Women and Poverty News
“Over the past 16 years that program has helped dozens of homeless women find safe, affordable places to live in a county where the price of even a one-bedroom apartment is often well beyond their reach. Lorenzo noted that the rents charged by homeowners who participate in Shared Housing range from $350 to $800 a month. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Bergen County is about $1,300.”
“Mary Anne Barrington, Chadwick's executive director, said Onondaga County is seeing an increase in homeless women. But most of them are not begging for change on street corners. ‘Most of the women we are seeing have not lived on the street like that,’ she said. ‘Many of them lose their housing and end up staying with relatives and friends and eventually end up in a shelter when they run out of resources.’”
“The Department of Veterans Affairs does not yet collect extensive statistics on homeless female veterans but estimated their numbers more than doubled between 2006 and 2010, according to a report issued last December by the Government Accountability Office. Many of the women had children under age 18, and the report noted that limited housing for female vets and their children increases the risk of homelessness as the role of women in the military continues to increase.”
“As Texas prepares to take over a key health program for low-income women, its new rules specify the program will be killed if a court requires Planned Parenthood to be among service providers. The state is assuming full responsibility for the Women's Health Program - doing without federal funds, which had paid 90 percent of the program - so it can exclude clinics that are affiliates of abortion providers.”
“A state lawmaker said funding cuts to women's health care programs put low-income residents at risk. Sen. Jessica King, D-Oshkosh, said she is working to restore funding to the Women's Health Block Grant that provides preventative health care for low-income women.”
“Economic security, income and child care: In 2010, 17 percent of women 18 and older in North Carolina were poor. That compares with 13 percent of men of the same age. Nationwide, 15 percent of women and 12 percent of men were poor. Many families in the state living below the poverty line do not receive Work First (welfare) benefits or food stamps. Eleven percent of single mothers and 2 percent of single fathers whose low incomes qualify them for cash assistance receive it.”
“The politics of these women mirrors what they believe best for certain organizations and the families they support. Yet the majority, if the polls are accurate, is primarily guided by the truth of the lives they lead. For one thing, they know women and children are more likely to face poverty. Here in Spokane County, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 33.6 percent of families headed by single mothers in 2009 lived in poverty.”
“The Deels know life can be brutish and short. But they see hope in the 165 residents (66 single women, 35 moms with 64 kids) living in City of Refuge, a campus-like transitional housing facility erected in an old 210,000-square-foot distribution center. It is one of the metro area's newer and larger facilities created to house homeless women. The facility came about in 2008 after throngs of homeless women and children crowded the overflow area of Gateway Center, the city's intake facility for the homeless, sleeping on mats.”
“More women than men are single parents, and the financial responsibility makes it hard to save. And they are more likely to take time off of work for family care-giving. When they are older, they may be on their own because often they are divorced, widowed or single. The poverty rate of women 65 and older in 2010 was nearly two times higher than men's rate.”
“Three area homeless women are not only back in school, but they’re beginning to thrive – thanks to programs offered by the Cooperative Christian Ministry in Cabarrus County. Bernadette Carballo, Carol Hamm and Launita Pendleton have all been active in CCM’s crisis programs – which have helped them take steps to emerge from homelessness and to improve their lives, while encouraging others to do the same.”
“Stepping through the doors of the Downtown Women's Center is entering a world apart from the grind of skid row. In the comfortable, tasteful rooms of this converted shoe factory at San Pedro and 5th streets, homeless women can find a meal, a shower or -- thanks to a new program -- a mammogram. Starting in May, the center has offered monthly breast screenings to improve the preventive healthcare of its aging residents and visitors.”
“YWCA Metro St. Louis is not known for leaping wildly into political discourse, preferring instead to focus on our 107-year-old mission of empowering women and eliminating racism. However, the current budget debate in Washington requires not only our attention but our voice. No one party is the cause or the solution to poverty. Nonetheless, policies have consequences. We believe there will be dire consequences for those served by our agency if Congress adopts some of the current budget proposals.”
“For nearly 30 years, the women have trekked the Chicago region, from Aurora to Waukegan, dropping off cases of brand-name baby formula for mothers who can't afford to feed their infants.”
“So, what should policymakers do? Rector argues for a public education campaign, similar to the effort to curb smoking, to spread the message that having kids should wait until after marriage. That's an idea social conservatives could embrace, but it seems like an intrusive, ‘nanny state’ approach to the problem. Rather than lecturing women, it would be better to address the issues that make many of the poor see motherhood as a better path than getting a degree and pursuing a career -- or that put a degree and a career out of the reach of many who've already had children.”
“In the wake of the recession, 41 percent of households headed by single women with children live in poverty - nearly triple the national poverty rate, according to 2010 census data. And while the economy in Texas has recovered more quickly than in the rest of the country, the state's single mother poverty rate is just as high at 42 percent.”
“Although the majority of maternal deliveries in our state are currently covered by Medicaid, most low-income women and teens do not qualify for coverage unless they are already pregnant. And medical science is making it increasingly clear that the health of a woman before she gets pregnant dramatically affects the outcome of the pregnancy and the health of her baby.”
“Proponents of the reproductive health bill say it will address poverty, women's rights, infant and maternal mortality, and overpopulation in a poor nation crowded with 94 million people. Though contraceptives are currently available, the general population can't afford them. The bill seeks to offer natural and artificial birth-control options, reproductive health care and sex education in public schools.”
“Texas in particular can't afford to scale back on the services Planned Parenthood provides. The state has one of the highest rates of cervical cancer in the nation and the highest percentage of uninsured women. Texas lawmakers have let politics distract them from their obligation to some of their poorest citizens.”
“The focus should be on making sure that low-income women can receive healthcare that can prevent more-serious, more-expensive-to-treat conditions later. But the distractions are many since the standoff started last year. The Legislature has attempted to starve Planned Parenthood by barring its affiliated clinics from getting paid to treat low-income patients eligible for the Women's Health Program. That is even though the clinics provide health and family planning care, not abortions.”
“A federal Appeals Court ruled late Tuesday that Texas can cut off funding for Planned Parenthood clinics that provide health services to low-income women before a trial over a new law that bans state money from going to organizations tied to abortion providers.”
“Among the tough statistics the report shows: more than half of residents living in poverty are female, teen birth rates are double that of Connecticut and despite increased work force participation, New Haven women earn less than men.”
“‘The conservative side seems to think if you're not wealthy or not middle class, it's your own fault. You're just sitting at home waiting for a welfare check. Most of them were never low income, these policy-makers,’ Resendez told me. ‘A lot of them are men. They're not going to face these problems like cervical cancer, or when's the right time to have a baby.’”
“Agape Home, the 50-bed shelter for homeless women and their children, reports record numbers of people seeking refuge under its roof this year. Most of them have left violent partners.”
“Community leaders announced on Friday that Nurse-Family Partnership, a nationally recognized public health program for low-income first-time mothers, will expand to Gaston County. Implemented by the Gaston County Health Department, the program will provide four home visitation nurses who can serve 25 clients each.”
“[W]omen have long been stuck in poorly paying minimum wage jobs (that often don’t come with benefits or a steady schedule on top of everything else). If the jobs where women already work – which is a narrow group, as two-thirds of all working women are crowded into just 54 occupations – paid better, they would have a better chance at catching up to their male peers.”
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