- Low-income, elderly residents decry federal housing cuts, By Josh Mitchell, June 3, 2012, Wyoming Tribune Eagle: “Lillian Allen, a resident of government housing in Cheyenne, is upset about federal funding cuts that could hurt her livelihood. ‘I think it’s wrong,’ the 86-year-old Cheyenne resident said. ‘I think we should help our people here in America.’ Funding to keep the Cheyenne Housing Authority’s 266 local units in good shape has been slashed by the federal government. Those units help low-income, elderly and disabled residents…”
- Low-income families facing difficulty finding housing, By Jessica Holdman, June 2, 2012, Bismarck Tribune: “With a 1 percent rental vacancy rate in Bismarck-Mandan, affordable housing is hard for everyone to find, but that’s especially true for those on low and fixed incomes. ‘It (demand) is driving the cost of housing up such that there’s less and less affordable housing today,’ said Mike Anderson, executive director of the North Dakota Housing Finance Agency. Even with housing assistance, North Dakota’s low-income residents can’t afford rent. ‘You can have a voucher and still not find place to live,’ Anderson said. North Dakota housing vouchers offer subsidies based on income. Those in the program contribute up to 30 percent of their personal income to rent and the state covers the rest. Renters have 60 days to find an apartment that fits their voucher. If they can’t find a place in that time, they can apply for a 60-day extension…”
Tag: South Dakota
Rural Poverty Rates
SD has highest rural poverty rate in Great Plains, By Marcus Traxler, May 23, 2012, Mitchell Daily Republic: “South Dakota has the highest rate of rural poverty in a 10-state region of the Great Plains, and more than one-fourth of the state’s rural children live in poverty, according to a report by the Center for Rural Affairs. According to 2010 census data used in the report, 20.6 percent of South Dakotans in rural counties live in poverty. That’s 44,973 of the state’s 218,821 rural residents. Montana was the next closest state with a rural poverty rate of 17.8 percent. A rural county is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as a county with a population center less than 10,000 residents in size and is not in a metropolitan or micropolitan area…”
State Medicaid Programs – South Dakota, Alabama
- No easy cure for struggling Medicaid, By Mary Garrigan, April 6, 2012, Rapid City Journal: “Jennifer Brown and her children are caught in the middle of a Medicaid storm that’s brewing in South Dakota. Five-year-old Jenasis Brown and her younger brother, Roy, are two of the approximately 115,000 South Dakotans who qualify each month for health care through Medicaid or its corollary for kids, the Children’s Health Insurance Program. But qualifying for Medicaid – and finding a doctor or a dentist who will take you as a new patient – can be two very different things, according to Dr. Karla Murphy, president of the South Dakota State Medical Association. At a time when Medicaid enrollments are rising because of a bad economy, the number of doctors and dentists accepting Medicaid patients is declining in South Dakota. One in seven South Dakotans is already a Medicaid recipient and nearly 70 percent of those are children. The Affordable Care Act, new federal health care legislation aimed at reducing the number of uninsured people, is expected to add another 54,000 South Dakotans to Medicaid rolls between 2014 and 2019…”
- Alabama Medicaid Agency announces late payments to providers, By Casandra Andrews, April 3, 2012, Mobile Press-Register: “As Alabama grapples with covering the rising costs of health care to about a million poor and disabled Medicaid recipients, health care providers across the state were notified last month that some reimbursements for services would be late. Medicaid is a state and federally funded healthcare program for about 1 million lower-income children, families and disabled Alabama residents. For every state dollar spent, the federal government chips in a little more than $2. Late today, the Alabama Medicaid Agency announced that it would be releasing the remaining funds to providers whose payments were delayed because of state cash flow issues at the end of March…”
- Ala. House panel OKs deep state government cuts, Associated Press, April 4, 2012, Birmingham News: “An Alabama House budget-writing committee has approved a $1.39 billion budget that would cut spending by 30 percent for non-education state agencies, a move that could mean massive layoffs and cuts to programs that help the poor. The spending plan contains $430 million less than the budget for the current fiscal year for non-education state agencies. Officials say it could mean layoffs for hundreds of state employees and cuts to key services such as medicine for Medicaid patients. A Department of Human Resources program that provides assistance to poor children could be eliminated…”