- Officials: Public housing would take a hit from Pawlenty’s welfare cuts, By Madeleine Baran, March 3, 2010, Minnesota Public Radio: “After overcoming drug and alcohol addiction two years ago, Gabriella Raspa said her life finally seemed to be headed in the right direction. She was 20, and barely scraping by on $203 a month in welfare payments, but she was getting ready to find a job, and had dreams of going to college to become a journalist. Perhaps most importantly, Raspa said, she had moved into a low-income apartment building in north Minneapolis. She had made friends with other residents, adding that the building was ‘kind of like a dorm, with lots of people my same age. I finally felt like I belonged somewhere.’ But then her welfare benefits abruptly ended. Her doctor said she had sufficiently recovered from her addiction, and was able to work. ‘I kind of freaked out,’ she said. Raspa worried that she would become homeless. She had no income, and didn’t think she’d be able to find a job fast enough to afford her $61 rent payment. Luckily, Raspa said, a caseworker helped her apply for hardship waiver from the public housing authority. The waiver allowed Raspa to stay in her apartment, rent free, until she found a job…”
- Plan offered to break impasse on health care, By Warren Wolfe and Mike Kaszuba, March 2, 2010, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Republican legislative leaders said late Tuesday they have produced a plan to break the impasse over providing health insurance for the state’s poorest and sickest residents. But DFLers and Republicans would not immediately disclose details as they began to analyze its implications. ‘We need more time to think,’ said Sen. Linda Berglin, DFL-Minneapolis, as she emerged Tuesday night from the second of two closed-door sessions in the governor’s office. Berglin, who chairs a key Senate committee, said details could be made public as early as Wednesday and insisted that any plan be subject to a public hearing…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty