News
A New Approach to the Old Food Bank Model
Published August 06, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
Visiting the local food bank has always been viewed as somewhat of an impersonal experience chalk full of long lines, barren walls and sunken faces. You show up, wait your turn and then, if you're lucky, receive a few grocery bags full of post-expiration goods.
It is this routine that sometimes causes people to avoid taking advantage of a food bank's services, even if they desperately need them.
Sasha Abramky, in his book Breadline USA (which I've referenced before), visits a food pantry in Sacramento, California and offers this reflection:
I stopped at the table with whittled-down pencils and short charity request forms to fill in. Once inside, I made a U-turn, going back down the interior side of the brick wall that I had just advanced along from the outside. To my left was a painted wall with a sheet of metal, etched with years of graffiti; to my right, dull white-and-blue painted bricks...This wasn't a supermarket without cash registers, a consumer place of choice, of lifestyles realized. It was, I felt, rather a place for the spreading of tuberculosis or the flu, as well as every other germ, real and imagined; it was truly a last-stop hotel, a room where dignity came to die.
It was probably the desire to move away from such an institutional setting that pushed the University District Food Bank (UDFB) in Seattle to develop a new way for clients to get their hands on much-needed food.
States of Disarray... Out in The Woods
Published August 05, 2009 @ 11:15AM PT
I've been on a little vacation the past week or so, the kind of vacation my family excels at: a little 
relaxation, a lot of political discussion.
As the trip got underway, Mom and I shared a moment of dismay and horror over this story in the New York Times, illustrating the problems many states are having financially (in this case, Alabama):
It is hardly unusual these days for a government building to forgo a fresh paint job or regular lawn care to cut costs. But last week, the director of the Jefferson County public nursing home was told that the county could no longer afford to bury indigent patients.
Across town at the juvenile detention center, the man in charge was trying to figure out how to feed the 28 children in his custody when the entire cafeteria staff is let go. The tax collector warned local school districts to expect a six-month delay to get their share of property taxes. In family court, administrators plan to delay child support, custody and child abuse cases, leaving some children in the hands of the state indefinitely....
“Outside of the city of Detroit,” said Robert A. Kurrter, a managing director with Moody’s Investors Service, “it’s fair to say we haven’t seen any place in America with the severity of problems that they’re experiencing in Jefferson County.” Moody’s rates Jefferson County’s credit lower than any other municipality in the country.
A Nation of Hustlers?
Published August 03, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
(Photo of "Hunger Amidst Plenty" by Kamal H.)
I have to ask: why do so many of our public policies assume the worst of human nature? Check this out from a depressing NYT piece on how unemployment benefits are going to run out by year's end for a frightening # of unemployed Americans:
Traditionally, many economists have been leery of prolonged unemployment benefits because they can reduce the incentive to seek work. But that should not be a concern now because jobs remain so scarce, said Lawrence Katz, a labor economist at Harvard.
For every job that becomes available, about six people are looking, Dr. Katz said. “Unemployment insurance gives income to families who are really suffering and can’t find work even if they are hustling to look,” he said.
Look, $300 a week in unemployment benefits is nothing to sneer at, but honestly, is it really a negative incentive? It's slightly more generous than working full-time for a week at minimum wage, and it's about half of what the median hourly wage pays weekly in the US.
Why do we assume that by offering any shred of a safety net we're creating a nation of loafers, hustlers, thieves, layabouts, and their rapaciously needy offspring?
Seriously - what are the roots of these very disturbing assumptions? I don't get it.
Public Housing Funds Spent on Middle-Class Families
Published August 02, 2009 @ 01:36PM PT
[Atlanta Housing Authority CEO Renee] Glover said that pushing out chronic public housing residents is the only way to break the cycle of poverty, and she has led many of the nation's housing authority leaders to the same conclusion.
Thanks to the Associated Press, I finally get some hard numbers on HOPE VI's - and our nation's housing authorities - impact on reducing deeply affordable housing in the U.S. As we've covered here previously, Atlanta is nearing the final demolition of its public housing projects. It's doubly sad to read about this as I learn that Atlanta was home to the first public housing project in the U.S.: Techwood Homes. As ATL abandons its developments for mixed-income complexes, we have also abandoned the original spirit and intent of the program, evoked by a former President:
President Franklin D. Roosevelt heralded the project as "a tribute to useful work under government supervision" and the first step in building a safety net for the working poor during the Depression.
These days, the US Dept. of Housing & Urban Development spends its money building housing for the middle class.
Poor Americans Live in a "Law-Free Zone"
Published July 28, 2009 @ 10:00AM PT
Courtesy of the good people over at Postbourgie, I see three related stories that signal the Administration, Congress and anti-poverty advocates of all stripes are coming together to restore a bevy of civil rights for low-income Americans. Reforms to crack cocaine sentencing and felony disenfranchisement have both been introduced in Congress. And a report by the Center for Law & Social Policy reinforces Obama's push to expand legal aid assistance by demonstrating that the "legal needs of low-income Americans" are fulfilled less than 20% of the time.
Housing Everywhere Unaffordable at Minimum Wage
Published July 26, 2009 @ 10:57AM PT
UPDATE 7/29/09: This conversation on minimum wage continues here.
On Friday, the new federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour took effect. Yet:
...in no state can an individual working full-time at the minimum wage afford a two-bedroom apartment for his or her family. In fact, there is no county in the U.S. where even a one-bedroom unit at the FMR is affordable to someone working fulltime at the minimum wage.
According to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition's annual Out of Reach report on housing affordability in the U.S.,
A household must earn the equivalent of $37,105 in annual income to afford the national average two-bedroom [fair market rate] of $928 per month.14 Assuming full-time, year-round employment, this translates into a national Housing Wage of $17.84 in 2009.
So $17.84 per hour just for housing versus $7.25 an hour for all a household's economic needs. I wonder what "fiscal" conservatives have to say about this?
Suggestions for the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act
Published July 23, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
When Congress finally gets around to discussing the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act this fall (if they ever get this pesky health care reform thing out of the way), I'll have a few suggestions for how to make school nutrition programs more effective at providing healthy meals to the nation's children.
Before I go into the specifics, here's a little background on the importance of this legislation:
Every five years the window of opportunity opens on Capitol Hill as lawmakers and their staff work together to improve, tweak and reauthorize the federal Child Nutrition Programs....The School Breakfast Program and the National School Lunch Program are permanently authorized. However the other child nutrition programs that affect school nutrition operators must be reauthorized every five years. The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP), the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), State Administrative Expenses (SAE), the Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and other smaller pieces of the complete package of child nutrition programs must be renewed because they have actual expiration dates.
As you can see, proper attention must be paid to this reauthorization because it includes provisions for some of the most important supplemental nutrition programs we have in this country. With the economy still sputtering and demand at food pantries and soup kitchens continuing to climb, it is of the utmost importance to strengthen these programs and provide them with adequate funding.
