Her grant had been approved, and she would soon get her check…”

• States fear strain as feds curb spending, By Ronald J. Hansen, June 21, 2010, Arizona Republic: “With Congress increasingly reluctant to add to the nation’s debt, financial help is hard to find for state governments and individual casualties of the recession. Last week, the Senate rejected a bill that would have extended stimulus provisions to help the unemployed. Several attempts to extend higher Medicaid assistance have failed, too, leaving dozens of states, including Arizona, with looming budget holes that collectively total about $24 billion. Many still expect that the Medicaid money will materialize, if only because many states have expected the help for months and built it into budgets that begin in July. In Arizona, the federal money would mean an extra $394 million to help defray the medical costs of about 310,000 poor adults. Extending help for the unemployed would cost $40 billion nationwide. Without a share of that money in Arizona, weekly unemployment checks that are already among the smallest in the nation are $25 lower, and fewer people qualify for help at all. The push for austerity comes as Congress tries to balance the needs of the social safety net against the costs of soaring debt…”
• States struggle to balance budgets after Congress refuses to offer more stimulus money, By Beth Fouhy (AP), June 28, 2010, Grand Forks Herald: “For at least 30 cash-strapped states counting on federal stimulus money, the news was a stunning blow: A deficit-weary Congress had rejected billions in additional aid, forcing lawmakers into a mad scramble to balance their budgets. Now, with a new fiscal year just days away in most states, many governors are proposing to make up for the shortfall with tax increases, cuts in essential services and potential layoffs of thousands of public employees. ‘I support restraining federal spending, but cutting the only funding designed to help states maintain the very safety-net programs Congress mandates us to preserve will have devastating consequences,’ California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a letter to his state’s congressional delegation. California faces a whopping $19 billion deficit _ more than 20 percent of the state’s total budget _ despite deep cuts that have already been made to many programs. Its new fiscal year begins July 1, and a budget deal there is nowhere in sight…”

• Budget project issues ‘Making Ends Meet’ report, By Tom Abate, June 25, 2010, San Francisco Chronicle: “A single adult must earn nearly $32,000 to live in San Francisco, while two working parents with two young children must take in a little more than $84,000 to get by, according to an analysis released Thursday by a public policy group in Sacramento. The California Budget Project report, titled ‘Making Ends Meet,’ estimates the cost of supporting a family of from one person to four people in each of the state’s 58 counties. The study uses federal and state figures to average a range of expenses including housing, utilities, food, transportation, health care, taxes, clothing, laundry services, reading materials and bath products such as toothpaste. ‘We don’t assume any cable TV or smart phone expenses,’ said budget project director Jean Ross, noting that the phone category supposes a $23 a month landline…”
• Many S.J. families struggling, By Jennifer Torres, June 25, 2010, Stockton Record: “More than half of local families - including those whose earnings place them well into middle-income levels - could be struggling to maintain even a modest standard of living (no vacations, no college savings, no home ownership), according to a new analysis that suggests other measures of poverty fail to consider what it really takes to support a family in the state. The California Budget Project, a nonprofit research organization, on Thursday released an update to its periodic report, ‘Making Ends Meet: How much Does it Cost To Raise a Family in California?’ The report offers county-by-county estimates of the child care, transportation, health care, housing and other costs that confront families - and that, in many cases, strain monthly wages. In San Joaquin County, according to the report, a family of four, with two working parents, would need to bring in nearly $5,800 a month, or close to $70,000 annually, to cover basic bills without public assistance…”

• Texas hit with fine for food stamp errors, By Corrie MacLaggan, June 28, 2010, Austin American-Statesman: “Federal officials have fined Texas $3.96 million for errors in issuing food stamp benefits, according to a letter to House Speaker Joe Straus. The penalty is for a high rate of overpayments or underpayments two years in a row, said the letter from U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin Concannon. Among the four states hit with penalties, Texas was fined the most. Also fined were Indiana ($1.2 million), Maryland ($742,238) and Iowa ($205,730), federal officials said. Texas plans to appeal, said Geoff Wool, a spokesman for the state Health and Human Services Commission. He said the commission learned of the fine on Friday. Wool said Texas’ appeal will focus on the fact that the number of food stamp recipients in Texas spiked after Hurricane Ike in 2008, increasing 26 percent in the year that followed…”
• U.S. fines Texas $4 million for botching food-stamp claims, By Robert t. Garrett, June 29, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “Federal food stamp officials have fined Texas nearly $4 million for making too many errors in calculating people’s monthly benefits. U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin Concannon notified state officials late last week, offering to waive half of the $3.96 million fine if Texas would use the money to improve administration of the program. But Texas Health and Human Services Commission spokesman Geoff Wool said Monday that the state will appeal. A penalty is unfair because hurricanes and the recession overwhelmed the state workers who process food stamp requests, Wool said. Texas either overpaid or underpaid on food stamp benefits 6.9 percent of the time in fiscal 2009, according to the federal Food and Nutrition Service. In Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth, the most error-prone regions, the state miscalculated benefits more than 10 percent of the time. Among all states, only Indiana and Maryland performed more poorly. Both had payment error rates of just over 7.1 percent last year, while the national rate was 4.36 percent, ‘the lowest rate in the history of the program,’ the service proclaimed…”

• Congress blasts Medicaid hole in states’ budgets, By Tami Luhby, June 28, 2010, CNNMoney.com: “Young children in Massachusetts will lose state-funded mental health services. Welfare recipients will see their employment and training programs slashed. And homeless families will lose nearly all their state assistance to move into more permanent housing. Massachusetts lawmakers had to make these and other difficult cuts last week after discovering they had to slash another nearly $700 million out of the state budget. The Bay State had assumed Congress would pass $24 billion in additional Medicaid funding for states before their fiscal years start on July 1. But that money hasn’t materialized. In fact, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., effectively killed the bill last week after deficit-wary Republicans blocked it for a third time. So officials in Massachusetts and 29 other states that counted on the funds to balance their budgets are left with the task of slashing services and payrolls once again…”
• No Medicaid money as new fiscal year draws near, By John Gramlich, June 28, 2010, Stateline.org: “A new fiscal year is set to begin, and at least 22 states are counting on federal Medicaid money that has yet to materialize. A congressional proposal to approve more Medicaid funding - which was originally part of the stimulus package and is set to expire at the end of 2010, halfway through the fiscal year that begins in most states on Thursday (July 1) - ran into Republican opposition in the Senate last week. The provision was part of a larger package that included an extension of unemployment insurance for jobless Americans. Republicans argue that the programs are worthwhile, but that the government must curtail spending…”

Don’t ignore low-income spill victims, advocates urge BP, By Deborah Barfield Berry, June 26, 2010, USA Today: “Vicky Townley is waiting to hear whether BP will compensate her for tip income she says she’s lost because of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. ‘Things are so slow we’re basically living from paycheck to paycheck, which is not very much,’ said Townley, a bartender in Gulf Shores, Ala., who filed her lost-wages claim three weeks ago. Before the spill, she said, she earned $60 a day in tips during the summer months, which helped in the long slog to rebound from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. ‘Things were just starting to pick up,’ she said. ‘Then the recession, then the oil. What next?’ Gulf Coast groups representing low-income workers say they want to make sure BP’s claims process doesn’t overlook workers like Townley in the rush to compensate fishermen and other high-priority spill victims…”

Study: Poverty decreases use of TIF, June 17, 2010, St. Louis Business Journal: “Rich cities are getting richer by using tax-increment financing (TIF) and poor cities are missing out, a new study shows. That could have a significant impact, considering more than half (56 percent) of all Missouri cities with a population of greater than 2,500 have adopted at least one tax increment financing (TIF) project, according to the study. For every 1 percent increase in the poverty rate, the likelihood of a TIF having been approved decreases by 9 percent, among Missouri cities surveyed. ‘This may suggest that the law be amended to target TIFs to locations that meet objective measures of economic disadvantage, such as poverty, income or unemployment,’ Kenneth Thomas, one of the study’s authors, said in a statement. He is associate professor of political science at University of Missouri-St. Louis. ‘As it stands, rich cities are getting richer by using TIFs,’ he added…”

• Crisis deepens Middle East poverty, says report, By Deena Kamel Yousef, June 24, 2010, Gulf News: “Significant parts of the Middle East are experiencing an increase in extreme poverty as the global economic slowdown increased unemployment and hunger spikes in the region, according to the 2010 United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Report released Wednesday. About 6 per cent of people in the region lived on less than $1.25 a day in 2005 compared to 2 per cent in 1990. The global economic and financial crisis, which began in the advanced economies of North America and Europe in 2007, sparked abrupt declines in exports and commodity prices and reduced trade and investment, slowing growth in developing countries, the report said…”
• Millenium Development Goals hit by crisis but still achievable, UN says, By Uwe Hessler, June 23, 2010, Deutsche Welle: “The United Nations published its 2010 Millenium Development Goals Report simultaneously in New York, Paris and Berlin on Wednesday. The food crisis of 2008 as well as the 2009 economic crisis ‘didn’t stop progress’ in reaching the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), the report said, but had made the prime goal of halving global poverty by 2015 ‘more difficult to achieve.’ The number of people in the world living on less than the $1.25 (1.05 euros) per day global poverty line had substantially decreased from 46 percent in 1990 to 27 percent in 2005 - the latest available figure on global hunger given in the report…”
• Fiscal crisis slows U.N. poverty fight, By Edith M. Lederer (AP), June 24, 2010, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: “The global economic crisis has slowed the fight against poverty but the developing world is still on track to meet a key U.N. goal of halving the number of people living on less than $1 a day by 2015, according to a report released Wednesday. The U.N. report cited new World Bank estimates suggesting that the crisis left an additional 50 million people in extreme poverty in 2009 and will leave 64 million impoverished by the end of 2010, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa and eastern and southeastern Asia. Hunger may also have spiked in 2009 - with more than 1 billion people undernourished - as a consequence of the global food and financial crises. The effects of the crises are likely to persist with poverty rates slightly higher than they would have been had the world economy grown steadily at its pre-crisis pace, the U.N. said…”

• Aid bill’s defeat a blow to states, By Daniel Malloy and Tracie Mauriello, June 25, 2010, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “After failing to garner the needed 60 votes Thursday, U.S. Senate leaders prepared to scrap a bill that would have extended aid to states, unemployment benefits and a host of tax provisions, potentially blowing an $850 million hole in Gov. Ed Rendell’s budget. The cloture vote to end debate and advance the measure fell short, 57-41, with Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., joining a united Republican caucus to oppose more spending as Congress becomes increasingly debt-conscious. Lawmakers in Harrisburg, backed up against their yearly budget deadline, had one wary eye on Washington on Thursday…”
• Granholm: Senate’s funding failure will force devastating cuts, By Chris Christoff, June 25, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “Gov. Jennifer Granholm said today Michigan faces ‘devastating’ cuts in unemployment benefits, health care for low-income families and possibly funding for colleges and local communities as a result of the U.S. Senate’s failure Thursday to enact a $16-billion funding measure for states. Without its share, Michigan will lose extended unemployment benefits for 87,000 people starting July 1, and won’t receive more than $500 million in federal Medicaid payments that the administration had counted on for next year’s budget. Granholm called U.S. Senate Republicans obstructionists for blocking the funding bill, despite pleas from 47 governors who face deficits or large numbers of unemployed residents…”

Health safety net frays with fixes still years off, By Noam N. Levey, June 20, 2010, Chicago Tribune: “Despite passage of the landmark health care overhaul this spring, the nation’s health system is continuing to fray, raising the prospect that the country could experience a crisis before the law establishes a health care safety net in 2014. Three months after President Barack Obama signed the law, that unsettling possibility is increasingly casting a shadow over its implementation, which the White House and its Democratic congressional allies had hoped a wary public would begin to embrace. Instead, state governments struggling with budgets savaged by the recession are contemplating further cuts in health care aid for the poor, despite the promise of more federal dollars. At the same time, several million unemployed Americans and their families who have used federal assistance to hold on to health insurance from work will lose coverage in coming months as the special assistance program expires…”

• Welfare cuts put added health strain on population, June 25, 2010, BBC News: “Analysis of European data showed that a £70 reduction in welfare spending per person is associated with a 2.8% rise in alcohol-related deaths and 1.2% rise in deaths from heart disease. Writing in the British Medical Journal, the UK research team said ordinary people may be paying the ultimate price for budget cuts. One expert added that social support was vital for health. The study comes after the government announced sweeping budget cuts, including reductions in tax credits for families, housing benefit and maternity grants. To pick out the effects of welfare funding on health, researchers looked at government spending in 15 European countries, including the UK, from 1980 to 2005…”
• Budget cuts will affect death rate, says report, By Aditya Chakrabortty, June 25, 2010, The Guardian: “The spending cuts made by the chancellor, George Osborne, in this week’s budget could cause up to 38,000 extra deaths over the next decade, according to academic research published tomorrow. Reductions in welfare payments and the 25% cut in spending across many government departments could lead to an increase in heart attacks and alcohol-related illnesses, according to analysis produced exclusively for the Guardian by an epidemiologist at Oxford University. David Stuckler warns that the announced reduction in overall support for the long-term unemployed, disabled people and families and children, might severely impact people’s health, or even cost them their lives…”

• Community colleges cutting back on open access, By Tamar Lewin, June 23, 2010, New York Times: “When Giovanny Villalta tried to register for winter-term classes at Mount San Antonio College here, he hit the wall. ‘I was assigned a late registration slot, and by the time I was allowed to register, everything was full,’ Mr. Villalta said. ‘Biology, full. Anatomy, full. Physics, full. Psychology, full. History of Asia, full. Any history class that would count toward transferring to a four-year U.C. campus, full.’ So Mr. Villalta, who had been a high school athlete, ended up taking track - and nothing else. ‘It was pretty frustrating,’ he said. ‘You feel like you’re wasting time, and your life’s just going by.’ In this economy, community colleges are widely seen as the solution to many problems. Displaced workers are registering in droves to earn credentials that might get them back in the game. Strapped parents, daunted by the cost of four-year universities, are encouraging their children to spend two years at the local community college…”
• For-profit colleges find new market niche, By Tamar Lewin, June 23, 2010, New York Times: “Kaplan University has an offer for California community college students who cannot get a seat in a class they need: under a memorandum of understanding with the chancellor of the community college system, they can take the online version at Kaplan, with a 42 percent tuition discount. The opportunity would not come cheap. Kaplan charges $216 a credit with the discount, compared with $26 a credit at California’s community colleges. Supporters of for-profit education say the offer underscores how Kaplan and other profit-making colleges can help accommodate the mushrooming demand for higher education. The number of California students choosing for-profit schools has been increasing rapidly, state officials say. At the same time, government officials have become increasingly concerned that students at for-profit colleges are far more likely than those at public institutions to take out large loans - and default on them…”

• Administration broadens effort to fight homelessness, By Henri E. Cauvin, June 23, 2010, Washington Post: “The Obama administration released a strategy Tuesday to end homelessness by expanding programs to secure housing for veterans and families with young children and by building on efforts to help chronically homeless people. With the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq highlighting the needs of veterans and the economic crisis straining more families, the administration’s plan widens the role envisioned for the federal government in curbing and ending homelessness. It does not commit additional federal money on top of the billions of dollars already budgeted by the various agencies involved in reducing and preventing homelessness. Instead, the 67-page strategy, drafted by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness and unveiled Tuesday, details several smaller projects intended to spur collaboration among federal agencies and with local and state governments…”
• Obama builds on Bush success to help the homeless, Editorial, June 22, 2010, Christian Science Monitor: “To see what’s happening with the homeless population in America today, consider the following ’30s.’ In the last three years, during the great recession, the number of people who are considered to be chronically homeless has decreased by 30 percent. Over the same time period, the number of homeless families who are temporarily living in shelters has increased by 30 percent, according to a report last week by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The opposite trends show how far America has come in trying to solve homelessness, and where it needs to redouble its efforts. The Obama administration is attempting that extra effort with a national plan to eliminate homelessness. The plan, required by Congress, seeks to end chronic and veterans homelessness in five years - 10 years for families, youth, and children…”

Federal review aims to improve refugee system, By Anna Gorman and Alexandra Zavis, June 23, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “Recognizing that the United States is failing thousands of refugees fleeing war-torn countries, the Obama administration is conducting the first thorough review of the refugee resettlement system in 30 years and plans to announce major reforms this summer. Officials say the system is outdated and lacks adequate resources to help refugees find jobs and support themselves before exhausting their benefits. That task has been made more difficult by the recession and high unemployment. ‘The basic set-up of the program hasn’t been altered in many years,’ said National Security Council spokesman Ben Chang. ‘It was time to take a fresh look.’ Several changes have already been made to ease the transition for newcomers, most of whom have no U.S. work experience, little savings and limited English skills. The largest numbers of refugees last year - admitted based on persecution or fear of persecution - came from Iraq, Bhutan and Burma…”

Report: Over 115 million widows live in poverty, By Edith M. Lederer (AP), June 23, 2010, Washington Post: “At least 245 million women around the world have been widowed and more than 115 million of them live in devastating poverty, according to a new study launched Tuesday night by Cherie Blair, wife of the former British prime minister. The most dire consequences are faced by 2 million Afghan widows and at least 740,000 Iraqi widows who lost their husbands as a result of the ongoing conflicts; by widows and their children evicted from their family homes in sub-Saharan Africa; by elderly widows caring for grandchildren orphaned by the HIV/AIDS crisis, and by child widows aged 7 to 17 in developing countries, the report said…”

After cold start, weatherization program heating up in California, By Peter Urban, June 22, 2010, Salinas Californian: “Although it ranks near the bottom in national completion rates, California expects to meet its September goal of weatherizing at least 12,945 homes to secure $92 million in additional federal stimulus funds. For its part, Monterey County already is within reach of its weatherization target for the same time frame. The U.S. Department of Energy slated $166 million for California to caulk windows, install weatherstripping and make other efficiencies to reduce electric bills for low-income families. A year ago, California received $74 million in stimulus funds for what the DOE then described as an ‘aggressive and innovative’ proposal to weatherize 43,400 low-income households within 33 months. The final $92 million is due this September if the state completes at least 30 percent of its overall goal…”

States face new pinch as stimulus ebbs, By Deborah Solomon, June 23, 2010, Wall Street Journal: “Already-strapped states are about to face a new squeeze as the boost from federal economic-stimulus spending draws to a close and Washington looks increasingly reluctant to widen the nation’s budget deficit. States have long known stimulus funds sent their way early in the recession would taper off in the first half of 2011. But many hoped a rebound in tax receipts would close the gap. While state revenues have rebounded somewhat, legislatures still must grapple with deficits totalling $127 billion over the next two fiscal years, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers. Meanwhile, many lawmakers in Washington, concerned about a U.S. budget deficit that could rise by as much as $11 trillion over the next decade, are opposing more spending…”

• Senate cuts to recession relief bill favor special interests, By Janet Hook, June 23, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “As the Senate scrambles to scale back a $140-billion recession relief bill, the poor, the elderly and the unemployed are bearing the brunt of the squeeze. But NASCAR track developers, movie producers and other special interests are likely to escape unscathed. Those businesses stand to gain $32 billion in tax breaks as part of the bill, which has been stalled for weeks because of rising complaints about deficit spending. In the hunt for ways to cut costs, neither party has proposed curbing the panoply of narrow tax preferences, which Congress has routinely extended each year. Instead, Senate leaders have proposed a $25 cut in weekly unemployment benefits; temporarily allowed a 21% cut in Medicare fees for doctors; and are planning to withhold or scale back $24 billion in payments many states expected to help pay for Medicaid for the poor…”
• Cutting off the unemployed, Editorial, June 22, 2010, New York Times: “It was bad enough when the Senate left town for a long Memorial Day break without passing a bill to extend expiring unemployment benefits. It’s worse now. Back in session for nearly three weeks, the Senate still has not acted. That means that 900,000 jobless workers have already lost their benefits, a number that will swell to an estimated 1.6 million people if an extension is not passed by the July Fourth holiday. Lost benefits - the average check is $309 a week - deprives struggling Americans of cash they need for buying food, paying the rent or mortgage and other essentials…”

Small NYC high schools found to boost achievement, By Karen Matthews (AP), June 22, 2010, Washington Post: “They were known as dropout factories: big high schools in poor neighborhoods where only a quarter to a third of students graduated. New York City under Mayor Michael Bloomberg has systematically shut down large, failing high schools and replaced them with small schools, many pegged to themes like the fashion industry or the business of sports. A new study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - which has invested more than $150 million in New York City schools - suggests that the small schools have succeeded in boosting graduation rates for the city’s most academically challenged students. Proponents say small schools can provide one-on-one support to struggling students, and the specialized programs are supposed to improve students’ motivation by enticing them to apply to schools that match their interests…”

Cuts in public dental benefits add to health risks for California’s poor, By Matt Kawahara, June 19, 2010, Sacramento Bee: ” Emma Snuggs’ smile is still a white flash of straight teeth, though it has been nearly two years since she last had money to visit a dentist. ‘You have to choose the necessities,’ said Snuggs, 26. On Monday afternoon, though, she watched as her son Michael Hunsaker, 7, had his teeth checked at the Sacramento Native American Health Center on J Street. Michael is covered by Denti-Cal, the dental arm of the state’s public insurance program, Medi-Cal. Snuggs, a single mother and a student at Sacramento City College, is on Medi-Cal as well. But last July the state cut dental services for adults in a move that was expected to save $115 million…”

• State to expand Medicaid coverage to single adults, By Matthew Sturdevant, June 21, 2010, Hartford Courant: “Connecticut will save $53 million in the next year by shifting the cost of medical care for about 45,000 low-income single adults from a state program to federal Medicaid. Connecticut on Monday became the first state in the U.S. to take advantage of federal healthcare reform laws passed in March expanding Medicaid services to low-income single adults who don’t have children…”
• Medicaid expansion to cost Ohioans $1.45 billion, By Catherine Candisky, June 17, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “The sharp Medicaid expansion under the new federal health-care law will cost Ohio taxpayers $1.45 billion from 2014 through 2019, according to projections released to The Dispatch today by the state. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services estimates that Medicaid - which currently insures nearly 2.1 million poor and disabled Ohioans - will grow by 554,000 people beginning in the 2014 fiscal year. Half of the new enrollees are already eligible for coverage but not enrolled and expected to sign up during a renewed marketing effort, state officials say. The cost estimates were the first by the state since President Barack Obama signed the sweeping overhaul into law in March…”
• Colorado delays Medicaid payments, By Jennifer Brown, June 17, 2010, Denver Post: “Temporarily short on money, Colorado has declared a fiscal emergency and delayed payments to doctors and clinics taking care of the state’s neediest patients. Under state law, the Medicaid department can delay reimbursements to doctors, hospitals and clinics during a fiscal emergency. Physicians treating patients with the health-insurance plan for the poor will not receive normally scheduled payments on June 25 or July 2, a hardship for safety-net clinics in particular that rely on public funds. State officials said they would begin catching up on payments July 9 after a new fiscal year begins…”

• More children held in grip of poverty, By Bill Ruthhart and Will Higgins, June 22, 2010, Indianapolis Star: “At its inaugural summer Breakfast Club program a year ago, the Lord’s Pantry served seven hungry people. Earlier this month, the program’s summer kickoff meal drew three times as many, 17 of them children. The increase in demand for food at the Breakfast Club reflects the increase in poverty nationally, especially children in poverty. Nationally, 22 percent of American children will be living in poverty this year, according to a new study. And a local expert says that rate likely is similar in Indiana. ‘There are lots of kids in this neighborhood, and a lot of them need some help,’ said Julie Molloy, who runs the pantry that serves Stringtown families on the Near Westside. The analysis by the nonprofit Foundation for Child Development found that two years after the recession began to ravage the U.S. economy, children are living on the edge at a rate not equaled in two decades…”
• Report says one in 10 Terrebonne children lives in extreme poverty, By Naomi King, June 18, 2010, Houma Courier: “Children in Lafourche Parish are more likely to live in extreme poverty than in Terrebonne, according to a report released this week by the Southern Education Foundation. The report says 14.3 percent of children lived in extreme poverty in Lafourche Parish in 2008, while 9.9 percent of children in Terrebonne lived in extreme poverty that same year. That’s about one in seven kids in Lafourche and one in 10 children in Terrebonne. Louisiana’s extreme poverty rate will only grow, local and regional child-care officials say, because of lingering effects of the national recession and the ongoing oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, which has prevented fishermen from harvesting and led the federal government to ban new deepwater drilling…”

Unlikely mentors give felons hope, By Kevin Johnson, June 21, 2010, USA Today: “James Churchill was nearing the end of a 10-year prison term for armed robbery last year when he struck an unusual bargain with an unlikely partner. If Churchill, a career criminal at age 34, could stay out of trouble during his first months of freedom, police Lt. Ralph Mason pledged to help find him a job. The collaboration between cop and criminal in a state with the nation’s highest unemployment rate is remarkable and so far, successful. Eleven months after his release, Churchill has been employed for nine months - without incident - by a industrial plumbing company, earning up to $21 per hour. Churchill says he was ’shocked’ by Mason’s help, but the officer’s intervention is a sample of the untraditional methods Michigan officials are using to help ex-offenders re-enter society and slash troubling rates of those who return to prison. As communities across the nation struggle to assimilate about 700,000 ex-offenders who leave prison each year, according to the Justice Department, local Michigan officials are recruiting doctors, clergy, business leaders and even police as mentors to help keep them out…”

Fed housing assistance stalled in Detroit, By Catherine Jun, June 21, 2010, Detroit News: “Eight months after desperate crowds elbowed each other at Cobo Center for federal emergency housing money, less than 8 percent of Detroit’s $15.2 million has been spent, according to federal reports. That amounts to help for just 330 households, far less than the 3,400 Detroit families targeted through the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program. It also means Detroit is lagging in the national program designed to get money to homeless or nearly homeless families, falling behind Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City. The federal stimulus dollars help with utility bills and up to 18 months of rental assistance. But observers worry that for some, delays mean the help is coming too late…”

Dads who don’t live with their kids find ways to be involved, By Sharon Jayson, June 16, 2010, USA Today: “Half of all U.S. children won’t live with their father for part of their childhood. But just because ‘non-resident’ dads don’t live with their kids doesn’t mean they’re not involved with them. ‘There are fathers that are very involved. There are some that are not. We have this image of the non-resident dad, and for some, that’s the deadbeat dad,’ says Valarie King, a sociologist and demographer at Pennsylvania State University who just completed work on a five-year grant studying non-resident fathers. Decades ago, non-resident fathers were largely divorced, but King and other researchers say many non-resident dads today were in a non-marital relationship that didn’t last. Divorced fathers have been shown to be more involved, on average, than those who were never married to the child’s mother, King says. Such research findings (some yet unpublished) - along with changing attitudes and custody laws - are creating a new picture of today’s non-resident dads…”

Subsidized jobs: A faint echo of the New Deal, By Christine Vestal, June 18, 2010, Stateline.org: “In rural Winston County, Mississippi, Taylor Machine Works - best known for its Big Red forklifts - is the primary employer. After the recession hit in late 2008, the company shed nearly 200 of its 500 jobs and would not be rehiring anyone now if it weren’t for a subsidized employment program Mississippi launched with the help of federal stimulus money. Nationwide, 32 states are tapping into a $5 billion emergency fund under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) welfare-to-work program - to help small businesses, nonprofits and public hospitals hire and train unemployed workers at a time when few organizations are ready to take on the added cost. This is not exactly the Works Progress Administration. During the Great Depression, the federal government subsidized employment for more than 8.5 million jobless workers under the WPA. Although maligned for its massive cost and the fact that millions of workers were collecting paychecks directly from the federal government, others credited the New Deal jobs program with returning dignity and hope to millions of American families…”

Utah’s jobless trust fund is about to go broke, By Tony Semerad, June 20, 2010, Salt Lake Tribune: “Devastated by the recession, Utah’s trust fund for paying jobless benefits is now expected to go broke. The unemployment trust fund, which just two years ago held $855 million, continues to drain rapidly as record numbers of out-of-work Utahns draw weekly benefits. At current rates, state analysts are estimating the fund will run out of money as early as fall of 2011. ‘We are projecting that we will go insolvent,’ Kristen Cox, executive director of the Utah Department of Workforce Services, recently told officials who set trust fund policy. The fund holds about $384 million now, and is replenished by an average of about $140 million a year in premiums paid by employers. That balance ranks as the fifth healthiest among the states, dozens of which have seen their trust funds wiped out since 2008…”

• Number of uninsured jumped by nearly 3 million in 2009, By Steven Reinberg, June 20, 2010, USA Today: “For some Americans, health care reform may be arriving none too soon: The number of U.S. adults not covered by health insurance jumped by 2.9 million people from 2008 to 2009. In 2009 - the year in which the latest statistics are available - 46.3 million American adults had no health insurance, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This means one in five working-age adults is uninsured, and the situation is still worse in some states: nearly one in four Texans, for example, lack any form of health coverage…”
• 4 in 10 in Michigan uninsured, on public plan, By Patricia Anstett, June 20, 2010, Detroit Free Press: “The impact of the state’s sour economy is clear in a new report: More than 3.8 million Michiganders — nearly 4 of 10 people who live here — were uninsured or covered by a public program. Michigan also sank from best in the nation to sixth-best among states with the most uninsured children between 2005 and 2008, according to the annual Cover Michigan report to be released Monday by the Ann Arbor-based Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation. A partnership of the University of Michigan and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the center compiles some of the most comprehensive data in the state on health insurance coverage. Michigan still has some of the nation’s most affordable rates, ranking ninth-lowest in yearly premiums, the report found…”
• Health aid urged for low-wage workers, By Kay Lazar, June 20, 2010, Boston Globe: “Thousands of uninsured Massachusetts workers in low-wage jobs are ineligible for state-subsidized health coverage, but they will qualify for these low-cost plans under the new national health care overhaul - in 2014. Now, some consumer advocates, arguing that the wait is unfair and a black eye for the state, want the Patrick administration and legislators to launch a program to cover at least part of this group. Administration officials, already facing huge budget deficits, say the state can’t afford the tens of millions of dollars it would cost to subsidize additional workers’ insurance…”

• Early success makes finding uninsured children tougher, By Phil Galewitz, June 16, 2010, USA Today: “For 55-year-old Hilda Johnson, who cares for her two young grandsons, the ‘Walkers/Talkers’ program was a godsend. Johnson, who is disabled, didn’t know how to get insurance coverage for Bryce, 3, and Brian, 4. Then last year, someone from Kingsley House, a non-profit agency that runs Walkers/Talkers, came to her house and helped her enroll the boys in Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor. ‘They were more than helpful in doing all the paperwork,’ she said. ‘Without this, I wouldn’t have known what to do.’ The program, which was started more than a decade ago, is one of the most aggressive efforts in the nation to reach children who are eligible but not enrolled in government health insurance programs - Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The Walkers/Talkers program sends workers into the poorest neighborhoods to knock on doors in search of uninsured children and then helps parents sign them up…”
• Young canvassers part of nationwide health care drive, By Phil Galewitz, June 15, 2010, USA Today: “On a cool weekday afternoon, a small group of young adults gathers outside Covenant House, a homeless shelter where some of them live or go to school. Armed with clipboards, they jump into a van and head out to search for their target: uninsured children. For the next three hours, the group of 20-somethings, called ‘door knockers,’ canvass a lower-income neighborhood looking for children who are eligible for two government programs: Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). ‘We’re in the neighborhood to sign up kids for free health care,’ says Maurice Raspberry, 21, who lives at the shelter. Tami Wright, also 21, answers the door at her grandmother’s house. Her children, ages 1 and 3, are uninsured because she didn’t know how to renew their coverage through Medicaid, the state-federal health program for the poor. ‘I don’t work and I don’t have a car to get to the welfare office,’ says Wright, who is uninsured…”

Low-income children still short on good dental care, By Pohla Smith, June 16, 2010, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Nearly 104,000 children in Allegheny County are covered by Medicaid, yet even though they are required to enroll in a managed care organization, a new study suggests a significant percentage of them did not see a dentist in 2009. The online report by the Pennsylvania Medicaid Policy Center at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health found that Medical Assistance covered about 1 million, or 35.5 percent, of all Pennsylvania children last year. Only 42.8 percent of children enrolled in managed care had an annual visit to a dentist…”

• Families in homeless shelters increased 7% in ‘09, By Marisol Bello, June 15, 2010, USA Today: “The recession continued to take its toll as more families with children became homeless for the second straight year, a U.S. government report shows. The number of families in homeless shelters increased 7% to 170,129 from fiscal year 2008 through fiscal year 2009, a report released today by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found. At the same time, the overall number of homeless people in shelters fell 2% to 1.56 million. ‘As the nation’s housing and job markets show encouraging signs of recovery, there are still far too many families who are on the brink of becoming homeless or have fallen into our shelter system,’ Secretary Shaun Donovan said in a statement…”
• More families are homeless and on the streets, By Tami Luhby, June 16, 2010, CNNMoney.com: “The Great Recession drove more families into homeless shelters in 2009, a new federal report has found. Some 170,000 families needed shelter last year, up from 159,000 in 2008, according to an annual survey from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. There were 535,000 people in those families. Over the course of the past year, the number of people in homeless shelters dipped slightly to 1.56 million, from 1.6 million a year earlier. This translates into one of every 200 Americans. On a single night in January 2009, there were just over 643,000 homeless people nationwide. But, there are fewer people actually on the streets. More than 60% of people were in emergency shelters or transitional housing programs, while 37% were on the street or in other places not meant for human habitation. In 2008, some 42% were living on the streets…”

Medicaid money caught in political tug-of-war between states, Washington, By David Klepper, June 15, 2010, Kansas City Star: “If bailout-weary members of Congress have their way, Kansas and 29 other states will lose $25 billion in expected federal aid and face yet another round of gaping budget deficits. The money - amounting to $130 million in Medicaid dollars for the Sunflower State - is caught in the middle of a tug of war between cash-starved legislatures and Washington lawmakers reluctant to pass another bailout that adds billions in debt in an election year. A year ago, Congress increased the federal contribution to state Medicaid programs as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. But the extra money expires in December. Despite loud protests from Democratic and Republican governors nationwide, a bill extending the higher contributions for six additional months faces an uncertain fate in Congress. A Senate vote is possible this week, but there’s no guarantee of passage…”

Jobless benefits extension stalls in Senate, By Janet Hook, June 16, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “An effort to extend benefits for the long-term unemployed stalled Tuesday on Capitol Hill when the Senate voted 45-52 to block the $140-billion catchall bill that also would delay a Medicare fee cut, extend a hodgepodge of expiring tax cuts, and includes other provisions that Democrats say will help stimulate job growth. Although the bill also included tax increases on investment managers and oil companies to help offset the cost, it has run into opposition from Republicans as well as many Democrats who are worried about adding to the burgeoning budget deficit…”

A dirt-poor nation, with a health plan, By Donald G. McNeil, Jr., June 14, 2010, New York Times: “The maternity ward in the Mayange district health center is nothing fancy. It has no running water, and the delivery room is little more than a pair of padded benches with stirrups. But the blue paint on the walls is fairly fresh, and the labor room beds have mosquito nets. Inside, three generations of the Yankulije family are relaxing on one bed: Rachel, 53, her daughter Chantal Mujawimana, 22, and Chantal’s baby boy, too recently arrived in this world to have a name yet. The little prince is the first in his line to be delivered in a clinic rather than on the floor of a mud hut. But he is not the first with health insurance. Both his mother and grandmother have it, which is why he was born here. Rwanda has had national health insurance for 11 years now; 92 percent of the nation is covered, and the premiums are $2 a year…”

The unemployed held hostage, Editorial, June 14, 2010, New York Times: “Since June 1, when federal unemployment benefits began to expire, an estimated 325,000 jobless workers have been cut off. That number will swell to 1.25 million by the end of the month unless Congress extends the benefits. The Senate, so far, has failed to act. Some senators, including Democrats, have balked at an unrelated provision that would begin to close a tax loophole enjoyed by some of the richest Americans. You heard right. Desperately needed unemployment benefits have been held hostage to a tax break for the rich, and the Senate’s Democratic leadership has had to delay and finagle to get its own caucus in line…”

• Advocates for low income, disabled fear new Medicaid rules, By Nancy Hicks, June 13, 2010, Lincoln Journal Star: “Advocates for low-income people and those with disabilities fear the two companies that will provide health services to about 90,000 Nebraskans will focus on the bottom line, not the health needs of clients. The advocates testified at a public hearing last week on new rules that will apply to the Medicaid program for most people in 10 eastern Nebraska counties. The state has contracted with Coventry and UnitedHealthcare (its Share Advantage Plan), under what are called at-risk or full-risk managed care plans. The two companies will be paid a set amount per client, based on the age and needs of the client. The private company takes the risk and covers the cost if services for its clients cost more than the state’s payment…”
• Medicaid stop-smoking program gets $1.5 million in budget, By Deborah Yetter, June 12, 2010, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Health advocates say Kentucky’s bleak budget has one bright spot — it funds a long-sought program to help people on Medicaid stop smoking. Lawmakers allocated $1.5 million a year for the next two fiscal years that, combined with additional federal matching money, will give Medicaid officials about $11 million for the program. ‘We’re thrilled it finally got the funding,’ said Amy Barkley of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, one of several groups that had lobbied the legislature to fund the program. ‘Everybody agreed it was kind of a no-brainer. People can quit smoking if they are given the appropriate tools.’ Lawmakers authorized the project in 2007 but never funded it because of the tight state budget. But advocates kept lobbying for funding. They argued that the state’s increasingly costly Medicaid program, which provides health care for nearly 800,000 low-income and disabled Kentuckians, could save money it now spends to treat smoking-related diseases…”

Advocates say poor need available free cell phones, By Alfred Lubrano, June 14, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Should the poor have cell phones? It’s a question that has engaged both ends of the political spectrum since 2004, when the conservative Heritage Foundation published a controversial paper saying the poor enjoy ‘high living standards’ and cited as proof that many have cell phones, among other things. In rebuttal, advocates for the poor have argued that cell phones are not luxuries but necessities, as basic to modern life as electricity. Complicating the debate these days is a new development: free cell phones for the poor and working poor distributed by a Miami wireless company. They’re paid for, in part, by charges on phone bills that the federal government allows carriers to levy. It’s a little-known collaboration between the federal government and phone carriers, devised by the Reagan administration 26 years ago…”

Ontario should adopt bold vision for welfare reform, By Laurie Monsebraaten, June 14, 2010, Toronto Star: “Ontario should adopt a bold vision for welfare reform that includes new income supports and services for all low-income residents, says a government-appointed panel in a report being released Monday. ‘We are currently investing billions into federal and provincial programs that too often trap people in poverty and fail to offer alternatives to social assistance,’ said Gail Nyberg of the Daily Bread Food Bank who chaired the panel of anti-poverty experts. ‘Tinkering with a broken system will not lead to different outcomes. It’s time to unleash a bold review,’ she said. Social Services Minister Madeleine Meilleur appointed the panel last December to advise the government on the scope and terms of reference for a review of social assistance, promised in 2008 as part of the Liberals’ anti-poverty strategy…”

States begging Congress for $24B Medicaid bailout, By Chris Woodward (AP), June 9, 2010, Miami Herald: “Four governors and a leading national economist urged Congress on Wednesday to send an additional $24 billion bailout to the states, saying cash-strapped governments face deep budget cuts and thousands of lost jobs without the aid. The money would flow through Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor jointly financed by state and federal governments. Congress picked up a larger share of Medicaid costs through the 2009 stimulus bill, but that aid will expire in December. States have been hoping for a six-month extension as the slow economic recovery continues to crimp tax collections. In a recent survey, the National Conference of State Legislatures found that 30 states already were factoring the money into their budgets for 2011…”

Graduation rate for US high-schoolers falls for second straight year, By Stacy Teicher Khadaroo, June 10, 2010, Christian Science Monitor: “The national high school graduation rate has slipped in recent years, despite an array of public and private efforts to boost the percentage of students going on to college. But some districts are beating the odds, succeeding with many students who otherwise may have fallen through the cracks. The percent of students earning a standard diploma in four years shifted from 69.2 percent in 2006 to 68.8 percent in 2007, according to an analysis of the most recent data in ‘Diplomas Count 2010.’ It was the second consecutive year of decline, says the report, which was released Thursday by Education Week and the Editorial Projects in Education (EPE) Research Center, a nonprofit in Bethesda, Md. That translates to 11,000 fewer graduates in 2007 than in 2006. At its peak in 1969, the national graduation rate was 77 percent…”

Children in poverty worsens, By John Lyons, June 11, 2010, Fort Smith Times Record: “More Arkansas children are living in poverty now than a generation ago, according to a report released Thursday. Based on 2008 data, 24.9 percent of Arkansas children live in poverty, compared to 22.6 percent 31 years ago, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families reports in ‘Child Poverty in Arkansas 2010: A Deepening Problem.’ The report draws on U.S. Census data and uses the federal poverty level. In 2008, a family of four earning less than $21,000 a year was considered to be living in poverty. In 1979, a family of four earning less than $7,412 was considered poor. The report notes that Arkansas’ child poverty rate is higher than the national rate of 18.2 percent…”

Bill would extend Phila. schools’ Universal Feeding program, By Alfred Lubrano, June 11, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “A unique free-lunch program for poor children in Philadelphia schools would continue for five more years under a bill introduced Thursday on Capitol Hill. The city’s Universal Feeding program, which allows more than 110,000 students to eat free lunches without having to fill out applications, was included in the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act. U.S. Reps. Joe Sestak (D., Pa.) and Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.) said Thursday they worked with other members of the Philadelphia congressional delegation and their staffs to get the provision for the Philadelphia program into the House bill. The Senate version does not have a similar provision. Without the Philadelphia provision, thousands of poor city students could face the loss of free lunches, advocates say. Children and their families in poor communities don’t always complete such forms, creating the potential for youngsters to go hungry…”

Reform leads to bigger role for community health centers, By Guy Boulton, June 2, 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Community health centers more than doubled in size in the past decade. Now they’ve been given the task of doubling in size yet again. The health centers, often located in low-income urban neighborhoods and rural areas, are an overlooked component of the health care system. But they provide care to nearly 244,000 people statewide, up from 89,392 in 1999. That’s roughly 80,000 people in Milwaukee, or about one in seven residents. They also have been given a crucial role - and with it, a huge increase in funding - to help meet the expected rise in demand that will accompany health care reform. Reform legislation allocated an additional $11 billion for the community health centers over the next five years. To put that in perspective, the federal government now spends $2.2 billion a year on direct support for the centers…”

More Hoosier kids put in foster care, By Tim Evans, June 9, 2010, Indianapolis Star: “It is among the most devastating and gut-wrenching decisions government can make: taking a child away from his or her parents. As child welfare experts understand more about the lasting effects of such a decision, social workers have sought new ways to support troubled families and keep children in their homes. That is one of the likely explanations for the most recent federal data that reveals a 7 percent drop in the number of U.S. children removed from their homes — the most significant one-year decline in a decade. But that’s not the case in Indiana. According to that same data, the number of Hoosier children removed and placed in foster care has climbed to an all-time high, 9,375 — a 22 percent jump in removals from 2007 to 2008. That means the Indiana Department of Child Services is removing, on average, about 180 children per week…”

City drops plan to charge rent to shelter residents, By Cara Buckley, June 4, 2010, New York Times: “The Bloomberg administration has abandoned a controversial decision to charge rent to working homeless families living at city shelters, officials announced on Friday. Instead, under a new agreement that could start in September, such families would be required to set aside a part of their monthly earnings in a savings account that they can have access to once they leave the shelter system. ‘This plan will make it easier for homeless families to move into permanent housing with savings in the bank,’ said State Senator Daniel L. Squadron, who represents parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn and pushed for the new agreement, which had the support of city and state officials, as well as advocates for the homeless. Steven Banks, attorney in chief at the Legal Aid Society, which was poised to sue the city if it had continued charging rent to the working homeless families in shelters, described the new plan as a ‘huge step forward…’”

City services for families in trouble could be cut, By Stephen Ceasar, June 8, 2010, New York Times: “The beating death of a 7-year-old, Nixzmary Brown, at the hands of her stepfather in 2006 helped prompt a series of reforms in New York’s child protection services, including a greater emphasis on providing intensive services to families with problems, from domestic abuse to mental illness, that put children in danger. The focus on preventing abuse has helped keep children safe, prevented families from being divided and avoided unnecessary referrals to costly foster care, according to children’s advocates. Now, under Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s budget proposal, funding for preventive services for about 3,000 families could be cut. The city’s child protection agency, the Administration for Children’s Services, stands to lose $12.8 million for these services from the Bloomberg administration, which is trying to close a $5 billion deficit before the start of the fiscal year on July 1. And because the state matches city money for the agency, by nearly 2 to 1, the total reduction would amount to more than $35 million…”

Millions forced to wait for food stamps benefits, By Michelle Roberts and Justin Juozapavicius (AP), June 9, 2010, Washington Post: “When Amanda Vaca’s husband lost his job, the couple took stock of their finances and drew a startling conclusion: They could not afford to feed their four young children. So Vaca filled out an application for food stamps. Then, the wait began. A month passed, then two. In some weeks, the food simply ran out. ‘There was several occasions where I didn’t have breakfast to cook them or all there was was noodles,’ said Vaca, a customer-service representative in Fort Worth who got laid off shortly after her husband. They waited three months for assistance. The recession has landed millions of hungry families in similar straits, forcing them to endure long waits for help buying basic groceries. A review by The Associated Press found that dozens of food-stamp programs in 39 states left at least a quarter of applicants waiting weeks or months for food aid, some in areas that were not particularly hard hit by the economic downturn…”