Grass-roots efforts aim to pull people out of poverty, By Dave Aeikens, December 21, 2011, USA Today: “In one of this city’s poorest neighborhoods, Jerry Sparby is among those trying to help people pull themselves out of poverty and help their children do better in school. Sparby and a group of volunteers have launched a local version of Promise Neighborhood, a growing national program aimed at connecting struggling families with the services they need, from job training to car repairs. If people start to understand the importance of relationships, I honestly think we can turn this community around,’ says Sparby, a professor at St. Cloud State University and retired school administrator in nearby Cold Spring, Minn. Promise Neighborhood programs are popping up across the country in mostly urban areas that have high poverty and low student success…”

Middle-class areas shrink as income gap grows, new report finds, By Sabrina Tavernise, November 15, 2011, New York Times: “The portion of American families living in middle-income neighborhoods has declined significantly since 1970, according to a new study, as rising income inequality left a growing share of families in neighborhoods that are mostly low-income or mostly affluent. The study, conducted by Stanford University and scheduled for release on Wednesday by the Russell Sage Foundation and Brown University, uses census data to examine family income at the neighborhood level in the country’s 117 biggest metropolitan areas. The findings show a changed map of prosperity in the United States over the past four decades, with larger patches of affluence and poverty and a shrinking middle…”

• Poverty rate growing in N.J.’s working-class towns, census data shows, By Stephen Stirling and Eric Sagara, November 3, 2011, Star-Ledger: “Danny Bryant has lived in solidly blue-collar Carteret for 46 of his 47 years. During that time, just about everybody worked. Jobs weren’t glamorous, but they put food on the table. The houses were modest, tidy and well-kept. Now Bryant, a former pool supply worker, survives on the $600 his girlfriend brings home every other week from her fast-food job and $200 a month in food stamps after being laid off last year. And his section of Carteret is not the town it used to be. There are a lot of Danny Bryants there now. ‘If you live here and are poverty stricken, it’s hard to get help,’ Bryant said. ‘There’s a big line between being middle class and being poor. Everybody is struggling.’ More than one in four of the residents in Bryant’s neighborhood in the Middlesex County borough now live below the poverty line. A study released today by the Brookings Institution shows the poverty rate in New Jersey’s working-class communities like Carteret, Union Township and Garfield has grown substantially in the last decade…”
• Pockets of severe poverty intensify and spread around Tampa Bay area, By Jeff Harrington and Darla Cameron, November 6, 2011, St. Petersburg Times: “Derrick Lewis lives in the hardest-hit slice of the Tampa Bay area. The poverty rate here jumped nearly threefold from 15 percent to 40 percent over the past decade, the cusp of what’s considered extreme poverty. Lewis, 50, considers himself lucky. He juggles a nighttime security guard job and a morning job making biscuits at Hardee’s, enough income to pay his landlady $250 to $275 every couple of weeks. Around the corner from his one-bedroom apartment lies a couple of boarded-up apartments, vacated after their latest residents were caught selling drugs. ‘I feel bad for them,’ he says. ‘You see it in tough times. A lot of people that never would have thought of doing something illegal before. Instead of being homeless, they do what it takes.’ This isn’t the inner city. It’s the suburbs. In a far-reaching analysis released Thursday, the Brookings Institution compared poverty rates in U.S. Census tracts in 2000 to their average poverty rates between 2005 and 2009. Among the report’s chief conclusions: Poverty is growing twice as fast in suburbs than in cities…”

Poverty worsening in Hub, study says, By Meghan E. Irons, November 9, 2011, Boston Globe: “Poverty has deepened in Boston’s poorest neighborhoods, widening the gap between the city’s wealthiest and neediest residents, a report being released today finds. The study points to concentrated need in Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury, where 42 percent of children live in poverty, the densest cluster of childhood poverty in the state, according to the study sponsored by the Boston Foundation. In those communities, 85 percent of families are headed by a single parent, mainly mothers, and at least 20 percent of the adults have no high school diploma. Poverty there is fueled by unemployment and low educational attainment, the study found…”

• Bay Area’s five poorest neighborhoods show up in study, By Matt O’Brien, November 3, 2011, San Jose Mercury News: “The Bay Area has fewer concentrations of extreme poverty than a decade ago, according to a report released Thursday. That may not console the people living in the Bay Area’s five poorest neighborhoods. In five census tracts, four of them in the East Bay, more than 40 percent of residents live below the poverty line, according to the Brookings Institution report. The neighborhoods are in downtown Berkeley, uptown Oakland, Alameda Point and parts of West Oakland and San Francisco’s Hunters Point. Two are business districts where many homeless congregate; one, the area around Oakland’s Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, has been central in the Occupy protests. Others are residential areas with well-kept public housing. The Uptown Oakland area, which includes some of downtown and the plaza, is a study in contrasts: Despite a glut of new condos meant to attract young professionals, more than 40 percent of residents live below the poverty line — which for a single person means making less than $11,000 a year…”
• Poor Chattanooga neighborhoods have more than doubled in 9 years, By Judy Walton, November 4, 2011, Chattanooga Times Free Press: “The number of extremely poor neighborhoods in Chattanooga and the region — those with poverty rates above 40 percent — more than doubled from 2000 to 2009, a new report shows. The number of people living in the poorest census tracts in the Chattanooga region grew by more than 4,200, to 10,535, in the period, according to ‘The Re-Emergence of Concentrated Poverty,’ from the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program. The Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institute is a liberal-leaning nonprofit that researches social issues. ‘We lost ground against concentrated poverty in the 2000s,’ Elizabeth Kneebone, a senior research associate at Brookings and lead author of the report, said in a news release. ‘More people are living in areas that are extremely poor, and concentrated poverty now affects a greater swath of communities than in the past.’ In the release, Kneebone noted that the federal poverty level in 2010 was $22,314 annually for a family of four…”

• Extreme poverty spikes in U.S., study finds, By Sabrina Tavernise, November 3, 2011, New York Times: “The number of people living in neighborhoods of extreme poverty grew substantially, by one third, over the past decade, according to a new report, erasing most of the gains from the 1990’s when concentrated poverty declined. More than 10 percent of America’s poor now live in such neighborhoods, up from 9.1 percent in the beginning of the decade, an addition of more than 2 million people, according to the report by the Brookings Institution, an independent research group. Extreme poverty - defined as areas where at least 40 percent of the population lives below the federal poverty line, which in 2010, was $22,300 for a family of four - is still below its 1990 level, when 14 percent of poor people lived in such areas. The report analyzed Census Bureau income data from 2000 to 2009, the most recent year for which there is comprehensive data…”
• Poorest poor in US hits new record: 1 in 15 people, By Laura Wides-Munoz (AP), November 3, 2011, Deseret News: “The ranks of America’s poorest poor have climbed to a record high - 1 in 15 people - spread widely across metropolitan areas as the housing bust pushed many inner-city poor into suburbs and other outlying places and shriveled jobs and income. New census data paint a stark portrait of the nation’s haves and have-nots at a time when unemployment remains persistently high. It comes a week before the government releases first-ever economic data that will show more Hispanics, elderly and working-age poor have fallen into poverty. In all, the numbers underscore the breadth and scope by which the downturn has reached further into mainstream America…”
• Poverty’s grip grows in central Ohio, By Mark Ferenchik and Rita Price, November 3, 2011, Columbus Dispatch: “The number of Columbus-area neighborhoods gripped by poverty continues to rise, and not only in the central city but in outlying areas as well. A report released today by the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program says the number of census tracts showing extreme poverty in the city of Columbus increased from eight to 24 over 10 years. ‘That’s a very significant uptick,’ said Alan Berube, one of the report’s authors. The report says the number of extremely poor neighborhoods - those with poverty rates of 40 percent or higher - has jumped since 2000, with the population in those neighborhoods rising by one-third…”
• Brookings report finds poverty-stricken neighborhoods jump dramatically in Cleveland area, By Dave Davis, November 3, 2011, Cleveland Plain Dealer: “The number of people living in extremely poor neighborhoods has grown faster in Northeast Ohio suburbs than elsewhere in the nation, poverty figures released Thursday by the Brookings Institution show. By the end of 2009, 13 Northeast Ohio suburban neighborhoods had poverty rates of at least 40 percent, Brookings researchers found. (See the full document below). Ten years earlier there was none. With an 8 percentage point increase, Cleveland’s suburbs claimed the nation’s fourth highest rate of growth of the poor in poverty-stricken neighborhoods…”
• Toledo area poverty rise worst in U.S., By Mark Reiter, November 3, 2011, Toledo Blade: “The concentration of poor people living in Toledo’s poorest neighborhoods grew by more than 15 percent in the past decade, giving the metropolitan area the unenviable distinction of No. 1 among American’s largest metro areas. More than 46,000 people reside in neighborhoods with poverty rates of 40 percent or higher in the metro area — which includes Lucas, Fulton, Ottawa, and Wood counties — with all but one of the 22 poor neighborhoods located within the borders of Toledo, according to a Brookings Institution study of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the country…”

Outside Cleveland, snapshots of poverty’s surge in the suburbs, By Sabrina Tavernise, October 24, 2011, New York Times: “The poor population in America’s suburbs - long a symbol of a stable and prosperous American middle class - rose by more than half after 2000, forcing suburban communities across the country to re-evaluate their identities and how they serve their populations. The increase in the suburbs was 53 percent, compared with 26 percent in cities. The recession accelerated the pace: two-thirds of the new suburban poor were added from 2007 to 2010. ‘The growth has been stunning,’ said Elizabeth Kneebone, a senior researcher at the Brookings Institution, who conducted the analysis of census data. ‘For the first time, more than half of the metropolitan poor live in suburban areas.’ As a result, suburban municipalities - once concerned with policing, putting out fires and repairing roads - are confronting a new set of issues, namely how to help poor residents without the array of social programs that cities have, and how to get those residents to services without public transportation. Many suburbs are facing these challenges with the tightest budgets in years…”

• Poor neighborhoods may contribute to poor health, By Amina Khan, October 20, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “People who move from a poor neighborhood to a better-off one could end up thinner and healthier than those who stay behind, according to an urban housing experiment that tracked low-income residents in five major cities for 10 to 15 years. The research, set up by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, shows that health is closely linked to the environments people live in - and that social policies to change those environments or move people away from blighted areas could be a key tactic in fighting the ‘diabesity’ epidemic. The study released Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine took advantage of a 1990s social experiment approved by Congress primarily to track the changes in income, education and employment of people given the opportunity to move out of low-income housing in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago, New York and Boston. At least 40% of the residents at the start of the study made less money than the federal poverty threshold. Researchers soon realized that the project could allow them to study residents’ changes in health as well, said study coauthor Dr. Robert Whitaker, a pediatrician at Temple University in Philadelphia…”
• Study: Living in poor neighborhood can hurt health, By Mike Stobbe (AP), October 21, 2011, Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “Back in the 1990s, the federal government tried an unusual social experiment: It offered thousands of poor women in big-city public housing a chance to live in more affluent neighborhoods. A decade later, the women who relocated had lower rates of diabetes and extreme obesity - differences that are being hailed as compelling evidence that where you live can determine your health. The experiment was initially aimed at researching whether moving impoverished families to more prosperous areas could improve employment or schooling. But according to a study released Wednesday, the most interesting effect may have been on the women’s physical condition…”
• Study: Better neighborhood lowers obesity, diabetes risk, By Nanci Hellmich, October 19, 2011, USA Today: “Low-income moms who move from very poor neighborhoods to less disadvantaged ones lower their risk of becoming extremely obese and developing type 2 diabetes, a study reveals. ‘This research shows how important the environment can be for people’s health,’ says the study’s lead author, Jens Ludwig, a professor of social service administration, law and public policy at the University of Chicago. Obesity increases people’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other serious health problems. People in poorer neighborhoods are at a higher risk of becoming too heavy because they may not have access to grocery stores that are well-stocked with healthy fare such as fresh fruits and vegetables, often don’t have safe places to be physically active and may have greater concerns about safety, which could impact their psychological stress and eating habits, Ludwig says…”

New Orleans unveils fresh model for housing the poor, By Rick Jervis, August 3, 2011, USA Today: “The decaying brick buildings of what was known as the Magnolia Projects are now rows of freshly painted town homes with ornate balconies and manicured lawns. Stoops where dealers once sold dope and shot at rivals have been replaced by a clubhouse featuring a flat-screen TV and a pool where neighborhood kids splash. The Magnolia Projects, once one of the city’s most notorious public housing complexes, today is Harmony Oaks Apartments, a 460-unit mix of government-subsidized and market-priced apartments. It replaces one of six public housing projects across the city recently razed to make room for new apartments and a fresh approach to housing the city’s poor.The Magnolia Projects, once one of the city’s most notorious public housing complexes, today is Harmony Oaks Apartments, a 460-unit mix of government-subsidized and market-priced apartments. It replaces one of six public housing projects across the city recently razed to make room for new apartments and a fresh approach to housing the city’s poor…”

• Study: Income does not explain segregation patterns in housing, By Carol Morello, August 1, 2011, Washington Post: “Affluent blacks and Hispanics live in neighborhoods that are noticeably poorer than neighborhoods where low-income whites live, according to a new study that suggests income alone does not explain persistent segregation patterns in housing. Washington and Atlanta were the only two major metropolitan regions in the country that followed a slightly different pattern. In these two cities, the study found that the situation for high-income blacks and Hispanics was equal, but not worse, than that of low-income whites…”
• Richer minorities seen living in poorer neighborhoods, By Haya El Nasser, August 2, 2011, USA Today: “The most successful blacks and Hispanics are more likely to have poor neighbors than are whites, according to a new analysis of Census data. The average affluent black and Hispanic household - defined in the study as earning more than $75,000 a year - lives in a poorer neighborhood than the average lower-income non-Hispanic white household that makes less than $40,000 a year…”

• USDA: Parts of W.Va. qualify as ‘food deserts’, By Taylor Kuykendall, July 24, 2011, Register-Herald: “West Virginia, a state that conjures up memories of wooded valleys, streams, rivers, lakes and lush fields, is also a land of desert - not a hot, dry expanse, but instead areas with extensive droughts in regard to food access. According to the USDA, a ‘food desert’ is a ‘low-income census tract where a substantial number or share of residents has low access to a supermarket or large grocery store.’ This is defined as communities with a poverty rate of 20 percent or higher or a median family income at or below 80 percent of the area’s median family income or a community with one-third of its population more than a mile (or 10 miles in a rural area) from a supermarket or grocery store. The effort has largely been spearheaded by first lady Michelle Obama, who has promoted various healthy initiatives since moving into the White House…”
• Michelle Obama, Wal-Mart and the ‘food desert’ problem, By Daniela Hernandez, July 22, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Nothing’s ever as simple as we’d like it to be. A case in point: Policies that simply increase access to supermarkets may not get people to choose an apple over ice cream, a recent study reported. Changing people’s eating habits is difficult, in other words. One reason is money. Healthful foods such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean meats and dairy, can often be pricey. For the cost of a couple of peaches, a person can get a full meal on the dollar menu at a fast-food outlet. Another problem: The produce in stores in low income neighborhoods is often of low quality.This is a hefty problem, given that 1 in every 3 children and adults is overweight or obese. Policy-makers and health-food advocates across the country are developing programs to increase access to healthful foods-and make it easier for people to buy them…”

• Big retailers make pledge of stores for ‘food deserts’, By Sean Collins Walsh, July 20, 2011, New York Times: “Executives from Wal-Mart, Walgreens, SuperValu and other stores joined Michelle Obama at the White House on Wednesday to announce a pledge to open or expand a combined 1,500 stores in communities that have limited access to nutritious food and are designated as ‘food deserts.’ With the pledges, secured by the Partnership for a Healthier America, which is part of Mrs. Obama’s campaign to reduce childhood obesity, the stores aim to reach 9.5 million of the 23.5 million Americans who live in areas where finding affordable healthy foods can be difficult. In those areas, many people turn to fast food restaurants or convenience stores…”
• First lady, grocers vow to build stores in ‘food deserts’, By Yian Q. Mui, July 20, 2011, Washington Post: “Supermarkets joined with first lady Michelle Obama on Wednesday in a pledge to build stores in poor neighborhoods that have historically lacked access to fresh groceries, part of her signature effort to combat childhood obesity. Participating retailers include Wal-Mart, the country’s largest grocer, Walgreens and Supervalu and regional supermarkets such as Brown’s Super Stores in Philadelphia and Calhoun Foods in Alabama and Tennessee. Together, they promised to open more than 500 stores that will employ tens of thousands of people…”

Access to grocers doesn’t improve diets, study finds, By Daniela Hernandez, July 12, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Better access to supermarkets - long touted as a way to curb obesity in low-income neighborhoods - doesn’t improve people’s diets, according to new research. The study, which tracked thousands of people in several large cities for 15 years, found that people didn’t eat more fruits and vegetables when they had supermarkets available in their neighborhoods. Instead, income - and proximity to fast food restaurants - were the strongest factors in food choice. The results, published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, throw some cold water on the idea that lack of access to fresh produce and other healthful foods is a major driver in the disproportionate rates of obesity among the poor, or that simply encouraging grocery chains to open in deprived areas will fix the problem, said study lead author Barry Popkin, director of the Nutrition Transition Program at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill…”

Air-quality regulators to study health effects of San Bernardino Rail Yard, By Phil Willon, June 9, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “Southern California air-quality regulators are sponsoring an in-depth study to determine if the San Bernardino Rail Yard, a major inland hub of goods shipped across the U.S., has caused an increase in cancer and asthma in the neighboring low-income communities.  The study comes two years after the California Air Resources Board determined that diesel emissions from locomotives, big-rigs and other equipment at the facility posed a significant health risk to thousands of residents living near the site, and that the facility posed the greatest cancer risk of any rail yard in California…”

• Obstacles seen in poor areas for new farmers’ markets, By Diane Cardwell, April 11, 2011, New York Times: “For years, the Bloomberg administration has labored to improve the eating habits of New Yorkers, banning trans fats from restaurants, urging food purveyors to use less salt and creating special zoning to encourage fresh-food supermarkets to open in produce-poor neighborhoods. But the city still puts roadblocks in the way of community groups seeking to open farmers’ markets in low-income neighborhoods, says a report to be released on Tuesday by the Manhattan borough president, Scott M. Stringer. Those efforts face excessive fees, confusing rules and a lack of coordination among agencies, the report says…”
• Coming to a vacant lot near you, the neighborhood farm, By Madeleine Baran, April 7, 2011, Minnesota Public Radio: “Farmers looking for land to grow food to sell may have another option. A plan to expand urban agriculture in Minneapolis passed the city’s zoning and planning committee on Thursday, opening the door for farmers to turn vacant lots into commercial farms. Minneapolis is already home to community gardens and farmers markets, but the city lacked definitions or regulations of land used to grow and sell food. Urban agriculture supporters said that made it impossible to get approval for innovative farming projects. Similar plans have been adopted in Cleveland, Seattle, Portland, Philadelphia, Chicago, Kansas City, Oakland and Detroit…”

• Two Kentuckys: Cities grow while rural areas decline, Census shows, By Bill Estep, March 18, 2011, Lexington Herald-Leader: “Kentucky’s Golden Triangle continued to grow during the last decade as the population drained away from the eastern and western coalfields and farm counties along the Mississippi River. That’s the overarching news from the state’s official 2010 U.S. Census count, released Thursday. The state as a whole grew a modest 6.1 percent from 2000 to 2010, to a total population of 4,339,367 as of last April 1, according to a Herald-Leader analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data. The numbers released Thursday include more detail: population breakdowns by city, county, race, ethnicity and voting age that shed light on the state’s internal shifts and the growth in the number of Hispanic residents - up 112 percent since 2000…”
• Census data confirms suburban growth, greater diversity in Minn., By Elizabeth Dunbar, March 16, 2011, Minnesota Public Radio: “Minnesota has become slightly more racially diverse, and Minneapolis and St. Paul have lagged behind population growth in other parts of the state over the past 10 years. Those are just a few of the trends found in 2010 census data that state and local officials will examine as they re-draw voting districts and plan government services for the future. The results of the annual American Community Survey already provided officials with information about Minnesota’s population and diversity trends. The survey has replaced the long-form of the census used to track things like poverty and English proficiency. But the release of the new data gives officials detailed counts of the people who live in a particular urban neighborhood or small town. It also provides more detailed demographic information…”

Coveting Singapore’s public housing system, By Kathy Chu, March 15, 2011, USA Today: “Singapore’s public housing system is often touted as a model for other countries. The island nation houses more than 80% of its residents in public housing. It’s building eco-friendly apartment buildings that have green roofs and that use recycled water. Instead of renting the public housing units, Singaporeans can also become quasi-homeowners, buying 99-year leases on the properties that they can later sell at market prices. But as the economy here has recovered from the 2008 recession, public housing prices have skyrocketed. High prices are making it hard for some of the very residents for whom Singapore’s public housing was intended to buy a flat on the resale market…”

Federal cuts could hit US housing agencies, By Samantha Gross (AP), March 11, 2011, Chicago Tribune: “Kevin Gaines and his family got rashes soon after they moved into their new apartment. His son kept getting nosebleeds. The dust made it hard to breathe. When Gaines, a liver transplant recipient, saw yellow mold creeping over the ceiling, he said doctors warned it could cause him to reject his new organ. After Gaines complained, city inspectors recorded dozens of code violations and city workers even came in to make repairs. New York City officials warn, however, that budget cuts being pushed by some members of Congress could decimate their housing enforcement efforts, slicing the funds used to pay inspectors, sue landlords and perform emergency repairs. Around the country, the cuts could also shutter community centers, leave rural water outages unchecked, stymie plans for new housing developments and reduce the money available for fixing broken elevators and leaking roofs in the nation’s public housing. Budget proposals by both the Senate and House of Representatives were voted down Wednesday as lawmakers attempt to wrangle a compromise that would prevent the federal government from shutting down when the latest temporary spending measure expires March 18…”

• Block grants could face major cuts as federal funds to fight poverty tighten, By Henri E. Cauvin, March 3, 2011, Washington Post: “Community development block grants have been a vital source of federal anti-poverty money for decades, supporting affordable housing, job training and an array of other programs serving low-income communities. When President Obama, in his 2012 budget, proposed cutting funding for CDBGs, as they are known, by about $300 million, local officials across the country worried about their already-battered finances. Then House Republicans offered their take on the nearly $4 billion grant program. Not only did they urge cutting the program by more than half, to $1.5 billion, they also endorsed making the cuts in the middle of the current fiscal year, part of the $61 billion in proposed cuts that have helped set up the budget battle. Even with Congress having voted this week on smaller cuts to keep the government funded through March 18, the far bigger trims proposed by the Republicans are still on the table. Cuts might not be finalized, but their seeming inevitability has made clear to America’s cities that they face a new reality in Washington…”
• Milwaukee agencies brace for impact of federal cuts in aid to poor, By Georgia Pabst, February 27, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Programs designed to help the poor such as Head Start, energy assistance, education and training could be cut drastically under federal budget proposals that have been made by President Barack Obama and the U.S. House. Local and national officials who work in programs that assist low-income people are watching carefully as the House and the U.S. Senate take up measures to fund federal programs for the remainder of the year and the 2012 budget, but they say it seems clear that many programs aimed at those with low incomes will be trimmed. One of the biggest cuts proposed by Obama is to reduce Community Service Block Grants by half - from $700 million to $350 million. The grants go to anti-poverty agencies such as Milwaukee’s Social Development Commission…”

Bank closings tilt toward poor areas, By Nelson D. Schwartz, February 22, 2011, New York Times: “Until it closed its doors in December, the Ohio Savings Bank branch on North Moreland Boulevard was a neighborhood anchor in Cleveland, midway between the mansions of Shaker Heights and the ramshackle bungalows of the city’s east side. Now it sits boarded up, a victim not only of Cleveland’s economic troubles but also of a broader trend of bank branch closings that is falling more heavily on low- and moderate-income neighborhoods across the country. In 2010, for the first time in 15 years, more bank branches closed than opened across the United States. An analysis of government data shows, however, that even as banks shut branches in poorer areas, they continued to expand in wealthier ones, despite decades of government regulations requiring financial institutions to meet the credit needs of poor and middle-class neighborhoods…”

• For Milwaukee’s children, an early grave, By Crocker Stephenson, January 22, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “On a bitter January afternoon, a 22-year-old mother sits on the edge of her bed and feeds her infant daughter. The child, Rashyia, born in December, is healthy. She coos, eyes closed. She touches her mother’s cheek with her perfect hand. Rashyia and her mother, Lakisha Stinson, live in a small attic apartment on Milwaukee’s near north side. Three modest rooms. The kitchen has just three chairs and a table that is missing its glass top. The living room has no furniture. The bedroom has a bed and a Pack ‘n Play crib, a gift from Wheaton Franciscan-St. Joseph’s Hospital, whose staff, nurses and doctors brought Rashyia through a high-risk pregnancy and into the world. Rashyia and her mother live in a neighborhood where the rate at which African-American babies, such as Rashyia, die during their first year of life is worse than Botswana. Public health experts have long considered the infant mortality rate to be an essential indicator of a community’s well-being…”
• It takes a community to keep babies alive, Editorial, January 22, 2011, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Milwaukee’s littlest children are dying at appalling rates - rates that are among the worst in the country; rates that rival the world’s poorest nations. These are babies who never live to blow out their first birthday candle - three-quarters of them dead before they are a month old. They are babies such as the little boy born prematurely to Denelle McManus in January 2007. Denelle was in good health; she had good prenatal care; she didn’t smoke or drink. She was 32 years old when she lost her child. The boy, named Tavion, lived eight days before dying of a heart condition. Denelle’s mother, Patricia McManus, is chief executive of the Black Health Coalition of Wisconsin. An expert in urban issues, McManus has worked 30 years to reduce Milwaukee’s infant mortality rate and now believes that it will take a communitywide effort to save these children, an effort that is beginning to take shape with McManus as one of the leaders…”

In South Los Angeles, new fast-food spots get a ‘No, thanks’, By Jennifer Medina, January 15, 2011, New York Times: “Driving along Crenshaw Boulevard, it is not difficult to find a place to grab a bite. At some intersections, there is a fast-food joint on each corner. If the restaurant chains had their way in some parts of town, city officials say, no street would be without its own fast-food outlet. Los Angeles is making one of the nation’s most radical food policies permanent by effectively banning new fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles, a huge section of the city that has significantly higher rates of poverty and obesity than other neighborhoods. A handful of much smaller cities have enacted similar regulations for primarily aesthetic reasons, but Los Angeles, officials say, is the first to do so as part of a public health effort. The regulations, which the City Council passed unanimously last month, are meant to encourage healthier neighborhood dining options. Supporters envision more sit-down restaurants, produce-filled grocery stores and takeout meals that center on salad rather than fries…”

Toronto’s poor concentrated in aging highrises, By Laurie Monsebraaten, Toronto Star: “They rise up among the postwar bungalows of Toronto’s inner suburbs. Towering buildings that house hundreds of thousands of the city’s poorest people. These apartments are often the first home for those who came to this country looking for a better life. Once built to house modest-income and middle-class families, these aging highrises have increasingly fallen into disrepair and become rife with problems - drug dealing, vandalism, bug infestations, overcrowding - and increasing poverty. That is the bleak reality for too many highrise dwellers in Toronto, according to Vertical Poverty, a landmark report released by the United Way Wednesday. It is a troubling development in a city where almost half of residents are renters, says the report based on Census data from 1981 to 2006 and a survey of 2,803 highrise tenants conducted in the summer and fall of 2009. Although the bulk of tenants surveyed live in private-sector towers, responses from about 600 non-profit tenants suggest living conditions are worse in those buildings…”

• Census Bureau data: Richest counties get richer, poorest get poorer, By Susanna Kim, December 19, 2010, ABC News: “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, at least judging by the most extreme neighborhoods for median household income in the latest Census Bureau data. The census’ American Community Survey, released last week, provides detailed neighborhood data, including languages spoken in a home, commute time and income levels. The poorest county, Owsley County, Ky., had the lowest median household income outside of Puerto Rico. Its median income decreased to $18,869 from $20,346 in 2000. Of all the county or county equivalents, Falls Church, Va. had the highest median income, at $113,313, an increase from $96,449 in 2000…”
• Poverty up by 10% in most Wisconsin counties, By Ben Poston, December 19, 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “In a sign that a waning economic tide lowers all boats, the majority of Wisconsin counties saw their poverty rates increase by more than 10% since 2000, a new report from the University of Wisconsin Extension finds. And newly released figures from the Census Bureau show there are now 10 counties with poverty rates higher than 15%, including Milwaukee County, where 18% of residents are impoverished. In the last decennial census, only two - Menominee and Milwaukee counties - had rates that high. Meanwhile, Milwaukee County’s suburbs reported the lowest poverty rates in the state. Waukesha and Ozaukee counties had poverty rates of 4.1%, followed by Washington County at 5.3%. Those counties also had the lowest rates in 2000…”
• Poverty deepens its hold on some metro-east communities, By Kevin Bersett, December 17, 2010, Belleville News-Democrat: “Numbers don’t usually tell the whole story. And sometimes they contradict what people on the street see every day. That was the case with those asked to respond to data about the percentage of families living in poverty released Tuesday as part of the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey five-year estimate. This survey was based on data gathered from questionnaires sent to about 3 million households nationwide every year between Jan. 1, 2005, and Dec. 31, 2009. Some metro-east communities saw dramatic changes in their poverty levels compared with data compiled for the 2000 census count…”
• Survey finds Southern Nevada increasingly educated and diverse, By Jackie Valley, December 17, 2010, Las Vegas Sun: “A new survey released by the U.S. Census Bureau paints Southern Nevada as a more educated and diverse populace - at least according to community data gathered from 2005 through 2009. The five-year American Community Survey released Tuesday shows that more Clark County residents possess higher education degrees compared to 10 years ago. According to the survey, 21.3 percent of county residents have a bachelor’s degree or higher compared to 17.3 percent in 2000. The ongoing survey, which focuses on socioeconomic information in communities and is separate from the 2010 Census, took the place of the long-form Census questionnaire so Census workers can focus on calculating the size and location of the country’s population. This year marks the first release of the five-year survey, collected over 60 months and billed as the most reliable of the American Community Surveys…”

• Southern Indiana’s education gains fail to stem poverty rise, By Ben Zion Hershberg, December 14, 2010, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Despite recent gains in education, poverty rates in Southern Indiana counties have climbed and average household incomes have dropped. Those findings released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau show more adults with high school diplomas in Clark, Floyd and Harrison counties and more who are college graduates in Clark and Floyd for the 2005-09 survey period, compared with 2000 Census data. But household incomes, adjusted for inflation, are down in all three counties, and poverty rates are higher in Clark and Floyd…”
• Tiny city tops lists for poverty and youth opportunity, By Sasha Aslanian, December 16, 2010, Minnesota Public Radio: “Landfall is a tiny city east of St. Paul, right behind a Harley Davidson dealership on the edge of a small lake. It’s a mobile home park of about 700 residents. More than a quarter of them live in poverty, which the federal government defines as just short of $11,000 for an individual in 2009. ‘You cannot live cheaper than living in Landfall,’ said Greg Feldbrugge, mayor of Landfall. Everyone knows him as ‘Flash’, a nickname he earned during his days as a stockcar racer. He moved here 13 years ago, and has been mayor for the last 4…”
• Data show households in southern, eastern Oklahoma get most public assistance dollars, By Gavin Off, December 15, 2010, Tulsa World: “According to U.S. Census Bureau data, public assistance payments to households in some southern or eastern Oklahoma counties nearly doubled the state’s average household payment in 2009. However, the top individual recipient counties were outside those areas. On average, households in Logan and Jackson counties received more than $130 in public assistance last year, the most of any county. Households in McCurtain and Choctaw counties received more than $90 in public assistance last year. The state average was $50. Tulsa County households received an average of $60, data show…”
• Census numbers bear out rise in poverty, By Dorothy Schneider, December 15, 2010, Lafayette Journal and Courier: “Jennifer Bickett knows firsthand that more people are struggling to make ends meet in Tippecanoe County, as was confirmed by new U.S. Census data released Tuesday. The Lafayette resident cited shopping at Goodwill as one of the ways she’s tried to save money on clothes and household items. Bickett’s husband worked in the auto industry until 2008, ‘when everything went kerplunk,’ she said. Now, she said, he’s in an electrician apprenticeship, earning about half of his former salary. Meanwhile, Bickett’s own job as a real estate agent hasn’t been paying dividends, given the ongoing sales lag and foreclosure crisis. ‘For now we definitely have to cut back on spending,’ she said. That’s a common refrain among Tippecanoe County residents, according to information released Tuesday from the American Community Survey…”
• Census: Segregation hits 100-year lows in most American metro areas, By Patrik Jonsson, December 14, 2010, Christian Science Monitor: “A drive through Atlanta’s older “intown” residential areas quickly bears out new Census findings: That segregation by race in the US is fading in many, though far from all, American neighborhoods. Atlanta is one of several predominantly Southern and Western cities that showed a noticeable integration trend over the last five years as both middle-class blacks and whites moved into each other’s neighborhoods, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey of 10 million Americans, released Tuesday. The ACS is the largest demographic survey ever done in the United States…”
• Census data show ’surprising’ segregation, By Haya El Nasser, December 14, 2010, USA Today: “Despite increased racial and ethnic diversity, American neighborhoods continue to be segregated and some of the progress made toward integration since 1980 has come to a halt this decade, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data released Tuesday. ‘This is a surprising result,’said Brown University sociology professor John Logan, who analyzed 2005-09 Census numbers. ‘At worst, it was expected that there would be continued slow progress.’ The five-year data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey provide the first opportunity to gauge post-2000 demographic trends all the way down to small neighborhoods…”
• Milwaukee area tops Brookings segregation study of census data, By Tom Tolan and Bill Glauber, December 14, 2010, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Burdened by history and shaped by demography, Milwaukee remains one of the most racially segregated large metropolitan areas in the nation, according to U.S. census data released Tuesday and analyzed by the Brookings Institution. The city and surrounding area, including Milwaukee, Waukesha, Washington and Ozaukee counties, sit atop a black-white segregation index of America’s top 100 metro areas. Milwaukee is in a virtual tie with the Detroit and New York metro areas, and just ahead of Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo and St. Louis. While the study was getting national attention, two University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee researchers cast doubt on the findings, saying the way segregation is defined defies common sense…”

• Report: Colorado poverty levels rise, By Colleen O’Connor, December 15, 2010, Denver Post: “The number of Colorado neighborhoods with a significant number of residents living in poverty doubled over the past decade, according to Census Bureau data released Tuesday. Neighborhoods with at least 20 percent of people in poverty doubled from about one in 10 at the start of the decade to one in five by the end of the decade. For children, the reality was even more harsh: One in five neighborhoods had at least 20 percent of its children living in poverty in 2000, which increased to an average of one in three neighborhoods between 2005 and 2009. The number of neighborhoods with at least 30 percent of children living in poverty nearly tripled, to 206 in the second half of the decade from 74 at the start…”
• Census details poverty, low education in Eastern Kentucky, By Marcus Green, December 14, 2010, Louisville Courier-Journal: “Kentucky has 13 counties, mostly in the eastern part of the state, whose median household incomes are below $25,000 — including Owsley County, which also has the nation’s smallest percentage of bachelor’s degrees, new U.S. Census Bureau data shows. The figures from the American Community Survey put the poverty and low education in Kentucky’s rural regions in contrast to the more prosperous counties near Louisville, Lexington and Cincinnati…”
• Rural America gets even more sparsely populated, By Doug Smith and Richard Fausset, December 15, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “The majority of the nation’s sparsely populated rural counties lost even more residents in the last decade, though some of the counties - particularly those in the Mountain West - saw population gains that may be the result of retirees striking out for areas that are both scenic and affordable, according to a Times analysis of figures released by the Census Bureau on Tuesday. The data offer the first detailed portrait of heartland America in a decade, covering the roughly 1,400 counties of fewer than 20,000 people. The numbers also show a growing Latino presence in these counties…”
• Poverty in small towns increasing, By Michelle Dupler, December 15, 2010, Tacoma News Tribune: “Poverty rates in small towns in the Mid-Columbia tended to be higher than state and national averages between 2005 and last year, according to new U.S. Census Bureau estimates released Tuesday. Mesa, for example, had 53 percent of the Franklin County town’s estimated 472 residents lived in poverty, and had an annual median income of just $27,083. The national median income estimated for last year was $49,777, with 14.3 percent of people living in poverty…”
• Poverty rise in region’s small towns ’sobering’, By Louise Knott Ahern, December 15, 2010, Lansing State Journal: “Mid-Michigan’s small towns have not been spared the skyrocketing poverty rates that have plagued larger urban areas for the past several years, according to data released Tuesday. The American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau showed that even though towns such as Grand Ledge, Williamston and Eaton Rapids have seen only modest population changes since 2000, the number of families living beneath the federal poverty level has risen drastically. In Williamston, for example, the number of families living below poverty has risen from 6.4 percent in 2000 to an average of 15.5 percent over the past five years, according to the report…”

• Census data reveal pockets of wealth and poverty, By Sabrina Tavernise and Robert Gebeloff, December 14, 2010, New York Times: “The three places in the country with the highest median household income are all in Virginia, according to census datareleased on Tuesday, while those with the highest rates of poverty are in four American Indian reservations, all in South Dakota. The Virginia counties of Fairfax and Loudoun and the city of Falls Church had the highest median income, according to the data, which spans 2005 to 2009. Falls Church was the highest at $113,313, up by 17 percent from 2000. The lowest median income was in Owsley County, Ky., at $18,869. Of the five counties with poverty rates higher than 39 percent, four contain or are in American Indian reservations in South Dakota. The fifth, Willacy County, Tex., is on the Gulf Coast. The data is from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, which samples 1 in 10 Americans on a variety of social, economic and demographic topics. It is the single largest release of data in the bureau’s history, with 11 billion individual estimates covering 670,000 geographic locations. It gives details on the characteristics of American society based on surveys, and is separate from the 2010 Census, which will provide a precise count of all Americans…”
• New data to shed light on Minn. towns, big city neighborhoods, By Elizabeth Dunbar, December 14, 2010, Minnesota Public Radio: “There’s a reason the new school is being built on the other side of town, and that the bus route map looks the way it does — planners studied census data to better understand where and how we live and work. The U.S. Census Bureau collects data through the ongoing American Community Survey that inform decisions about public infrastructure. For the first time Tuesday, officials will release survey data collected over a five-year period, replacing the information that used to be collected on the long form of the census once every 10 years…”
• Black segregation in US drops to lowest in century, Associated Press, December 14, 2010, Washington Post: “America’s neighborhoods took large strides toward racial integration in the last decade as blacks and whites chose to live near each other at the highest levels in a century. Still, segregation in many parts of the U.S. persisted, with Hispanics in particular turning away from whites. A broad range of 2009 census data released Tuesday also found a mixed economic picture, with the poverty rate swinging wildly among counties from 4 percent to more than 40 percent as the nation grappled with a housing boom and bust. Just three U.S. localities reported median household income of more than $100,000, down from seven in 2000. Segregation among blacks and whites increased in one-fourth of the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, compared to nearly one-half for Hispanics…”
• Census data out today may offer skewed view of south Louisiana, By Michelle Krupa, December 14, 2010, New Orleans Times-Picayune: “Today marks a milestone for the U.S. Census with the release this morning of the first-ever set of five-year estimates of the American Communities Survey, which has replaced the ‘long form’ questionnaire that for decades went to select households as part of the decennial census. It includes information collected between Jan. 1, 2005 and Dec. 31, 2009, on 72 topics that go beyond the basic data contained in the Census short form, such as citizenship status, geographic mobility, means of transportation to work and educational status. Because of the volume of data available, estimates will be provided for every state, county, city and town in the country — more than 670,000 distinct geographic areas…”
• U.S. Census: Impoverished areas growing in El Paso County, By Maria St. Louis-Sanchez, December 14, 2010, Colorado Springs Gazette: “The poor in El Paso County are growing in number, and more areas of the region are considered impoverished, according to U.S. Census data released Tuesday. Data released by the 2005-2009 American Community Survey show that 24 of the county’s 111 neighborhoods have an estimated 20 percent or more of their population living below the poverty level. In 2000, there were seven neighborhoods with a poverty level that high. In September, American Community Survey data revealed that in 2009, the poverty rate in El Paso County was at its highest point in five years at 11.5 percent. In 2009, the federal poverty level was $22,050 for a family of four. The 2005-2009 American Community Survey are five-year estimates of the population throughout the United States. The estimates mark the first time that neighborhood-level information has been released by the U.S. Census since 2000. The estimates are not part of the 2010 Census, which will have its first release of data on Dec. 21…”

Colombia launches large-scale birth control effort, By Chris Kraul, December 12, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “When 80 women from the poor Agua Blanca district of Cali got free contraceptive implants last week, they became the first local beneficiaries of one of Latin America’s most liberal reproductive rights laws. Colombia’s Congress this fall passed a law guaranteeing all citizens access to free contraceptive drugs and surgical procedures, including vasectomies and tubal ligations. The benefits are only now filtering down to shanty neighborhoods such as this one in northeast Cali, where birthrates are among the nation’s highest, particularly among teenagers, health officials here said…”

• Priced Out: High rents drive housing crisis, December 3, 2010, Centre Daily Times: “While local governments have devoted much attention in recent years to concerns over the lack of affordable housing, the debate has largely centered on the need for ‘work force’ housing, which would put home ownership within reach of more people. Almost unnoticed in the discussion was another aspect of the housing issue: the lack of affordable rental housing. But last summer, members of the Centre County Affordable Housing Coalition sounded a warning. The lack of low-income housing, they said, had become a crisis. For the past several months, CDT reporters have sought out experts in housing, both in Centre County and across the state, and talked with dozens of people who told tales of being on the brink of homelessness because of low-paying jobs, lost jobs, illnesses and misjudgments. Together, they paint a picture of a long-standing problem made more visible by the economic downturn. Andy Haines, of S&A Homes, stated it clearly: ‘A lot of people have lost jobs. They’re not looking to buy houses. They’re looking to keep a roof over their heads…’”
• New Orleans still lacks affordable housing for its poorest people, report says, By Katy Reckdahl, November 24, 2010, New Orleans Times-Picayune: “Like other parts of Louisiana, New Orleans still lacks housing that is affordable to its poorest people, the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency found in a statewide assessment of housing needs released this week. Policymakers now have more data showing where housing is needed, said Alison Jones, LHFA board chairwoman, who expressed hope that the data would ‘facilitate agreement … to help move forward critically needed housing projects.’ Time is running out on legislators’ last-ditch efforts to extend or allow the exchange of Gulf Opportunity Zone tax credits, which expire at the end of this year…”

Poverty a leading cause of Type 2 diabetes, studies say, By Andrea Janus, November 21, 2010, CTV News: “For years, Canadians have heard that obesity, a lack of physical activity and a family history are the top risk factors for developing Type 2 diabetes. But new Canadian research says that, in fact, it is living in poverty that can double or even triple the likelihood of developing the disease. ‘What we know about Type 2 diabetes is not only are low-income and poor people more likely to get it, but they’re also the ones that, once they get it, are much more likely to suffer complications,’ Prof. Dennis Raphael, one of the researchers, told CTV.ca in a telephone interview. ‘And the complications from Type 2 diabetes when they’re bad are really bad, whether it’s amputations, or blindness, or cardiovascular disease.’ Researchers from York University analyzed two sets of data: the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) and the National Population Health Survey (NPHS) for a study published in the journal Health Policy…”

‘Culture of poverty’ makes a comeback, By Patricia Cohen, October 17, 2010, New York Times: “For more than 40 years, social scientists investigating the causes of poverty have tended to treat cultural explanations like Lord Voldemort: That Which Must Not Be Named. The reticence was a legacy of the ugly battles that erupted after Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then an assistant labor secretary in the Johnson administration, introduced the idea of a ‘culture of poverty’ to the public in a startling 1965 report. Although Moynihan didn’t coin the phrase (that distinction belongs to the anthropologist Oscar Lewis), his description of the urban black family as caught in an inescapable ‘tangle of pathology’ of unmarried mothers and welfare dependency was seen as attributing self-perpetuating moral deficiencies to black people, as if blaming them for their own misfortune. Moynihan’s analysis never lost its appeal to conservative thinkers, whose arguments ultimately succeeded when President Bill Clinton signed a bill in 1996 ‘ending welfare as we know it.’ But in the overwhelmingly liberal ranks of academic sociology and anthropology the word ‘culture’ became a live grenade, and the idea that attitudes and behavior patterns kept people poor was shunned. Now, after decades of silence, these scholars are speaking openly about you-know-what, conceding that culture and persistent poverty are enmeshed…”

Education Dept. awards grants to 21 distressed communities to plan for ‘Promise Neighborhoods’, By Christine Armario (AP), September 21, 2010, Los Angeles Times: “Organizers in distressed communities from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., will soon begin plans to create what the Department of Education envisions as ‘Promise Neighborhoods,’ where children and families receive support services that boost a student’s chance of being successful in school. Twenty-one applicants for the program to transform communities and student outcomes were named on Tuesday. They will receive planning grants of up to $500,000. ‘Communities across the country recognize that education is the one true path out of poverty,’ Education Secretary Arne Duncan said. ‘These Promise Neighborhoods applicants are committed to putting schools at the center of their work to provide comprehensive services for young children and students.’ The program is modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone, which provides comprehensive support for families from pregnancy through birth, education through college and career. Children in the program’s charter schools have made impressive gains on standardized tests and in closing the achievement gap…”

• A tale of two recoveries, By Michael A. Fletcher, August 27, 2010, Washington Post: “The massive government effort to repair the damage from Hurricane Katrina is fostering a stark divide as the state governments in Louisiana and Mississippi structured the rebuilding programs in ways that often offered the most help to the most affluent residents. The result, advocates say, has been an uneven recovery, with whites and middle-class people more likely than blacks and low-income people to have rebuilt their lives in the five years since the horrific storm…”
• On Katrina anniversary, recovery takes hold, By Campbell Robertson, August 27, 2010, New York Times: “This city, not that long ago, appeared to be lost. Only five years have passed since corpses were floating through the streets, since hundreds of thousands of survivors sat in hotel rooms and shelters and the homes of relatives, learning from news footage that they were among the ranks of the homeless. For most of the last year, in many parts of the city, the waters finally seemed to be receding. In November, a federal judge ruled that much of the flooding after Hurricane Katrina was a result of the negligence of the Army Corps of Engineers, vindicating New Orleanians, who had hammered this gospel for four years. In January, the federal government cleared the way for nearly half a billion dollars in reimbursement for the city’s main public hospital, an acceleration of funds that led to the announcement this week that nearly two billion more would be coming in a lump-sum settlement for city schools…”
• Billions in Katrina relief funds still unspent, By Geoff Pender, August 27, 2010, Miami Herald: “More than a quarter of the $20 billion in Housing and Urban Development relief funds earmarked for Gulf states after Katrina remains unspent five years after the storm, a fact noticed by at least one congressional leader eager to spend it elsewhere. In June, U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, ordered data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development into how much remains unspent from the more than $20 billion in Community Development Block Grant hurricane relief funds earmarked for Gulf states after the 2005 storms. The answer: about $5.4 billion, including $3 billion of the $13 billion earmarked for Louisiana and $2 billion of the $5.5 billion for Mississippi…”
• New Orleans five years after Katrina: Chins up, hopes high, August 26, 2010, The Economist: “It is still obvious to any visitor-especially one who ventures out of the French Quarter, with its restaurants and night clubs, into the unstarred districts of the city. Something awful happened here in the not-too-distant past. The signs are everywhere: empty lots overgrown by weeds, ramshackle, leaning houses, derelict public buildings still awaiting restoration. Some houses feature ‘Katrina tattoos’ sprayed by rescuers as they completed house-by-house searches in 2005. Nobody at home. And yet New Orleans has undoubtedly recovered its essence. The old neighbourhoods are almost intact, and the city’s irrepressible people have mostly returned. Experts estimate that perhaps 360,000 people now live in a city that was home to around 100,000 more on the day disaster struck. Those who left were probably disproportionately black and poor. Yet the city’s large black majority, still there and mostly still poor, has ensured that the extravagant culture of New Orleans has survived the flood unharmed…”
• Disasters widen the rich-poor gap, By John Mutter, August 25, 2010, Nature.com: “As the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, recovery in New Orleans is patchy. The hurricane flushed out many of the poorer people. For those who remained, almost without exception, the poorer neighbourhoods have experienced the slowest repopulation and recovery of basic amenities such as schools, shops and petrol stations. The poorest district of New Orleans - the Lower Ninth Ward - has about 24% of its former residents, whereas the wealthy Central Business District has seen 157% repopulation. Low-income black workers were seven times more likely to lose their pre-Katrina jobs than higher-income white workers. And low-income people have found it more difficult to attain basic living conditions, including good access to health care - in 2008 there were 38% fewer hospital beds available in New Orleans than before the storm…”

Poor people less likely to survive cancer than the rich: study, By Meagan Fitzpatrick, August 1, 2010, Vancouver Sun: “Cancer patients from rich communities have better survival rates than patients from poor ones, according to new Canadian research. The study, being published Monday in the American Cancer Society’s journal CANCER, found significant differences in the survival rates of patients from various socioeconomic backgrounds. With several different cancers, patients living in lower-income communities had a greater chance of dying prematurely than patients from higher-income areas, the study says…”

The importance of healthy communities for boys of color, By Marian Wright Edelman, July 22, 2010, Madison Times: “A new report was released in June that sheds a sobering light on how many Black and Latino boys grow up in communities that are, in a number of ways, dangerous to their health. Called “Healthy Communities Matter: The Importance of Place to the Health of Boys of Color,” the report contained contributions from scholars and researchers at the RAND Corporation, PolicyLink, the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School, and the Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice and the Department of Emergency Medicine at Drexel University. It was funded by the California Endowment. Some of its data and best practices focus on California but the lessons learned apply to communities across the country. The researchers found that boys and young men overall experience worse health outcomes than girls, that these health disparities are even more profound for Black and Latino boys, and that many of these disparities can be connected to community patterns. As they explain: “Negative health outcomes for African-American and Latino boys and young men are a result of growing up in neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage, places that are more likely to put boys and young men directly in harm’s way and reinforce harmful behavior…”

Mini farmers markets thrive in low-income Minneapolis neighborhoods, By Madeleine Baran, July 20, 2010, Minnesota Public Radio: “Tim Page has broken up concrete, chased away woodchucks, and battled an overflowing sewer with one purpose in mind — to create a farmers market to bring fresh produce to north Minneapolis residents. The Streetwerks Youth Farmers Market opened two weeks ago in the parking lot of a former gas station, after a year of work, and with the help of a team of young adults from the neighborhood. On the market’s second day of business, three teenagers picked vegetables from a nearby garden, set up a tent on the cracked asphalt parking lot, and waited for customers. As rain began to fall, an elderly woman walked up to buy a basket of okra. The newly minted farmers helped her pick the best batch while cars zipped by along the industrial stretch of Glenwood Avenue. ‘I saw the potential here,’ Page, 47, said, surveying the community gardens across the street from the market. ‘You know how you want to be part of a success? This feels pretty good right now.’ The Streetwerks market is part of a growing movement to open small-scale farmers markets in low-income Minneapolis neighborhoods where fresh produce is scarce. Organizers say the markets are starting to transform the diets — and the economy — of some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods…”

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…”

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…”

• THA shakeup in late ’80s brought reforms, By Ginnie Graham and Curtis Killman, June 6, 2010, Tulsa World: “THA has had a rocky history with Section 8, reaching a boiling point in the late 1980s with reports of mismanagement and discriminatory selection. In 1988, the nonprofit group Neighbor for Neighbor led the criticism against THA. After several months in a court battle, the group was successful in a lawsuit seeking Section 8 addresses and payments made to landlords. A Tulsa district judge ruled those were public records…”
• ‘Never had a problem’, By Ginnie Graham and Curtis Killman, June 6, 2010, Tulsa World: “Taking a look down the street from her porch, Zandrell Macon said she never planned to live in this neighborhood. The Section 8 tenant, who lives in the 800 block of East 52nd Street North, said she had to transfer her voucher from an earlier Section 8 rental home after problems with roach infestation, conflicts with the owner over making home repairs and being burglarized…”
• Unchecked, By Ginnie Graham and Curtis Killman, June 6, 2010, Tulsa World: “For 79-year-old Juanita Austin, having a Section 8 voucher means she can still afford to live in her home independently. From her manicured and fenced lawn on the 800 block of East 52nd Street North, she points to homes surrounding her property with plywood over windows, tarps over roofs and cars parked in front yards. ‘You see some of those boarded up across the street, and this one next door doesn’t mow the yard,’ Austin said. That house next door, with ‘Blood’ as graffiti on the side fence and weeds growing to mid-calf, did have a Section 8 tenant in December. By April, it was vacant and overgrown.’If you’re Section 8, you have to fix it up a little,’ she said. Regulations set by the U.S. Housing and Development Agency address the condition of the home, which taxpayers subsidize a portion of the rent for low-income families and individuals. However, nothing requires the Tulsa Housing Authority, which administers the program, to do background checks on code violations, taxes owed on the property or the criminal backgrounds of the owners…”
• Annual check-ups, By Ginnie Graham and Curtis Killman, June 7, 2010, Tulsa World: “Bruce Thompson starts the routine with a smile, handshake and a few questions: ‘Who owns the range and fridge?’ ‘Do you pay all your utilities?’ The tenant, Arlene, said she owns a couple of appliances and pays for the utilities. She didn’t want to give her last name in order to protect her family from ridicule, she said. ‘This is a wonderful thing, but people put you in a category when they find out you’re on Section 8,’ she said. ‘You’re stigmatized, and some people are flat-out rude.’ After introductions and initial questions, Thompson starts opening windows, closing and locking doors, flipping switches and eyeballing walls and corners. As the head of inspections for the Tulsa Housing Authority, Thompson goes down the checklist for the annual inspection of a home in the 1500 block of North Oswego Avenue. ‘Ours is more of a visual inspection,’ he said. ‘We don’t climb in attics or pull off (circuit) breaker panels.’ The Tulsa Housing Authority performs move-in and annual inspections on all of its nearly 4,400 Section 8 properties based on standards set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development…”
• Sneaking in, By Ginnie Graham and Curtis Killman, June 7, 2010, Tulsa World: “A murder suspect, two unregistered sex offenders and an armed robber are among people who either were approved as Section 8 tenants or lived with a voucher holder without authorization, a Tulsa World investigation has revealed. The four are among 62 people found by the World who had been arrested since January 2009 in Tulsa County on felony complaints or warrants. The home addresses that all gave to law enforcement officers match those of Section 8 units. Also, five parolees with felony convictions that included drug trafficking and robbery gave addresses that matched Section 8 homes within the past four years, the World’s analysis shows. Tulsa has nearly 4,400 Section 8 voucher holders…”

Blacks in Memphis lose decades of economic gains, By Michael Powell, May 30, 2010, New York Times: “For two decades, Tyrone Banks was one of many African-Americans who saw his economic prospects brightening in this Mississippi River city. A single father, he worked for FedEx and also as a custodian, built a handsome brick home, had a retirement account and put his eldest daughter through college. Then the Great Recession rolled in like a fog bank. He refinanced his mortgage at a rate that adjusted sharply upward, and afterward he lost one of his jobs. Now Mr. Banks faces bankruptcy and foreclosure. ‘I’m going to tell you the deal, plain-spoken: I’m a black man from the projects and I clean toilets and mop up for a living,’ said Mr. Banks, a trim man who looks at least a decade younger than his 50 years. ‘I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished. But my whole life is backfiring.’ Not so long ago, Memphis, a city where a majority of the residents are black, was a symbol of a South where racial history no longer tightly constrained the choices of a rising black working and middle class. Now this city epitomizes something more grim: How rising unemployment and growing foreclosures in the recession have combined to destroy black wealth and income and erase two decades of slow progress…”

Heart attacks more likely among those with lower incomes, By Eva Ferguson, May 28, 2010, Calgary Herald: “Canadians living in lower income areas need to be better educated about preventive health care, eating right and exercising, particularly in the area of cardio health, experts say, after a national report showed heart attacks are more likely among Canadians with lower socio-economic status. The Canadian Institute for Health Information released its 11th annual Health Indicators report Thursday, concluding that Canadians living in low-income neighbourhoods have higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, smoking and other cardiac risk factors. In 2008-09, almost 67,000 Canadians were hospitalized for a heart attack. After breaking down the Canadian population into five neighbourhood income levels, the report found that Canadians living in the least-affluent neighbourhoods were 37 per cent more likely to have a heart attack than those in the most affluent areas…”

From rats to heaters, doctor-lawyer team fights barriers to family health care, By Lena H. Sun, May 26, 2010, Washington Post: “Thirteen-year-old Haji Conteh had all the irritating symptoms of seasonal allergies when her father took her to see a pediatrician at a D.C. clinic last summer. But when the doctor questioned Haji and her father, she began to suspect there might be a cause other than pollen for the girl’s sneezing and itchy eyes: the rats and mold in the family’s Northwest Washington apartment. The pediatrician didn’t have the time or expertise to probe more deeply. But she did refer the family to a specialist– not another doctor, but a lawyer. The family is among 1,400 referred by doctors and others at Children’s National Medical Center to the Children’s Law Center. As part of a medical-legal partnership that began in 2002, lawyers work alongside doctors at four District clinics run by the hospital. Their shared goal is to overcome legal and social challenges that threaten the care of their patients — low-income children, predominantly African American, and virtually all covered by Medicaid…”

Researchers trying to track third world infections in U.S., By Joseph Brownstein, May 14, 2010, ABC News: “Researchers and legislators are trying to determine just how far some obscure but deadly third world diseases have penetrated into the United States. Studies in recent years have shown that diseases typically confined to less-developed countries have entered the United States, coming over the border or arising in places where conditions abruptly changed, like post-Katrina Louisiana. But poverty and a lack of access to healthcare have made it hard to determine how severe the problem might be. ‘The poverty in the U.S. tends to concentrate in certain pockets,’ said Dr. Peter Hotez, chair of the department of microbiology, immunology and tropical medicine at George Washington University Medical Center. He cited the Mississippi delta, post-Katrina Louisiana, the border region with Mexico and U.S. inner cities: ‘Those particular areas, for all practical purposes, resemble a developing country…’”

Program to combat asthma would lean on landlords, By Javier C. Hernandez, May 11, 2010, New York Times: “For decades, public health experts have tried - and mostly failed - to contain an asthma epidemic that afflicts many New Yorkers living in the city’s poorest neighborhoods. But now, the City Council hopes to significantly curtail the spread of the lung disease by forcing landlords at some of the most badly maintained buildings to clean up their premises. Under legislation to be introduced on Wednesday, the Council would require owners of 175 apartment buildings to take steps to eliminate garbage, mold and vermin - all factors that have been linked to asthma. If they do not comply, the city would file liens against the properties, effectively billing landlords for the work required…”

• Nation’s suburbs show increasing diversity, Brookings report finds, By Carol Morello, May 9, 2010, Washington Post: “Ozzie and Harriet, R.I.P. The idealized vision of suburbia as a homogenous landscape of prosperity built around the nuclear family took another hit over the past decade, as suburbs became home to more poor people, immigrants, minorities, senior citizens and households with no children, according to a Brookings Institution report to be released Sunday. Although the suburbs remain a destination of choice for families with children, nuclear families are outnumbered. Nationwide, 21 percent of American families are composed of married couples with children. Their ranks declined in more than half of the suburbs, including those surrounding Washington. Even in fast-growing Loudoun County, only 36 percent of households were married couples with children, census data show. In Fairfax County, it was 27 percent; Montgomery County, 26 percent; and Prince George’s County, 18 percent…”
• Social changes shatter regional stereotypes, study finds, By David Goldstein, May 8, 2010, Seattle Times: “Forget about the Midwest, Kansas City. You’re now part of the ‘New Heartland.’ So are you, Charleston, S.C., even with all your Spanish moss and Southern charm, and you too, Portland, Ore., way out there on the Pacific Coast. These three metropolitan areas couldn’t be farther apart geographically. Demographically, however, they might have more in common than with some regional neighbors, according to a new study by the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., think tank. Social changes in the past decade, especially the increase in racial and ethnic minorities, are scrambling regional stereotypes and altering the traditional portrait of the nation…”

Population study finds change in the suburbs, By Sam Roberts, May 8, 2010, New York Times: “As the first decade of the 21st century comes to a close, more black, Asian, Hispanic, foreign-born and poor people live in the suburbs of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas than in their primary cities. ‘Several trends in the 2000s further put to rest the old perceptions of cities as declining, poor, minority places set amid young, white, wealthy suburbs,’ a report released Sunday by the Brookings Institution concluded. That demographic inversion was accompanied by another first since the 2000 census: In the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, black, Hispanic and Asian residents constitute a majority of residents younger than 18 - presaging a benchmark that the nation as a whole is projected to reach in just over a decade…”

• Townships stockpiling reserves intended for needy, By Joe Biesk and Elisabeth Martin, April 25, 2010, Southtown Star: “At a time when America is grappling with its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, township governments across the Southland have stockpiled hefty cash reserves in accounts intended to help the poor pay for basic necessities, a SouthtownStar analysis shows. Many Southland townships are paying more to administer their poor relief programs - funded almost exclusively from the local property tax - than they are to give the needy a hand. Others are sitting on large sums of money, in some cases topping more than $1 million, that they invest or save for future use instead of increasing benefits or returning it to taxpayers, the analysis found…”
• Townships use different methods to address needs of poor, By Elisabeth Martin and Joe Biesk, April 26, 2010, Southtown Star: “When homeowners in Frankfort Township open their property tax bills each year, there’s a big fat zero where their taxes for the township’s general assistance program normally would be. The township hasn’t collected taxes for the program in 20 years, and officials say they plan to keep it that way. Instead, needy residents who come to Frankfort Township for help get referrals to other programs that offer assistance and visits to the township’s food pantry. As a result, the township hasn’t had a client on its general assistance rolls for years…”

• Legislation would allow food stamps to be used at farmer’s markets, By Stephen Rickerl, April 26, 2010, The Southern: “Proposed legislation seeks to make locally grown fresh produce and meats available to food stamp recipients. House Bill 4756 introduced by state Rep. LaShawn Ford, D-Chicago, would create the Farmer’s Market Technology Improvement Act, which would create a fund to assist vendors at USDA approved farmer’s markets in purchasing equipment needed to process Electronic Debit Transfers. The equipment is necessary to process electronic debits because recipients receive their food assistance in the form of a LINK card, which is used to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. The purpose of the proposed legislation is to increase access to fresh foods by SNAP recipients…”
• Farmers markets run by city of Chicago will start accepting food stamp cards, By Monica Eng, April 19, 2010, Chicago Tribune: “If you want to buy a meal of doughnuts, chips and soda with food stamp benefits, you’ll have no problem in Chicago. But if you want to use them for fresh fruits and vegetables at a farmers market, it’s been impossible. That’s about to change. In a pilot program announced Monday by the Mayor’s Office of Special Events, five city-run farmers markets - Lincoln Square, South Shore Bank, Daley Plaza, Division Street and Beverly - will accept LINK cards, Illinois’ debit cards for food stamp purchases…”
• Farmers market to take food stamps, By Anna Webb, April 19, 2010, Idaho Statesman: “A certain cliche hounds farmers markets: that they serve an affluent clientele willing to pay high prices for arugula and artisanal cheeses. But last year, growers at one Capital City booth - Global Gardens, a community garden project run by the Idaho Office for Refugees - started quietly undermining that idea by accepting food stamps at their produce booth. The idea caught on, and this year most produce booths at the market will be food stamp accessible, said Katie Painter, refugee agriculture coordinator with the agency. Though the market opens Saturday, the EBT, or ‘electronic benefits transfer’ machines, will be up and running June 5, just as harvest season is picking up. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare staff has actively recruited Idaho farmers markets to accept food stamps. Seven markets across Idaho have tentatively signed on, said Health and Welfare spokeswoman Emily Simnitt. A record number of Idahoans are using food stamps - 180,000 in the most recent count, an increase of 106 percent in the last two years…”

When doctor visits lead to legal help, By Erik Eckholm, March 23, 2010, New York Times: “It was not the normal stuff of a pediatric exam. As a doctor checked the growth of Davon Cade’s 2-month-old son, he also probed about conditions at home, and what he heard raised red flags. Ms. Cade’s apartment had leaky windows and plumbing and was infested with roaches and mold, but the city, she said, had not responded to her complaints. On top of that, the landlord was evicting her for falling behind on the rent. Help came through an unexpected route. The doctor referred Ms. Cade to the legal aid office right inside the pediatric clinic at Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati. Within days, a paralegal had secured an inspection that finally forced the landlord to make repairs, and also got the rent reduced temporarily while Ms. Cade searched for less expensive housing. ‘It got done when the lawyers got involved,’ Ms. Cade said…”

The obesity-hunger paradox, By Sam Dolnick, March 12, 2010, New York Times: “When most people think of hunger in America, the images that leap to mind are of ragged toddlers in Appalachia or rail-thin children in dingy apartments reaching for empty bottles of milk. Once, maybe. But a recent survey found that the most severe hunger-related problems in the nation are in the South Bronx, long one of the country’s capitals of obesity. Experts say these are not parallel problems persisting in side-by-side neighborhoods, but plagues often seen in the same households, even the same person: the hungriest people in America today, statistically speaking, may well be not sickly skinny, but excessively fat. Call it the Bronx Paradox. ‘Hunger and obesity are often flip sides to the same malnutrition coin,’ said Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger. ‘Hunger is certainly almost an exclusive symptom of poverty. And extra obesity is one of the symptoms of poverty.’ The Bronx has the city’s highest rate of obesity, with residents facing an estimated 85 percent higher risk of being obese than people in Manhattan, according to Andrew G. Rundle, an epidemiologist at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University…”