Poverty Archive
Durham has released new language in the city’s anti-poverty initiative calling for a “zero tolerance” crackdown on drug activity in Northeast Central Durham. My honest reaction is that such a policy seems counterproductive if the intent is to help lift …
Dr. Lawrence M. Berger is the 12th director of the venerable Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a professor and chair of the Ph.D. program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Social …
As a social worker on the Hill I have had a front row seat during battles over the welfare state. Usually the main combatants are Republican conservatives who continue their relentless quest to reduce government’s involvement in providing for indigent …
A troubling new report released recently by the National Center on Family Homelessness at the American Institutes for Research documents the growing distress among the nation’s children. More children are sliding further into poverty and experiencing homelessness. Using data from …
October 29th marked the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, which resulted in 182 lives lost, 150,000 homes destroyed, and 17 percent of the city’s land flooded. Sandy caused over $65 billion in damages across the tri-state area, many of which …
In 1990, Congress established the first full week of October as Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW) to recognize the critical work of the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI). This year, MIAW occurred the week of October 5, during which mental …
The number of children living in extreme poverty—on $2.00 or less per person per day in a household—grew significantly from 1996 until 2011. In 2011, 3.55 million children in 1.65 million households were living in extreme poverty in a given …
Congressman Paul Ryan, the Chairman of the House Committee on the Budget, released last week his anti-poverty discussion draft on July 24, “Expanding Opportunity in America,” proposing reforms concerning the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), education, and criminal justice.
As the federal government has stalled on raising the minimum wage, many city and local governments are taking action to reduce income inequality, following the lead of Seattle, which recently raised its minimum wage to become the highest in the …
The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food insecurity as a “household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food.” For children affected by food insecurity, access to school lunch has played an integral role in reducing …
