Texas slow to spend stimulus money on weatherizing homes of poor, elderly, By Randy Lee Loftis, March 31, 2010, Dallas Morning News: “Winter has passed, but the state’s pace of spending federal stimulus money to weatherize poor Texans’ homes is just starting to heat up. Under the 2009 federal stimulus bill, Texas received $327 million from the Department of Energy to help armor 33,908 homes of low-income or elderly people against the cold and heat. Texas must spend the money by March 2012 or lose it. A review in December found that in the first four months, the state had spent only $1.8 million and completed work on just seven homes. At a state House committee hearing Tuesday at Dallas City Hall, Texas officials presented numbers showing progress. Work has been finished on an estimated 2,450 homes or apartments and planning has been started on 2,200 more. About $13 million has been spent…”
Day: April 1, 2010
Increasing Need for Assistance – Colorado, Ohio
- As demand for state aid grows, counties’ human services toil, By Allison Sherry, March 29, 2010, Denver Post: “Cindy Flores cupped her face in her hands and started talking about her problems to the one person required to listen. Her sister had been helping her buy food, and she was running low. She had an eviction notice in her purse. Child care would be helpful as she looks for work. Adams County Human Services worker Alicia Mascarenas met Flores’ eyes and then shifted her attention to the computer screen. ‘So you don’t have a job now?’ she said. Flores shook her head and looked at the floor. ‘My company went bankrupt,’ she said. As Colorado nears 17 straight months of year-over-year job losses, county human services workers continue to cope with growing caseloads – and the hard tales that accompany each one. In most metro area counties, and even some rural ones, workers have caseloads of more than 500 people. Statewide, food-stamp cases jumped to 173,361 in February from almost 165,000 in November. Those on Medicaid jumped to 501,000 from 487,000 between October and February…”
- Report: Pantries, soup kitchens faced hunger spike in 2009, By Catherine Candisky, March 31, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “If you gathered everyone in the state who got help at a soup kitchen or food pantry in any given week last year, they would fill Ohio Stadium more than twice. Every week in 2009, 225,700 Ohioans sought emergency food assistance, a jump of 18 percent from three years earlier. A report released yesterday by the Ohio Association of Second Harvest Foodbanks shows the recession’s devastating impact on Ohio families. In all, more than 1.4 million people statewide received food assistance at least once last year, and often more frequently. The spike seems to be attributed to those seeking help for the first time, usually after losing a job and running through any money they might have set aside…”