To test housing program, some are denied aid, By Cara Buckley, December 8, 2010, New York Times: “It has long been the standard practice in medical testing: Give drug treatment to one group while another, the control group, goes without. Now, New York City is applying the same methodology to assess one of its programs to prevent homelessness. Half of the test subjects – people who are behind on rent and in danger of being evicted – are being denied assistance from the program for two years, with researchers tracking them to see if they end up homeless. The city’s Department of Homeless Services said the study was necessary to determine whether the $23 million program, called Homebase, helped the people for whom it was intended. Homebase, begun in 2004, offers job training, counseling services and emergency money to help people stay in their homes. But some public officials and legal aid groups have denounced the study as unethical and cruel, and have called on the city to stop the study and to grant help to all the test subjects who had been denied assistance…”
Day: December 9, 2010
Working Households and Child Poverty – UK
- Child poverty ‘rises’ among working households, December 6, 2010, BBC News: “Child poverty within working households is rising and now accounts for 58% of all UK cases, a report has found. A Joseph Rowntree Foundation report says there are 2.1 million impoverished youngsters in homes where parents are in work – up slightly on last year. Co-author Tom MacInnes said it showed work alone was not the answer to lifting people above the bread line. The Department for Work and Pensions said it was reforming the welfare system to ensure work always paid. Overall, the number of children living in poverty fell to 3.7 million, the report called Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion found…”
- Record levels of poverty among families with wages, By Jonathan Owen, December 5, 2010, The Independent: “A record number of children in the UK are living in poverty despite the fact that one or both of their parents work, according to a new report to be published tomorrow. The figure of 2.1 million is the highest on record – up 400,000 in the past five years, undermining the oft-repeated claim that people simply have to work their way out of poverty. The new figure accounts for more than half of the 3.7 million children living in poverty in Britain today, according to researchers from the New Policy Institute (NPI) who produced the report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF). It is perhaps the most damning element of an analysis of the past decade, showing how initial progress in some areas has halted or been reversed…”
- Most children living in poverty are not from workless households, report finds, By Karen McVeigh, December 6, 2010, The Guardian: “The number of children of working parents who are living in poverty in the UK has risen to an unprecedented 2.1 million, a report has found. A report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that while the number of impoverished children dropped overall to 3.7 million, the majority are now from homes where a parent or carer is working, accounting for 58% of the total. The number who live in workless households fell to 1.6 million – the lowest figure since 1984 – according to the Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion report…”
Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates
- Iowans’ incomes edge higher, Census Bureau report shows, By William Petroski, December 9, 2010, Des Moines Register: “The median household income in Iowa rose by less than $1,000 between 2007 and 2009, and the poverty rate climbed nearly 1 percentage point, but Iowans fared better than people in many other states hard-hit by the economic recession, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The median household income in Iowa last year was $48,065, which trailed the national median income of $50,221. Still, the Iowa figure increased from $47,324 two years earlier, while the national figure slid from $50,740 in 2007. Iowa’s statewide poverty rate in 2009 was 11.8 percent, up from 11 percent two years earlier. But it remained lower than the national poverty rate last year of 14.3 percent…”
- Census: County poverty rate stable, By Emily Schettler, December 9, 2010, Iowa City Press-Citizen: “New data released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Wednesday showed that while poverty increased in some counties, in many others, including Johnson County, poverty rates stayed the same or actually decreased from 2007 to 2009. According to the 2009 Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates, the poverty rate for children ages 5 to 17 in families rose in 295 counties and declined in 19 counties of the 3,140 counties studied. In Johnson County, like much of Iowa, there was not a significant statistical change from 2007 to 2009…”
- Childhood poverty worsens in Multnomah County, By Betsy Hammond, December 8, 2010, The Oregonian: “New estimates by the Census Bureau show that child poverty, already a serious problem in the eastern two-thirds of Multnomah County, worsened from 2008 to 2009. Based on tax returns and census surveys, federal officials estimate that the share of school-aged children living in poverty rose in nearly every Multnomah school district east of Portland Public Schools, including Reynolds, David Douglas, Centennial and Parkrose. Those four school districts together are home to 32,000 students, and all four saw their school-aged poverty rate rise at least 3 percentage points from 2008…”