- Report: 1 in 4 Missouri kids lives in poverty, By Kris Hilgedick, January 16, 2014, News Tribune: “More Missourians are slipping into poverty every year, a coalition of activists said Wednesday. The rate of poverty in Missouri has risen steadily over the past few years, up from 13.4 percent in 2008 to 16.2 percent today. Nearly one in every four children lives in poverty in the Show-Me State. ‘An increase of 3 percent is not huge, but it’s 179,000 more people,’ said Jessica Long, spokesperson for the Missouri Association for Community Action Inc., based in Jefferson City. ‘It’s more than the populations of Jefferson City and Columbia combined.’ Members of the Missourians to End Poverty coalition gathered in a Capitol hearing room on Wednesday morning to release their 2014 state-of-the-state report. The report revealed that out of the more than 6 million people living in the state, 947,792 of them live at or below the federal poverty level. More than 400,000 residents live in extreme poverty…”
- Poverty rate in St. Louis County, city up from previous years, By Alex Stuckey, January 16, 2014, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “As poverty rates increase in Missouri and St. Louis County, a statewide coalition is bringing the numbers to light and calling for action. The Missourians to End Poverty coalition released a report Wednesday showing that poverty was up in the St. Louis area and statewide. In St. Louis County, 12.1 percent of the population was impoverished in 2012, up from 11.9 percent the previous year, according to the report. In the city of St. Louis, 29.3 percent of residents were impoverished, an increase from the 2011 figure of 27.2 percent…”
- Oklahoma Watch: Poverty declines in Oklahoma, but disturbing trends persist, By Warren Vieth, January 11, 2014, The Oklahoman: “Go to any public place in Oklahoma with a broad cross-section of people and take a look around. Every sixth Oklahoman you see, on average, will be officially poor. That’s a big improvement over 50 years ago, when the average was closer to one in three. Much of the progress came during the decade following President Lyndon Johnson’s Jan. 8, 1964, promise to wage an ‘unconditional’ war on poverty. Congress followed up by expanding Social Security and food stamps and launching programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start and Job Corps…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty