In survey, hard times before slump, By Sam Roberts, November 20, 2009 , New York Times: “Even before the recession, more than one in five Americans could not pay for basic needs without help from family, friends or outsiders, according to a survey by the Census Bureau. Fourteen percent of all Americans and 26 percent of blacks who responded to the 2005 survey reported that at sometime in the preceding year they were not able to meet essential expenses on their own, like paying bills for basic needs, avoiding foreclosure and buying sufficient food. ‘Presumably, this would be more severe than just being late with your utility payment,’ said Kurt J. Bauman, a bureau analyst. In addition to household income, a variety of measures of well-being were recorded in the bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation, which was released on Thursday…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty