Housing
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Judge Rules Katrina Flooding Government's Fault
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Putting Veterans To Work
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Poverty--'Prison Without Bars'
Housing Instability Hurts Kids
Published November 06, 2009 @ 05:07AM PT
I'm tired of being subtle. In this world of attention-grabbing headlines and screaming issues, little kids are being trampled as crowds of media rush to cover "issues" which often have the importance of a mosquito bite, or um, a silver balloon. Left to fend for themselves are millions of little kids and their families in this country, mired in deep poverty, teetering on or swallowed up by homelessness.
So I made this 4-minute video, "Life is But a Dream," to remind viewers of the cost as we continue to abandon the wee ones in this country. Would be great if you view it and share it.
A new report issued by the Institute of Children in Poverty provides strong data to support my premise that little kids suffer by our national neglect. Among the findings...
Existing research provides a link between housing instability and a range of child and adolescent challenges, from lower school achievement to poorer social and emotional adjustment.
Budget Crises, Development Woes Confront Mayors
Published November 04, 2009 @ 01:34PM PT
Looking around at the mayoral results from yesterday's elections, seems incumbents and historic new leaders face a shared set of urban challenges: budget gaps, development and housing costs, crime, and troubled educational systems. Gee, what's new?
Certainly not the leadership in Boston, where Mayor Tom Menino won an unprecedented 6th term to become the city's longest serving mayor. Menino's remarkable claim to fame in governing this city of 600k (or so) is that almost half of all Bostonians have personally met him - including yours truly (several times now). Voters re-elected him with fondness for the Christmas trees he provides for neighborhood squares, his handshakes in line at Dunkin Donuts, and his seemingly 24/7 appearance on local public television. His campaign promises include closing budget gaps, lowering the crime rate, and improving the Boston Public Schools - a big issue this time around.
In Detroit, arguably the most troubled city in America, Mayor Dave Bing must close a $300M budget gap and also tackle crime and a failing public school system. He promises to whittle Detroit's finances down to reflect the city's new reality as the 11th largest city in the US, through cuts and efficiencies. Beware the Mayors who promise to govern cities like they run their businesses. Sure, they can buy themselves term after term, but eventually voters (citizens? shareholders?), especially the lower-income ones who don't usually see the corporate profits trickle down their way, will tire of these CEOs.
Your Recession in Charts
Published November 02, 2009 @ 01:52PM PT
Last week President Obama touted 640,000 jobs were created or saved via the stimulus. No doubt the stim, as we're apparently calling it now, has had some positive impact. (Though if it's behind the endless road improvements going on in the Greater Boston area that's driving me insane, pun intended, then I might have to rethink this whole public works investment concept!)
But eminent economist Joseph Stiglitz pronounces the recovery "nowhere near" over and the myriad charts our friends at Calculated Risk and the Wall Street Journal certainly suggest as much. WSJ has an interactive map of stimulus spending by state, including jobs saved and current unemployment rates. 15% unemployment in Michigan! It's almost 30% in Detroit.
Calculated Risk has the gruesome images, including the above graph demonstrating a national unemployment rate of 9.8% (as of September 30), the highest in 26 years.
Staying Warm This Winter
Published October 27, 2009 @ 11:13AM PT
In many regions across the country, the days are getting shorter and the colorful autumn leaves are slowly falling to the ground. This can only mean that the stinging cold of winter is just around the corner.
What this also means, particularly with unemployment rates still astonishingly high and the recession continuing, is that nonprofit organizations and government agencies are bracing for an increased demand for utility assistance over the next several months.
The main way that energy assistance funds are distributed in the U.S. is through the Low-income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) administered by the Department of Health and Human Services. However, instead of providing assistance directly to the general public, the Department makes block grants to individual states who then distribute checks to needy households.
Cities Ravaged by Recession
Published October 23, 2009 @ 12:01PM PT
The perfect storm of high unemployment rates, shrinking salaries and a painfully slow economic recovery has thrown many U.S. cities teetering on the brink of survival into utter desperation.
Last year, median income for American households dropped a staggering 3.6 percent -- the greatest one-year decline since records have been kept -- and the recession dropped an additional 2.6 million Americans into poverty. Worse, The Economic Policy Institute predicts that incomes could drop another $3,000 and the poverty rate could rise another 1.9 percent by 2011.
Coupled with the assertion that the number of homeless could rise by 1.5 million in the next two years, this news is especially bad for the ten poorest cities in America -- a group of metropolitan areas chosen based on per capita income, the percentage of the population earning less than half the poverty line, the percentage of food stamp recipients, the percentage of people under age 65 receiving public health care and the unemployment rate. (All these statistics come from 2008 Census Bureau data.)
Poverty News Round-up
Published October 20, 2009 @ 01:25PM PT
Too many interesting tabs open in my browser to select just one story today. Here's the latest on poverty news and activism happening around the US:
- Thank you feds! For stepping in and telling Indiana that allowing private employers to use welfare data to screen potential employees is "inappropriate" and "not allowed." Ya think?
- If port cities Oakland and Long Beach, CA, have such similar demographic profiles, including lots of poverty, why is crime so much worse in Oakland? It's unclear, but fortunately there's a new police chief in town to try and reverse the city's terrifying trends.
- We've come a long way from the days of "No Irish Need Apply" - AG Andrew Cuomo in NY has charged EMC Construction with exploiting its workers, including using a three-tiered wage system for Irish ($25/hour), Black ($18/hour) and Latin@ ($15/hour) workers. Nothing encourages worker solidarity like abusive wage gaps!
- Mayor Bloomberg is creating jobs in NYC, but are they good jobs? The short answer: No.
- What the state gives, the market taketh away. Bloomberg builds or preserves 72k low-income housing units, 200k disappear due to vague and mysterious "market forces." Don't look under your beds at night, kiddies!
- And finally, let this be a lesson to other states: Indiana is pulling the plug on privatizing its welfare system, after thousands of eligible recipients lost benefits. One old measure they're bringing back in? Face-to-face interactions between recipients and case workers. Good to see we haven't quite eliminated jobs as we insist TANF recipients go find some.
(Photo of A.M. Walzer Co. US Inlay Puzzle Map by Marxchivist)
Flint: Back to the Land
Published October 19, 2009 @ 06:20AM PT
I thought about calling this post "Flint: Uplifting and Depressing" to quote the competing descriptors given to the city working to stabilize itself sustainably in the face of population decline and a lost economic base. This is one of those articles that often tires me, as its efforts to report on any source of progress during long-term shifts like rebuilding an eviscerated city can leave readers buoyed with false hopes or impatient for more positive outcomes ASAP. But it's a telling story of the highs and lows of fighting poverty - the reality that Flint is still deteriorating in places, even as potential new jobs and land uses come to the fore as officials and residents seek to turn around their hometown.
The main focus of the article is creative uses of land - an abundant resource in Flint - such as turning vacant properties into local gardens. For some Americans, a return to the land, rustic, pioneering movement is an economic necessity or the most viable economic solution. So it goes on one street in Flint.
As we know here at Poverty in America, both small scale and large scale efforts like this are happening all over the country. I praise local governments for allowing residents to exercise some creative control over their neighborhoods alongside government efforts to preserve housing, retain or bring in good jobs, and provide for citizens' economic well-being, safety and health.
(Photo of the Beresford Community Garden in San Mateo, CA by Vicky Moore)
