Outside Cleveland, snapshots of poverty’s surge in the suburbs, By Sabrina Tavernise, October 24, 2011, New York Times: “The poor population in America’s suburbs – long a symbol of a stable and prosperous American middle class – rose by more than half after 2000, forcing suburban communities across the country to re-evaluate their identities and how they serve their populations. The increase in the suburbs was 53 percent, compared with 26 percent in cities. The recession accelerated the pace: two-thirds of the new suburban poor were added from 2007 to 2010. ‘The growth has been stunning,’ said Elizabeth Kneebone, a senior researcher at the Brookings Institution, who conducted the analysis of census data. ‘For the first time, more than half of the metropolitan poor live in suburban areas.’ As a result, suburban municipalities – once concerned with policing, putting out fires and repairing roads – are confronting a new set of issues, namely how to help poor residents without the array of social programs that cities have, and how to get those residents to services without public transportation. Many suburbs are facing these challenges with the tightest budgets in years…”
Day: October 25, 2011
NPR Series on Foster Care and Native American Children
Native foster care: Lost children, shattered families, Series homepage, By Laura Sullivan and Amy Walters, National Public Radio: “Nearly 700 Native American children in South Dakota are being removed from their homes every year, sometimes in questionable circumstances. An NPR News investigation has found that the state is largely failing to place them according to the law. The vast majority of native kids in foster care in South Dakota are in nonnative homes or group homes, according to an NPR analysis of state records…”
Drug Testing and Assistance Programs – Florida
Florida’s welfare drug testing halted by federal judge, By Rebecca Catalanello, October 25, 2011, Miami Herald: “A federal judge in Orlando on Monday temporarily blocked Florida’s controversial law requiring welfare applicants be drug tested in order to receive benefits. Judge Mary Scriven issued a temporary injunction against the state, writing in a 37-page order that the law could violate the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment ban on illegal search and seizure. ‘The constitutional rights of a class of citizen are at stake,’ Scriven wrote. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the state last month on behalf of Luis Lebron, a 35-year-old Navy veteran and single father from Orlando who is finishing his college degree. Lebron met all the criteria for receiving welfare, but refused to submit to a drug test on the grounds that requiring him to pay for and submit to one is unreasonable when there is no reason to believe he uses drugs…”