Survey finds rise in homeless population, By Angelo Fichera, June 10, 2014, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Not much has changed since Jan. 28 for Sarah Anderson. It was a cold winter, she said, and the bedside fire in a dilapidated shack in the woods in Pemberton Township where she had lived for months offered little respite. While she recently began staying in a friend’s pop-up camper, the 55-year-old still holds out hope for affordable housing. ‘What I really want is to have my own place,’ Anderson said Monday, ‘try to be normal like I used to be.’ Anderson, a former’s nurse’s aide who was evicted from her residence last May and who is now dealing with colon cancer . . .”
Tag: Philadelphia
Alice Goffman’s “On the Run”
Financial Hazards of a Fugitive Life, By Tyler Cowen, June 1, 2014, New York Times: ” ‘Capital in the Twenty-First Century,’ Thomas Piketty’s new book, has received a great deal of attention. But we shouldn’t neglect another important new book on income inequality, from a much different perspective. Titled “On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City,” and written by Alice Goffman, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, it offers a fascinating and disturbing portrait of the economic constraints and incentives faced by a large subset of Americans: those who are hiding from the law. You may think of being on the run as a quandary for only a small group of recalcitrant, hardened criminals. But in her study of one Philadelphia neighborhood, Professor Goffman shows that it is a common way of life for many nonviolent Americans. . .”
Child Poverty – Philadelphia, PA
- Report shows child-poverty rate highest in Delaware County, By Alfred Lubrano, November 26, 2013, Philadelphia Inquirer: “The number of children living in poverty in Delaware County increased by 30 percent between 2008 and 2012, according to a new report. Around 21,000 children 17 and under were living in poverty in the county in 2012, according to the report by Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY), a youth advocacy and research nonprofit in Philadelphia. That’s a county child-poverty rate of 16.7 percent, PCCY reported…”
- Childhood poverty up 55 percent in Chester County, By Kendal Gapinski, December 2, 2013, Daily Times: “Childhood poverty in Chester County has dramatically increased from 2008 to 2012, according to a new report released by the Public Citizens for Children and Youth. The report, which was released on Monday, says that child poverty has increased in the county by 55 percent since the start of the recession, the highest in the region. According to PCCY, Bucks County had an 18 percent increase in the number of children living in poverty from 2008 to 2012, while Delaware County saw an increase of 30 percent…”
- Nearly 3,000 Bucks County kids in ‘deep poverty’, By James McGinnis, December 3, 2013, Bucks County Courier Times: “A ‘slow and uneven’ economic recovery has left nearly 3,000 Bucks County children in ‘deep poverty,’ with parents earning less than $12,000 per year, suggests a new analysis of state and federal records for Philadelphia suburbs. The nonprofit Public Citizens for Children and Youth reports a 43 percent increase in the number of Bucks County children enrolled in supplemental nutritional assistance program (SNAP) food benefits, formerly known as food stamps, and a 45 percent increase in the number of students who are eligible to receive free and reduced-price breakfasts and lunches in school…”