from The Schenectady GazetteCatholics aiming to do more about problems in communityBy Sara Foss (Contact)Gazette ReporterCAPITAL REGION — A new report contains sobering facts.About 40 percent of African-Americans and 44.8 percent of Latinos in the city of Schenectady live in poverty. About 22 percent of adults in Fulton and Montgomery counties have not earned a high school diploma. More than 16 percent of non-elderly Montgomery County residents do not have health insurance.Yet unlike most reports on poverty, this one is interspersed with biblical Scripture. A chapter on income insecurity is preceded by verses from the book of Isaiah: “They shall live in the houses they build and eat the fruit of the vineyards they plant. … And my chosen ones shall long enjoy the produce of their...
from WGRZAccording to the U.S. Census Bureau, one in three Buffalo residents are living below the poverty level. Their financial situations may be similar, but there are many different faces to poverty.Patricia and Don Doolittle are the perfect example of that. She's a college-educated mother of two. Despite her best efforts, there are months when the money doesn't go far enough."It can be so frustrating you can walk into the house and actually feel the stress," Patricia said.After graduating from Bryant and Stratton College, Patricia worked for months to find employment. She wanted to be an administrative assistant; but, either no one was hiring or her lack of experience hurt her."I don't expect somebody to just hand me a job. I went out there," she said. "I went looking. I did the...
from The Times Union Poor students in rural districts can achieve a college education By RICK DALTON and JOHN MILLSThe of Ticonderoga have a lot going for them that other places may envy. Their halls are safe. Their children are part of a small community that keeps an eye on them as they grow up.But they're also being hammered by poverty.Nearly one out of every two students in the town's school system qualifies for free, or reduced cost, lunch. Just 20 years ago, that figure was at 12 percent.Ticonderoga, a town of 5,100 on the shores of Lake Champlain, struggles every day with something more and more rural communities are forced to confront: a surging tide of poverty that threatens to keep those students from ever attaining a college education.This tide is eroding what communities expect...
from The Buffalo NewsBy Brian MeyerNEWS STAFF REPORTEROn the same day that Donna M. Brown became Buffalo’s deputy mayor, she was assigned to tackle one of the city’s biggest problems: charting an anti-poverty strategy in a city that has the second-highest poverty rate in the nation.She also will be a key player in efforts to spur new housing and business development, create jobs and improve education.Such lofty goals might overwhelm the faint-hearted, but people who have worked closely with Brown for years describe her as up to the tasks.“Donna knows you can’t always make huge progress overnight. It’s about consistently taking steps forward,” said Kevin C. Schuler, a vice president at LP Ciminelli, where Brown has worked for five years.As the construction firm’s community...
from The New York TimesBy LESLIE KAUFMANThe Bloomberg administration, frustrated by the federal government’s Great Society method of determining who is poor, is developing its own measure, which city officials say will offer a more modern and accurate picture of poverty.Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg wants to adopt the new measure in part so he can better assess whether the tens of millions of dollars the city plans to spend on new anti-poverty programs will improve poor people’s standard of living.But officials also hope the new measure will set off a nationwide re-examination of the current federal standard, and prompt other cities and states to adopt the city’s method.The 42-year-old federal poverty standard, which is pegged to the annual cost of buying basic groceries, is widely...
from The Buffalo NewsSalvation Army’sLockport soup kitchenprovides meals for200 people dailyBy Bill Michelmore LOCKPORT — Lunch begins early at 50 Cottage St. People start lining up inside the Salvation Army soup kitchen at 11 a.m. every day for a meal they might not otherwise get.The center is a sanctuary for Laura Yeates, 32, a single mother with four daughters from ages 3 to 12 and a 14- month-old son.Without a car and pushing a baby stroller, Yeates walks several blocks from her house to the Salvation Army Family Center every day for lunch.“I’m very thankful for this place,” she said, as she sat down to a steaming plate of chicken and vegetables. “I might have enough money to buy a sandwich for me and my baby, but there’s nothing like a hot meal.”In Niagara County,...
from Mid-Hudson NewsPoughkeepsie -- When most people talk about Dutchess County, very few think about poverty and homelessness, but it is a problem and many are making the effort this Thanksgiving season to help raise awareness.It is estimated that over 2,000 people are homeless in Dutchess. One soup kitchen manager Monday said he feeds just over 200 people on any given day of the year, and expects the numbers to rise.“Some people work, but they don’t make a livable wage. Some people pay rent, but they can’t pay for food. So for a lot of people this is their only meal a day,” said Dutchess Outreach Lunch Box manager Ralph Rogers. To raise awareness of poverty in the county, and worldwide, students of the Poughkeepsie Farm Project at the Vassar College Farm donated crates of...
form the buffalo NewsIs the American dream still possible for Buffalo's poor children?By Charity Vogel / NEWS STAFF REPORTER Poverty in Buffalo used to be a story of possibility. Think about the people who built this city years ago: immigrants who arrived with nothing in their pockets. Many of them found decent jobs in a growing city, worked hard and carved out a little slice of the American Dream.That’s not the way poverty in Buffalo works anymore. Today, the city is diminished, and opportunities are, too. The story of poverty in Buffalo has become one of hopelessness. And children have become its biggest victims.New census figures, showing Buffalo to be one of the poorest major cities in the United States, put hard numbers to the situation: Poverty here is severe. It’s pervasive....
from The Rochester Democrat and ChronicleOne World Goods marks 10 years with a re-openingFernando DiazStaff writer(September 16, 2007) — PITTSFORD — For a decade, people have been walking through a door in Pittsford only to find treasures culled from the ends of the earth.The Mosaic mirrors of recycled glass were wrought in India, as are blank books with leaf-wrapped covers and lush, soft pages. Some necklaces were made by students at the Teenage Mothers Association of Kenya and feature tightly wrapped magazine pages between beads while others are assembled from seeds found in the rain forests of South America.The pieces inside One World Goods, a fair-trade nonprofit that celebrated its 10th anniversary in Pittsford Plaza with a grand re-opening this weekend, seem like they belong in...
from The New York TimesBy ROBERT PEARWASHINGTON, Sept. 7 — The Bush administration on Friday rejected a request from New York State to expand its children’s health insurance program to cover 70,000 more uninsured youngsters, including some from middle-income families.The ruling was the first application of a restrictive new White House policy that has drawn ferocious criticism from Democrats since it was announced last month. New York wanted to expand its program to cover children in families with incomes up to four times as much as the federal poverty level, or $82,600 for a family of four. The state’s current limit is 250 percent of the poverty level.Federal officials said the change would divert resources from lower-income children and “crowd out” private health insurance....
from The Ithaca JournalBy Linda StoutJournal staffAlthough many people have no insurance or inadequate health care coverage, some options exist for low- or no-cost health care coverage. There's a discount prescription plan available to every Tompkins County resident, and people with no health insurance can see a doctor through the Ithaca Free Clinic.Medicaid, the state-administered federal program mostly for people with the lowest incomes, is perhaps the most well-known option. Private health insurance plans may also be available, but Medicare benefits coordinators say people have been misled and should be careful to examine details about deductibles, what's covered and whether their doctor is in the plan.Following is a list of some programs, questions and answers, contact information and...
from The New York Post By JENNIFER FERMINOuly 26, 2007 -- One in 10 kids in the state live in extreme poverty, slightly higher than the national rate of 8 percent, according to a study released yesterday."The child-poverty rate didn't improve even though the economy supposedly got better," said Laura Beavers, one of the authors of the 2007 Kids Count study."It's the most widely unequal as it's ever been. People are working, but they're not making a lot of money."One bright spot for New York was a decline in high-school dropout rates since 2000, the last year the survey was conducted.The number of kids quitting the books dropped by 33 percent.The state ranked 18th in the nation in the survey, which measures indicators like family income, high- school dropout numbers and low birth rates.The...
from The Journal NewsOne out of four school-age children in Rockland County is eligible for a free or reduced-price lunch.About one in 14 of Putnam County school-age children and about one in three Westchester school-age children also are eligible for the national program that helps give low-income children at least one meal a day by providing it in school.Schools keep track of this number because it's an indication of poverty, and poverty has long been proved to affect children's education.Studies show that most children from low-income homes have a smaller vocabulary than their more affluent peers. They are at greater risk of obesity and the health problems it causes than children from wealthier backgrounds, and their reading and writing skills are worse. They also run a greater chance...
from Capital News 9This weekend, the Times Union reported that urban poverty in the Capital Region is growing exponentially. Local community members met Sunday to address this and other hunger issues at the annual Faith and Hunger Network Conference. The meeting focused on how to campaign to help Albany's inner-city neighborhoods out of poverty.This weekend, the Times Union reported that urban poverty in the Capital Region is growing exponentially. We spoke with one organizer who said that poverty in the region is misunderstood and that while soup kitchens and food drives are helpful, they do not provide long-term solutions."What we really need to do, and what we are doing, is advocating with our state legislator and advocating with our Governor and, of course, Congress to provide...
from The Albany Times Union Spitzer's budget calls for state support of equal access to justice By MICHELE MORGAN BOLTON, Staff writerALBANY -- For the first time in the 131 years since the American civil legal assistance system was founded in New York City, funding to pay for critical legal help for the poor has been built into the new state budget.The $4.6 million proposed by Gov. Eliot Spitzer, and another $5 million recommended by the state judiciary, brings the per-person spending total for the neediest New Yorkers to about $18 a year from a 2006 member item spending level of $2.54. Minnesota, by contrast, spends $32.33 per poor resident.New York is seriously lagging behind other states that for years have made it a priority to fund legal programs for the poor. The state was one of...