Hispanic poverty in rural areas challenges states, By Teresa Wiltz, August 14, 2015, Stateline: “Today, one in four babies born in the U.S. is Hispanic. Increasingly they are being born into immigrant families who’ve bypassed the cities—the traditional pathway for immigrants—for rural America. Hispanic babies born in rural enclaves are more likely to be impoverished than those in the city. And it’s harder for them to receive help from federal and state programs, such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Consistent health care also is hard to come by, particularly if their parents are undocumented and are fearful of being discovered and deported—even though the children are U.S. citizens. As a result, many researchers say, many of these children may never realize their full potential and escape poverty…”
Tag: Rural poverty
States and Rural Homelessness
States struggle with ‘hidden’ rural homelessness, By Teresa Wiltz, June 26, 2015, Stateline: “At the Micah Ecumenical Ministries, in the center of this quaint colonial town, Stella Dempsey sits in the waiting room, looking dejected. Ministry staffers offered her a bed at a shelter, but she says she can’t bear to go back. Still, she’s feeling desperate. She is homeless and jobless and sleeps in a tent in the woods. She’s got cirrhosis of the liver, high blood pressure, diabetes and a bad back. Two months ago, she said, she almost died. Now, she’s run out of all her medications, from her bipolar meds to her insulin. She is not eligible for Medicaid under Virginia law…”
Rural Poverty and Child Health – Ohio
- Poverty leads to health problems for rural kids, By Jessie Balmert, August 7, 2014, Zanesville Times Recorder: “Children in Ohio’s rural counties face health problems their city peers don’t, and the gap is getting worse, according to a Children’s Defense Fund report released Thursday. More than 28 percent of children in Ohio’s Appalachian counties, including Muskingum County, lived in poverty compared with the state average of 23 percent, according to the report…”
- Report: Children falling behind in Appalachian Ohio, By Jim Ryan, August 8, 2014, Columbus Dispatch: “Few would be surprised that families in Appalachia struggle with poverty and inadequate access to health care. A new report, however, shows that children in Ohio’s Appalachian counties are even worse off than kids in inner-city neighborhoods…”