Economic Opportunity News
"The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP (formerly food stamps) is targeted at our most vulnerable: 76 percent of SNAP households include a child, senior or disabled person, and 85 percent have gross income at or below 100 percent of the poverty line."
"Senate Finance Committee members removed the proposed two-year, three-county pilot program that would test participants in the Ohio Works First program, which provides cash benefits to Ohioans earning no more than 50 percent of the federal poverty level for up to 36 months. However, the plan is expected to return, just not in the budget."
"Roosevelt Darby Jr. knew about addiction and homelessness because he had lived through both himself. He had emerged from that dark night of the soul determined to help others like him find the light that would lead back to the land of the living."
"The proposed two-year, three-county pilot program would test participants in the Ohio Works First program, which provides cash benefits to Ohioans who earn no more than 50 percent of the federal poverty level for up to 36 months."
"'Corporations are getting a free ride, not paying what they owe while more and more families slip into poverty,' he said. 'Whenever they need to cut, once again, they're choosing to cut health and human service programs.'"
"The Senate’s version keeps Corbett’s most damaging cuts to social services, including the elimination of the General Assistance cash-grant program, some of which goes to very low-income children and domestic-violence victims. It restores some money to social services but retains a new block-grant structure, and keeps an $8 million cut to child care."
"About 200 Wake County employees – who handle tasks such as working with drug-addicted homeless people and children with mental illness – are finding their jobs in limbo because of a proposed restructuring of county services by the UNC Health Care System."
"...[F]reedom is what CCP provided for Lopez and Joyner, who graduated with associate’s degrees last week. Lopez, 26, earned a full ride to Bryn Mawr, and Joyner, 45, has been accepted to the University of Pennsylvania."
"But business representatives warned that the higher minimum wage, overall, would hurt low-wage workers more than it would help, causing employers to compensate by cutting jobs or paring back hours for their lowest-paid workers."
"The Sherwood school with the highest percentage of low-income students is getting federal money for a free pre-kindergarten program next fall. Hopkins Elementary School is screening children for the half-day program. It's likely to be an afternoon class and will serve up to 20 students, said program coordinator Errin Esparza."
"A program administered at the county level, CalWorks provides cash assistance to some of the state's neediest families. The program has been pummeled by budget cuts in recent years, whittling down how much families can qualify for and how long they can receive the aid. If county officials overpay a family by $35 or more, state law requires them to try to recover the money, according to court filings. "
"While 10 percent of families in New York are living in poverty, among single mothers, the rate is much higher, with 36.5 percent of single mothers statewide living on low incomes. For these moms, returning to work is often not a choice."
"Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine is backing three pilot projects that aim to help the state's most underserved homeless population: young people age 18 to 24."
"'At a time when postsecondary education is more important than ever, Georgia's higher education policies and priorities are putting up barriers to make it harder for black, Hispanic and poor Georgians to get a college education,' concluded a report from the University of Pennsylvania, Institute for Research on Higher Education and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education."
"The Newbury Street-based nonprofit helps poor and homeless women get back on their feet. They expect 200 hundred women to attend their annual Mother's Day brunch tomorrow."
"Still, the clients keep coming and 'the staff is overwhelmed,' said Kathleen Thomsen, regional development director. 'People who can't get help can become homeless, or kids remain in stressful situations. That can destabilize the community.'"
"'We're hearing lots of comments about how this hurts people, how this hurts the poor,' said Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), the House Budget Committee chairman, who said the rising number of Americans in poverty shows that federal aid programs are not effective. 'Let's go back to the idea of an American opportunity society -- with a safety net that doesn't keep people in poverty, but gets them out of poverty.'"
"But people born elsewhere were less likely than those born in this country to have health insurance and more likely to be living below the poverty line. Among regions of birth, the poverty rate was highest for the U.S. foreign-born population from Latin America and from Africa."
"'The system designed to rescue these children often further victimizes them and can set them up for a very hard life,' said Peter Samuelson, president of First Star. Kids aging out of the foster-care system are more likely to be high-school dropouts, impoverished, imprisoned or homeless. Florida was one of 10 states to earn an F, while 15 others earned A's."
'[N]ext week [Suffolk County's Welfare to Work Commission is] launching a series of hearings to spotlight the stories of residents who are struggling in the wake of the recession. The commission, which reports to the county legislature, is hosting three public hearings starting May 18."
Titled "Struggling in Suburbia," the forums aim to dispel misconceptions about poverty in Suffolk and Nassau, said commission chairman Richard Koubek.
"A second piece of legislation approved by the House asks the federal government to exempt specialty destination hospitals - defined as for-profits with fewer than 50 beds that draw at least 65 percent of their business from out of state - from a Medicaid tax paid by nonprofit hospitals. The money is used to fund care for low-income residents."
"The author’s diagnosis was that the U.S. economy just wasn’t flexible enough to cope with rapid technological change. The paper was especially critical of programs like unemployment insurance, which it argued actually hurt workers because they reduced the incentive to adjust. "
"The ordinance would have forced city contractors to pay security guards, janitors and clerical and food-service workers at a rate significantly higher than the minimum wage, which is $7.50. It would have also forced businesses that receive more than $1 million in city funds to pay their security guards and janitors roughly $14 an hour."
"Timothy Smeeding, director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says people are more likely to do better for themselves -- and their children are likely to do better -- in states with more educated residents and more dynamic economies, such as those in the Northeast."
"Northern Virginia, despite a median household income ranked among the highest in the country and an enviably low unemployment rate, has endured growing income inequality and a heightened need for public benefits compared with the rest of the state during the economic downturn, a new report shows."
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