Oregon’s hunger assistance program receives two awards, By Saerom Yoo, September 29, 2011, Statesman Journal: “There’s a silver lining in Oregon’s record hunger problem – $5 million worth, in fact. The state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as the Food Stamp program, has received two awards from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for its successful performance. For the fifth consecutive year, SNAP was recognized for its high participation rate with a $2.6 million award. Almost 92 percent of Oregonians eligible for food stamps are enrolled. It was also awarded $2.4 million for timely processing of applications…”
Monthly Archives: September 2011
School Breakfast Program – New Jersey
N.J. ranks 46th nationally for participation in the National School Breakfast Program, By Nic Corbett, September 30, 2011, Star-Ledger: “A bowl of cereal, a cup of milk and some graham crackers can help a student start the school day off right, but New Jersey ranks 46th in the nation for participation in the National School Breakfast Program. Only 28 percent of New Jersey children eligible for free- or reduced-price meals were served breakfast at school last year through the federally funded program, according to a report by the nonprofit Advocates for Children of New Jersey using data from the New Jersey Departments of Education and Agriculture. Executive Director Cecilia Zalkind said it’s difficult for students to concentrate on a reading assignment or solve a math problem without eating in the morning…”
States and Medicaid – Florida, Wisconsin
- Studies: Medicaid vital to kids, seniors, By David Gulliver, September 28, 2011, Bradenton Herald: “More than a half-million Floridians rely on Medicaid to pay for cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other illnesses, and that federal safety net may be crucial as private health insurance costs rise far faster than wages. That picture comes from a pair of separate studies released Tuesday. Families USA examined Medicaid usage in major states, and found that in Florida, seniors and children are among its biggest recipients. The Kaiser Family Foundation surveyed employers and found that annual premiums for their family health plans increased 9 percent from the prior year, to about $15,073, greatly outpacing the 2.1 percent rise in workers’ pay…”
- State wants to shift some Medicaid recipients to lower-cost plans, By Jason Stein, September 30, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “To help address a half-billion dollar shortfall in the state’s health programs, Gov. Scott Walker’s administration is seeking to shift hundreds of thousands of state residents to lower-cost state plans or to private plans but not to leave them without coverage altogether, officials said. State officials said that there is now a $554 million estimated deficit – $110 million more than previously projected – through June 2013 in state Medicaid health programs, which provide everything from doctor’s visits for poor families to nursing home care for the elderly. That deficit could still grow further going forward, they warned. To close that gap and control fast-growing costs, state Health Services Secretary Dennis Smith said that the state would avoid dropping state residents with no other options for coverage and look instead at efforts like shifting 230,000 state Medicaid recipients into a lower-cost plan with fewer benefits…”
Joblessness and Unemployment
Unemployment benefits applications fall but joblessness remains high, By Christopher S. Rugaber and Martin Crutsinger (AP), September 30, 2011, Christian Science Monitor: “The economy is showing signs of modest improvement – not enough to reduce highunemployment but enough to ease fears that another recession might be near. Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week, though some of that was due to technical factors. And the economy grew slightly more in the April-June quarter than previously estimated. Growth is also expected to tick up in coming months…”
State Immigration Law – Alabama
- Alabama life already changing under tough immigration law, By Patrik Jonsson, September 29, 2011, Christian Science Monitor: “Even before federal judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn upheld the toughest parts of Alabama’s groundbreaking immigration law Wednesday, daily life in Alabama had already begun to look – and feel – a little different. The state’s agriculture commissioner says some farmers are mourning squash rotting in the fields, after migrant workers either left or avoided the state, some in fear that their children would be used as deportation tools as schools next week begin checking the immigration status of incoming students. Two days before Judge Blackburn proffered her ruling, Alabama announced a new car-registration database called ALVerify, to head off fears of citizen revolts against long courthouse lines as residents prove their citizenship. And those working to rebuild the state from this spring’s massive tornado outbreak predicted delays under the expectation that Hispanic workers will be harder to find to lay roofs, build decks, and pour foundations…”
- Law doesn’t mark end of Alabama immigration battle, By Scott Neuman, September 29, 2011, National Public Radio: “Alabama’s toughest-in-the-nation law on illegal immigration went into effect Thursday, a day after a federal judge upheld some of its key provisions, but the court battle over the issue appears far from over. State law enforcement can now question and detain without bond people they suspect may be in the country illegally, and public schools are required to verify students’ immigration status. U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn on Wednesday upheld those and other key aspects of the law. The Justice Department, civil rights groups and some Alabama churches had sued to stop the measure from taking effect…”
Community College Enrollment – Michigan
Community colleges taking hits in Michigan, By David Jesse, September 30, 2011, Detroit Free Press: “Fewer students are enrolling and others are taking lighter class loads at Michigan’s community colleges, the result of federal worker retraining money drying up and health care reform that expanded a student exception to insurance rules. Federal health care law now allows part-time students to stay on their parents’ health insurance policies, which could account for a decline in credit hours as students look to save money by paring class loads. Enrollment at Michigan’s 28 community colleges is down 4% compared to last fall, and the number of credit hours taken is down 6%. Falling credit hours is a bigger deal to school officials than enrollment, because tuition revenue is based on classes taken and not enrollment…”
Census Poverty Data
- Poverty affects 46 million Americans, By Marisol Bello, September 28, 2011, USA Today: “Billy Schlegel plunged from middle class into poverty in the time it took his daughter to play a soccer season. In January 2010, he was making $50,000 a year as a surveyor, meeting the mortgage payments on his three-bedroom home in the nation’s wealthiest county and paying for his children to play hockey and soccer. Then came February. Schlegel, 45, was laid off. During the next 18 months, the divorced father of three almost lost his house, had to stop paying child support and turned to the local food bank for basic necessities. ‘You’ve got to swallow your pride,’ Schlegel says. ‘Especially around here, people lose their status and they feel they don’t fit in.’ This is the face of poverty after the Great Recession. Millions of Americans such as Schlegel now find themselves among the suddenly poor…”
- Hispanic children in poverty exceed whites, study finds, By Sabrina Tavernise, September 28, 2011, New York Times: “Hispanic children living in poverty in the United States outnumber poor white children for the first time, a demographic shift that was hastened by the recession, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Hispanic Center. The number of Hispanic children in poverty jumped by 36 percent from 2007 to 2010, to a total of 6.1 million, compared with 5 million non-Hispanic white children who are poor, said the report, which analyzed recent data from the Census Bureau. The recession drove the rise, the report found. But demographics also contributed. The Hispanic population has grown by more than 40 percent over the past decade…”
- Hispanic kids the largest group of children living in poverty, By Carol Morello and Ted Mellnik, September 28, 2011, Washington Post: “Hispanics now make up the largest group of children living in poverty, the first time in U.S. history that poor white kids have been outnumbered by poor children of another race or ethnicity, according to a new study. In a report released Wednesday, the Pew Hispanic Center said that 6.1 million Hispanic children are poor, compared with 5 million non-Hispanic white children and 4.4 million black children. Pew said Hispanic poverty numbers have soared because of the impact of the recession on the growing number of Latinos…”
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
- Most food stamp recipients have no earned income, By Sara Murray, September 26, 2011, Wall Street Journal: “Some 70% of households that relied on food stamps last year had no earned income, a new report shows. More than 40 million individuals and nearly 19 million households tapped the food stamp program in 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. While the recession technically ended in 2009, a sluggish economic recovery left millions out of work or underemployed and leaning on the government for assistance last year…”
- $7M plan may save the state $130M, By Catherine Candisky, September 29, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “The state hopes to avoid $130 million in federal penalties by giving working-poor families $10 a month in food stamps. Federal regulators recently levied nearly $33 million in fines against Ohio for having too few welfare recipients working or training for a job. Desperate to avoid that fine and another $100 million in pending fines, state officials announced their plan for boosting the so-called work-participation rate – padding the rolls. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services says that among its initiatives is temporarily adding more poor families – with jobs – to public-assistance rolls so they can be counted in the state’s work-participation rate…”
Kids Count Report – Alabama
New study says Shelby County is best place in Alabama to be a kid, By Kim Chandler, September 27, 2011, Birmingham News: “Shelby County is the best place to be a child in Alabama, according to a study ranking indicators of child well-being. The 2010 Kids Count Data Book ranked Shelby No. 1 in the state in a survey weighing factors such as births to unmarried teens, children in single-parent families, child poverty and the high school graduation rate. Shelby County was followed by Blount, Lee, Limestone, Cleburne, St. Clair and Madison as top counties in the state. Dallas County, in the poverty-stricken Black Belt, ranked last in the state…”
Joblessness and Unemployment
- Unemployment rates fell in two-thirds of US cities last month, despite slowdown in hiring, Associated Press, September 28, 2011, Washington Post: “Unemployment rates fell in roughly two-thirds of U.S. cities last month, despite zero job growth nationwide. The Labor Department said Wednesday that unemployment rates dropped in 237 of the nation’s largest metro areas in August from July. They rose in 103 and stayed the same in 32. That’s an improvement from July, when rates fell in 193 areas and rose in 118. Some areas with large agricultural sectors added jobs to coincide with the start of the harvest. Auto companies boosted hiring in several other cities…”
- Georgia could cut jobless benefits to repay feds, By Dan Chapman, September 27, 2011, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Georgia borrowed $721 million from Washington to help the unemployed survive the lousy economy and now, as the bills come due, it may repay the debt by cutting back on jobless benefits. The state Labor Department will send a $21.4 million check to Washington this week, the first payment on debt run up since late 2009. Labor Commissioner Mark Butler is weighing a slew of repayment options, but strongly hinted he favors cutting benefits — both the weekly amount and the number of weeks of eligibility…”
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program
Federal heating funding could drop from $115 million down to $46 million, By Christopher Keating, September 27, 2011, Hartford Courant: “With federal money being slashed deeply by President Barack Obama, state legislators are considering a controversial plan by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to distribute the federal money only to residents who use oil to heat their homes. The idea is being proposed because low-income citizens who heat their homes with electricity and natural gas have shutoff protection during the cold winter months and cannot have their heat turned off for non-payment for half of the year between November 1 and May 1 under the law. The move is under consideration because the state’s $115 million allotment under the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, could be cut to $46.4 million. State officials are hoping that the funding could boost to $75 million, but that is uncertain…”
Census Poverty Data
Reading, Pa., knew it was poor. Now it knows just how poor., By Sabrina Tavernise, September 26, 2011, New York Times: “The exhausted mothers who come to the Second Street Learning Center here – a day care provider for mostly low-income families – speak of low wages, hard jobs and an economy gone bad. Ashley Kelleher supports her family on the $900 a month she earns as a waitress at an International House of Pancakes. Louri Williams packs cakes and pies all night for $8 an hour, takes morning classes, and picks up her children in the afternoon. Teresa Santiago takes complaints from building supply customers for $10 an hour, not enough to cover her $1,900 in monthly bills. These are common stories in Reading, a struggling city of 88,000 that has earned the unwelcome distinction of having the largest share of its residents living in poverty, barely edging out Flint, Mich., according to new Census Bureau data. The count includes only cities with populations of 65,000 or more, and has a margin of error that makes it difficult to declare a winner – or, perhaps more to the point, a loser…”
State Foster Care Programs
New law to benefit state’s foster care program, By Paris Achen, September 27, 2011, The Columbian: “A bill awaiting President Barack Obama’s signature would give new federal support to state programs like Washington’s that help keep children out of foster care, according to the bill’s sponsors. Senate Bill 1542 would reform rules that now prohibit states from using federal foster care funding on programs that help keep children at home with their families. States that reduce the number of case- loads now lose federal dollars for foster care, called Title 4-E funds. Under the bill, those states could tap that stream of money for programs that help keep children at home or reduce the duration of their stay in foster care. The changes could significantly benefit Washington, which wasn’t able to claim about $2.7 million in federal appropriations between 2008 and 2010 because it reduced its caseload by 13.8 percent…”
State Medicaid Programs – Washington, Wisconsin
- State decides what’s not an emergency, By Jordan Schrader, September 26, 2011, Tacoma News Tribune: “State government is about to start refusing to pay for repeat visitors to emergency rooms whose conditions don’t truly rise to the level of emergencies. The trouble is all in how you define an emergency. Starting Saturday, Medicaid won’t pay for more than three ER visits in a year for a patient’s nonemergency conditions as defined by the state. A list of more than 700 diagnoses put into that category has drawn fire from hospitals and doctors’ groups over inclusions whose symptoms seem awfully similar to emergencies…”
- Wisconsin starts publishing Medicaid cut proposals, By Scott Bauer (AP), September 27, 2011, Sheboygan Press: “Gov. Scott Walker’s administration unveiled a website Monday that includes a handful of Medicaid cost-savings proposals intended to help it reach required cuts of about $444 million over the next two years. But there’s a long way to go. Most of what was released was either already known about or would make little progress toward what needs to be cut. Only three of the six areas of savings detailed Monday had not been previously announced. Those three total $6 million in savings in state money, just 3 percent of the $181.8 million that must be found under the two-year budget that took effect in July. The total amount of unspecified cuts that must be found, including federal funding and other sources, is $444 million…”
Recession and Unemployment
- Slump alters Jobless map in U.S., with South hit hard, By Michael Cooper, September 26, 2011, New York Times: “When the unemployment rate rose in most states last month, it underscored the extent to which the deep recession, the anemic recovery and the lingering crisis of joblessness are beginning to reshape the nation’s economic map. The once-booming South, which entered the recession with the lowest unemployment rate in the nation, is now struggling with some of the highest rates, recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show. Several Southern states – including South Carolina, whose 11.1 percent unemployment rate is the fourth highest in the nation – have higher unemployment rates than they did a year ago. Unemployment in the South is now higher than it is in the Northeast and the Midwest, which include Rust Belt states that were struggling even before the recession…”
- African-American unemployment reaches record highs, By Leslie Kwoh, September 26, 2011, Star-Ledger: “Jeanette Grimes doesn’t need to look at the latest data to know black unemployment has reached record highs. She sees the growing joblessness all around her – on the streets of Trenton, at networking meetings, in her local unemployment office. And she’s felt the pain first-hand, too, as an African-American who was laid off nearly two years ago from her job as a nonprofit organizer. Grimes has since struggled to land work, agonizing as the rejection pile has grown while her savings have dwindled. ‘It’s been pretty rough,’ said Grimes, 48, of Trenton. ‘You become hopeful and think, ‘This job is exactly what I have experience in’ – and then you get a letter saying they hired another candidate.’ While high unemployment is affecting all sectors of the population in this tough economy, African-Americans are by far the hardest-hit demographic. Nationally, black unemployment reached 16.7 percent last month – the highest level since 1984 – even as the jobless rate for whites fell to 8 percent, according to the U.S. Labor Department…”
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – Tennessee
Food stamps become big business in TN, By Nancy DeVille, September 26, 2011, The Tennessean: “It was another bustling Thursday at the Tennessee Department of Human Services office in Nashville, with recession victims filling chairs and waiting for two hours or more to see what help they could get. But the day of the week doesn’t matter. The office always looks like that as more Tennesseans seek benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – commonly known as food stamps. It mirrors a national trend that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the program, attributes to a record unemployment rate. One in five Tennesseans is in the program this year – a 37 percent increase from 2008 – compared with 1 in 7 nationally. And with more people carrying the easy-to-use and discreet debit cards the program hands out, more businesses are stepping up to accept them…”
Child Poverty – South Dakota
Poverty hitting S.D. children hard, By Megan Luther, September 26, 2011, Sioux Falls Argus Leader: “South Dakota children are hit hardest by poverty – more than any other age group, according to recently released 2010 Census numbers. And the state continues to have higher poverty rates for children under 18 compared to neighboring states. More than 34,000 – or one in six children – in South Dakota have been affected by poverty, which is defined as annual income at or below $22,350 for a family of four. And that number counts only children living with related adults and excludes others such as children in foster care, which would make the number higher, according to Joy Smolnisky, director of the South Dakota Budget & Policy Project, which conducted the analysis…”
Census: American Community Survey
- Mobile poverty jumps almost 2 percent; poverty rises elsewhere in Alabama, September 23, 2011, Mobile Press-Register: “American Community Survey 1-year estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau show that poverty in the Mobile metropolitan area rose from 18.4 percent in 2009 to 20.2 percent in 2010 — almost a 2-percent jump. During the same period, median household income in the Mobile metro fell from $40,407 in 2009 to $39,998 in 2010…”
- Of big cities, Valley had 3rd-largest job-loss rate, By Ronald J. Hansen, September 22, 2011, Arizona Republic: “The Phoenix area from 2008 to 2010 suffered one of the worst declines among the nation’s 50 largest metropolitan areas in the percentage of working-age people with a job, according to newly released Census Bureau data. As of last summer, the Phoenix area also was near the bottom of the largest markets in the share of its population that held a job, at 65.6 percent. Nine metro areas had lower figures, and three others matched Phoenix’s percentage. The annual Census Bureau estimates, which also included worsening numbers for household income and poverty rate, portray a region that has fared worse than the nation as a whole in the aftermath of the Great Recession…”
- Census calls Memphis poorest in nation, By Tom Charlier, September 23, 2011, Memphis Commercial Appeal: “With nearly one in five residents stuck below the poverty line, metropolitan Memphis ranks as by far the most impoverished large metro area in the nation, new census figures show. Of the 1.3 million people in the eight-county metro area, an estimated 246,265 — 19.1 percent — lived in poverty last year, according to figures released Thursday from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey…”
- Child poverty rate in Connecticut cities hits ‘alarming’ rate, census data shows, By Angela Carter, September 22, 2011, Middletown Press: “Connecticut workers earn a median income of $40,478 in an environment where income is falling among all groups and cities are facing ‘alarming’ child poverty rates, according to the American Community Survey, released Thursday by the Census Bureau. The American Community Survey is an annual survey between decennial Census counts in geographic areas in the United States with a population of 65,000 or more…”
- Poverty pervades the suburbs, By Tami Luhby, September 23, 2011, CNNMoney.com: “Guess where most people in poverty live? Hint: It’s not in the inner cities or rural America. It’s in the idyllic suburbs. A record 15.4 million suburban residents lived below the poverty line last year, up 11.5% from the year before, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of Census data released Thursday. That’s one-third of the nation’s poor. And their ranks are swelling fast, as jobs disappear and incomes decline amid the continued weak economy. Since 2000, the number of suburban poor has skyrocketed by 53%, battered by the two recessions that wiped out many manufacturing jobs early on, and low-wage construction and retail positions more recently…”
- Census report shows Greater Cleveland families are feeling the sting of a lost decade, By Robert L. Smith, September 22, 2011, Cleveland Plain Dealer: “Some economists are referring to the last 10 years as the ‘lost decade’ and no doubt tens of thousands of Greater Clevelanders feel something critical has been missing. That something is income. A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau confirms that the region is deeply embedded in a gloomy national trend, one that has seen middle-class incomes steadily erode…”
- Census shows rise in N.Y. poverty, By Joseph Spector, September 22, 2011, Ithaca Journal: “New York’s poverty rate rose 5 percent between 2009 and 2010, while home values and median household income fell slightly, according to U.S. Census Bureau data released Thursday. The data shows how New York, as well as the nation, continues to struggle through a difficult economic period. People living in poverty in New York — which is categorized as a family of four earning less than roughly $22,000 a year — rose from 14.2 percent of households to 14.9 percent between 2009 and 2010, according to the census data…”
- More Rhode Islanders fall below poverty line, By Paul Davis, September 23, 2011, Providence Journal: “Struggling with a lingering recession and high unemployment, more Rhode Islanders fell below the poverty line last year, according to new census figures released Thursday. The poverty rate rose to 14 percent last year from 11.5 percent in 2009, according to 2010 numbers that are part of the American Community Survey. The state’s poverty rate, the highest in New England, is less than the nation’s 15.3-percent rate. After Rhode Island, Maine had the highest poverty rate in New England at 12.9 percent…”
- Census data paints bleak economic picture in Kentucky, By Valarie Honeycutt Spears, September 23, 2011, Lexington Herald-Leader: “New data from the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday painted a bleak picture of Kentucky’s economic health. Household income is down. Poverty is up. Low-paying jobs are replacing higher-paying jobs. Use of food stamps and publicly funded health care is up. Median household income fell in Kentucky in 2010 from the previous year by $778 and the share of the state’s households that earn annual incomes between $10,000 and $25,000 is increasing, according to the data…”
Young Adults and Health Insurance Coverage
- Young adults gain health insurance under new law, By N.C. Aizenman, September 21, 2011, Washington Post: “Nearly 1 million more young adults have obtained health insurance since the 2010 health-care law began requiring insurers to let adult children stay on their parents’ plans until age 26, according to government data released Wednesday. The jump in enrollment caused the share of young adults who are uninsured to drop from 34 percent at the start of 2010 to 30 percent – or 9.1 million people – by March of this year, according to a national interview survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…”
- Young adults make gains in health insurance coverage, By Kevin Sack, September 21, 2011, New York Times: “Young adults, long the group most likely to be uninsured, are gaining health coverage faster than expected since the 2010 health law began allowing parents to cover them as dependents on family policies. Three new surveys, including two released on Wednesday, show that adults under 26 made significant and unique gains in insurance coverage in 2010 and the first half of 2011. One of them, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, estimates that in the first quarter of 2011 there were 900,000 fewer uninsured adults in the 19-to-25 age bracket than in 2010. This was despite deep hardship imposed by the recession, which has left young adults unemployed at nearly double the rate of older Americans, with incomes sliding far faster than the national average…”
Census: American Community Survey
- Recession’s lost generation: Census finds new lows in mobility, jobs, wedlock for young adults, Associated Press, September 21, 2011, Washington Post: “Young adults are the recession’s lost generation. In record numbers, they’re struggling to find work, shunning long-distance moves to live with mom and dad, delaying marriage and raising kids out of wedlock, if they’re becoming parents at all. The unemployment rate for them is the highest since World War II and risk living in poverty more than others. Data released Thursday from the 2010 census show the wrenching impact of a recession that officially ended in mid-2009…”
- Wisconsin’s median income plummets, census figures show, By Bill Glauber, Ben Poston, Annysa Johnson and Mike Johnson, September 21, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “To all those Wisconsin workers who feel like they’ve been economically squeezed in the first decade of the 21st century: It’s not your imagination. It’s reality. Adjusted for inflation, median household income in the state declined 14.5% between 1999 and 2010, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Thursday. The rate of decline in Wisconsin dwarfed the national drop of 8.9% in median household income over the same period…”
- Poverty numbers spike in Milwaukee, By Bill Glauber, Ben Poston, Annysa Johnson and Mike Johnson, September 21, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Poverty has tightened its grip on the city of Milwaukee, flared in Waukesha County and surged statewide, according to startling figures released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Milwaukee’s poverty rate was 29.5% last year, up from 27% in 2009. In all, 171,521 people – including nearly half the city’s children – lived below the poverty line in 2010 as Milwaukee remained among America’s 10 most impoverished big cities. In Waukesha County, one of the wealthiest counties in the state, 6.3% of the population was in poverty, up from 4.8% in 2009…”
- One in five New York City residents living in poverty, By Sam Roberts, September 22, 2011, New York Times: “Poverty grew nationwide last year, but the increase was even greater in New York City, the Census Bureau will report on Thursday, suggesting that New York was being particularly hard hit by the aftermath of the recession. From 2009 to 2010, 75,000 city residents were pushed into poverty, increasing the poor population to more than 1.6 million and raising the percentage of New Yorkers living below the official federal poverty line to 20.1 percent, the highest level since 2000. The 1.4-percentage-point annual increase in the poverty rate appeared to be the largest jump in nearly two decades…”
- Poverty rate rose in Philadelphia from 2009 to 2010, By Alfred Lubrano, September 22, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “The poverty rate in Philadelphia jumped nearly two percentage points from 2009 to 2010, according to a federal report released Thursday, underscoring the growing plight of residents being swamped by unemployment and hard times…”
- 1 in 4 Baltimore residents living in poverty, By Steve Kilar, September 22, 2011, Baltimore Sun: “About one in four Baltimore residents is living in poverty, a one-year increase of more than 20 percent, according to estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Although the recession officially ended in June 2009, a federal survey conducted last year shows that the downturn’s enduring effects have led poverty rates to skyrocket over a short period. The uptick is straining government and charitable resources and leaving Baltimore leaders scrambling for solutions…”
- Census: More residents sinking into poverty, By Jack Broom and Justin Mayo, September 21, 2011, Seattle Times: “Household income – in Washington state and across the country – declined in 2010, while the percentage of people living in poverty increased, as did the numbers of people without health insurance, according to data being released Thursday by the Census Bureau…”
- More in Michigan fall into poverty, By Mike Wilkinson and Serena Maria Daniels, September 22, 2011, Detroit News: “Just as the nation was declaring the recession officially over last year, the landscape in Michigan was far from rosy: The poverty rate in 2010 was its highest in at least four decades, and incomes continued to fall as the economic shift away from manufacturing continued, new census data released this morning shows. The data reveals problems that could grow worse with plans to cut aid to the poor while also slashing spending on higher education, one of the surest ways to avoid poverty…”
- Metro Detroit schools see surge in number of kids living in poverty, By Lori Higgins, September 22, 2011, Detroit Free Press: “More of the children attending schools in metro Detroit are living in poverty, a trend pronounced not just in urban areas but also in some of the tri-county’s wealthier areas. Between 2006 and 2010 — a period marked by a recession that rocked Michigan more than most states — 19 school districts in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties saw increases of more than 100% in the number of poor children. Some of it can be tied to low-income families moving into wealthier districts as they look for better schools. But mostly, school officials say, it’s homegrown, with local parents falling into poverty after losing jobs or dealing with pay cuts…”
- Census survey data: Minn. income continued downward slide in 2010, By Elizabeth Dunbar, September 21, 2011, Minnesota Public Radio: “Minnesotans’ income took another hit in 2010, and the poverty rate edged up, according to new American Community Survey data released Thursday. Median household income fell from about $56,600 in 2009 to about $55,500 in 2010, with inflation already taken into account. Since 2007, median income has dropped by about 5 percent in Minnesota. The poverty rate increased from 11 percent to 11.6 percent from 2009 to 2010, and the uptick was even more pronounced among children: 15.2 percent in 2010 compared to 14.1 percent in 2009…”
- Poverty extends reach across St. Louis region, By Doug Moore, September 22, 2011, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “The recession officially ended two years ago, but the number of people living in poverty here and across the country continues to rise. New data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau show that an additional 19,000 people living in the region’s top six counties plus the city of St. Louis fell into poverty in 2010…”
- More than 1 in 5 Austin residents live in poverty, new census data show, By Juan Castillo, September 22, 2011, Austin American-Statesman: “More people in Austin lived in poverty, were on food stamps and saw their median family household incomes shrink in 2010, according to new census data out today depicting the growing toll of the weakened economy in Central Texas and across the state. About 18 percent of all Texans lived in poverty in 2010, more than 3 percentage points above the national average…”
- Census: City lags in education, By Jeannie Kever, September 21, 2011, Houston Chronicle: “Houston faces sharp divisions over education and opportunity, according to Census data released today. More than one in four adults – and more than 40 percent of Hispanics – don’t have a high school diploma. That’s higher than the state average, and far higher than the national average of 14.4 percent. On the other hand, more than 28 percent of Houston residents have at least a bachelor’s degree, slightly higher than the national average and almost 3 percent higher than state figures…”