US poverty spikes but help from Washington shrinks as government struggles with debt, Associated Press, April 1, 2013, Washington Post: “Antonio Hammond is the $18,000 man. He’s a success story for Catholic Charities of Baltimore, one of a multitude of organizations trying to haul people out of poverty in this Maryland port city where one of four residents is considered poor by U.S. government standards. Hammond says he ended up in Baltimore three years ago, addicted to crack cocaine and snorting heroin, living in abandoned buildings where ‘the rats were fierce,’ and financing his addiction by breaking into cars and stealing copper pipes out of crumbing structures. Eighteen months after finding his way to Catholic Charities via a rehabilitation center, the 49-year-old Philadelphia native is back in the work force, clean of drugs, earning $13 an hour cleaning laboratories for the Biotech Institute of Maryland and paying taxes. Catholic Charities, which runs a number of federally funded programs, spent $18,000 from privately donated funds to turn around Hammond’s life through the organization’s Christopher’s Place program which provides housing and support services to recovering addicts and former prisoners…”
Tag: Charities
Services Provided by Food Banks
Food banks expand beyond hunger, By Phyllis Korkki, November 8, 2012, New York Times: “For the recent East Coast hurricane, as in other emergencies, food banks were on the front lines with food, bottled water and cleaning supplies. They have long held sway in the public consciousness as providers of nonperishables. But in fact, holding food drives and handing out cans of soup and tuna make up only a small part of what food banks do over the course of a year. Count the timely provision of fresh produce and nutrition education as among their newer core duties. For millions of people, food banks have become more than a stopgap measure; rather, they are a chronic coping strategy, said Maura Daly, chief communication and development officer at Feeding America, the umbrella organization for the nation’s 200-plus food banks…”
Homelessness Rate – England
- Homelessness jumps by 14% in a year, By Simon Rogers, March 8, 2012, The Guardian: “The number of people officially classed as homeless in England has jumped by 14% – the biggest increase for nine years – as what charities have described as a ‘perfect storm’ of rising repossession rates and unemployment drives thousands more families into temporary accommodation. Across England, 48,510 households were accepted as homeless by local authorities in 2011, according to figures published by the Department for Communities and Local Government on Thursday. The data shows 69,460 children or expected children are in homeless households, with three-quarters of the households accepted containing children…”
- Homeless households up by a fifth, figures show, By Hannah Richardson, March 8, 2012, BBC News: “The number of homeless households in England has risen by almost a fifth compared with the same period last year, official figures show. Some 12,830 families and individuals were newly classed as homeless between 1 October and 31 December 2011. Charity Shelter said the data was a shocking reminder of ‘the divide between the housing haves and have nots’. The government said the numbers were lower than 28 of the last 30 years. The official homelessness figures, which include those in temporary accommodation, show a rise for four quarters in a row. Of the 12,830 new homeless applicants, some 2,620 had dependent children. Meanwhile, the figures for 2011 as a whole showed nearly 50,000 families were newly classed as homeless during the year. This is a 14% rise on 2010…”