- Lack of affordable housing fuels Connecticut homelessness, By Brian Charles, December 10, 2013, New Haven Register: “Connecticut’s battle to bring down the number of homeless people living in shelters or on the streets has been hampered by a dearth of affordable housing, according to the Partnership for Strong Communities. At a time when the nation’s homeless population is in steady decline, the number of homeless people in Connecticut has increased. During the last three years, the state’s homeless population has risen from 4,316 to 4,448, according to data collected in January and released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development last month…”
- With rental demand soaring, poor are feeling squeezed, By Annie Lowrey, December 9, 2013, New York Times: “Violeta Torres cannot afford her apartment. Ms. Torres, a 54-year-old nanny, pays $828 a month for a rundown one-bedroom that she keeps spotlessly clean, making the rent only by letting an acquaintance sleep on a mattress in the living room for about $400 a month. But her one-bedroom happens to be in the booming Columbia Heights area here, where such an apartment, once renovated, would easily command twice the price…”
- Alaska’s thin line between camping and homelessness, By Kirk Johnson, December 7, 2013, New York Times: “People come to Kenai Peninsula for the natural beauty or for an Alaskan escape from the routines that shape life in fussier places. There are good oil industry jobs, and a Russian patina hangs over the landscape in the names of the small towns and a few orthodox churches that keep the flame alive. When the salmon are running on the Kenai River, you can pull them in until your arms are sore, people here are fond of saying. But those bounties of nature, which have drawn settlers and fortune seekers since the days of Captain Cook, also mask a hard reality. When someone’s life goes awry, through a misstep or a spousal betrayal, a job loss or an eviction, or just a stretch of bad luck, there is not much of a safety net here…”
Tag: Connecticut
Earned Income Tax Credit – Connecticut
New state tax credit for working poor paid $601 on average, By Mara Lee, January 10, 2013, Hartford Courant: “About 13 percent of Connecticut households worked either so little, or at such low-wage work in 2011 that they were eligible for the new state Earned Income Tax Credit. The average filer’s income was $17,957, according to an analysis released Thursday by the fiscal policy center at Connecticut Voices for Children, an anti-poverty nonprofit. The state helps the working poor by paying them 30 percent of what they can claim on the federal EITC. So the average household gets $2,003 in the federal income tax credit, and $601 from Connecticut…”
Minimum Wage – Connecticut
Legislative committee backs minimum-wage bill, By Daniela Altimari, March 15, 2012, Hartford Courant: “The state’s minimum wage would rise 50 cents in each of the next two years under a measure that cleared the legislature’s labor committee Thursday. The committee tweaked the bill before the vote, both to reduce the size of the increase from 75 cents each year, and to move the first increase from July 1 to next January. If approved, the hourly wage would rise from the current $8.25 to $8.75 on Jan. 1, 2013, and to $9.25 on Jan. 1, 2014. The following year, the rate would be tied to the Consumer Price Index. The measure has a high-profile champion in House Speaker Chris Donovan, but its fate remains murky, largely because Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s support is uncertain…”