Source: Rourke L. O'Brien & David S. Pedulla, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Vol. 8 no. 4, Fall 2010
The way the United States determines who is poor and who is not--a measure based solely on the cost of food--is broken. A new approach is needed, one that measures poverty through multiple factors such as housing, transportation, and regional economic differences.
American families are becoming increasingly diverse, dynamic, and dependent on labor market earnings to avoid poverty and economic distress. Children are less likely to live in families with both parents and more likely to rely on their mother's earnings to avoid poverty. The recession has highlighted the urgent need for antipoverty programs supporting families, but the authors emphasize that the needs the programs address are longstanding, not only cyclical, and therefore require a sustained response.
In this brief, the authors review changes in family structure, the relationship between family structure and employment, and early evidence on differential impacts of the recession on families, and they explore the implications of these changes for policy. They argue that supporting resident parents' efforts to balance work and family responsibilities and supporting and enforcing nonresident parents' contributions to their children will help reduce poverty and economic difficulties.
Source: Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute (PHI), July 2010
From the summary:
A new PHI PolicyWorks analysis finds that a growing number of states report that personal and home care aides are receiving wages that put them at risk of poverty.
In 2009, 36 states reported average hourly wages that fell below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, up from 32 states in 2008, according to the analysis reported in PHI's updated State Chart Book on Wages for Personal and Home Care Aides (pdf).
Wages below 200 percent of the federal poverty level ($10.42) are low enough to qualify workers for many state and federal public assistance programs.
Source: Zach Patton, Governing, May 2010
Poverty is encroaching on suburban enclaves -- even the most affluent of them. Many are ill-equipped to meet the new social-service needs.
See also:
The Suburbanization of Poverty: Trends in Metropolitan America, 2000 to 2008
Source: Elizabeth Kneebone, Emily Garr, Senior Research Assistant, Brookings Institution, January 2010
Source: Karen K. Harris, Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, April 19, 2010
The Federal Poverty Measure is badly in need of revision. The current measure is not an accurate reflection of the resources a family needs to stay healthy and thrive. This six-part series will examine the history of the measure and past and current efforts to reform it.
The Federal Poverty Measure is a decades-old relic that became widely utilized by historical accident. The current measure was created during the mid-1960s by an economist at the Social Security Administration (SSA) who began publishing articles with poverty statistics for the United States using a poverty measure that she had developed.
Source: Rachel Tolbert Kimbro, and Elizabeth Rigby, Health Affairs, Vol. 29 no. 3, 2010
(subscription required)
From the abstract:
Amid growing concern about childhood obesity, the United States spends billions of dollars on food assistance: providing meals and subsidizing food purchases. We examine the relationship between food assistance and body mass index (BMI) for young, low-income children, who are a primary target population for federal food programs and for efforts to prevent childhood obesity. Our findings indicate that food assistance may unintentionally contribute to the childhood obesity problem in cities with high food prices. We also find that subsidized meals at school or day care are beneficial for children's weight status, and we argue that expanding access to subsidized meals may be the most effective tool to use in combating obesity in poor children.
Source: Heidi Shierholz, Economic Policy Institute, EPI Briefing Paper #256, February 24, 2010
From the summary:
This paper finds that immigrant workers who are U.S. citizens enjoy higher wages and lower levels of poverty than non-citizens, and that this benefit remains even after controlling for other factors.
See also:
Press Release
Source: Shriver Center, 2010
From the summary:
As millions lose their jobs, homes, and health insurance during this recession, they look to Congress to come through and help them in their time of need. But does it? Are the representatives in Washington really looking out for the interests of the people who were laid off by a plant closing, lost their health insurance, or face crushing debt as a result of a medical emergency? The 2009 Poverty Scorecard grades the performance of each member of Congress on the most important poverty-related issues that came to a vote in 2009.
Source: Center for Law and Social Policy, January 21, 2010
Below are links to fact sheets for each of the 50 states on child welfare financing. In addition to data on child welfare expenditures and the sources of this funding, the fact sheets include contextual data such as the number (and percent) of children living in poverty, the number and types of substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect, and the number of children in foster care.
Each fact sheet contains sections that:
1. Describe the context for child welfare spending by providing data on abused and neglected children, children in foster care, children who have left foster care, and children living with kin;
2. Identify how much child welfare funding comes from federal, state, and local sources;
3. Identify the major federal funding streams that are used to support child welfare and the amount of child welfare funding that comes from each; and
4. Highlight expenditures and trends within the Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Programs, including expenditures for foster care maintenance and adoption assistance payments, administrative and child placement costs, and training.
Source: United States Conference of Mayors, December 2009
From the press release:
In the last year, U.S. cities have seen the sharpest increase in the demand for hunger assistance since 1991, an increase in family homelessness and a decrease or leveling in individual homelessness, according to a U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) report on the status of Hunger and Homelessness in 27 cities in America (listed below) that was released today at a press conference at the USCM headquarters in Washington, D.C..
See also:
- Press conference video
- ARRA helps municipalities expand homeless services
Source: American City & County, January 26, 2010
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