Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog » census

Poverty Meltdown Crushing Families in Record Numbers

dine — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:18:45 +0000

New Orleans You can’t put lipstick on this pig. There is no way to spin the Census Bureau numbers as anything but tragic or keep the phrases “lost decade” or “lost generation” out of the story of the avalanche income slide that is burying families in poverty in this Great Recession. The coming argument over support for jobs is now moving past ironic to simply cynical.

I’m betting many of you lack the courage to get through the whole depressing litany of statistics whole sharpness cuts like a knife. Here are some of the bullet points:

Another 2.6 million people became poor in 2010 compared to the year before.
46.2 million people are now “officially” living below the poverty line (the highest # in 52 years since the Bureau began counting)
Median family incomes felt backwards to the same levels as 15 years ago in 1996-97
The gap between the rich and poor continued to increase with the recession only trimming household income for the top 10^th by 1.5% but hammering the bottom 10^th by 12%.
15.1% of Americans live below poverty, the highest total since 1993 at $22,314 for a family of four.
Minorities were crippled by the poverty rate with African-Americans up to 27%, Hispanics up to 26%.
10 million people are estimated to have joined the ranks of the poor in the last 5 years
48 million people did not get even one week of work in 2010.
Median income felt for young workers by 9%.
25-34 year olds showed a 25% jump in living at their parents home
The poverty level for a single household was $11, 344
Uninsured Americans increased to almost 50 million people
States with the highest percentage of poor people were (1) Mississippi (2) Louisiana (3) Georgia (4) New Mexico and (5) Arizona. All Republican led I believe.

Let me know when we are finally willing to acknowledge that poverty is now a huge crisis and central issue for Americans. Then let’s see if we can get a message to Congress and the White House, ok?

Poverty Rate Soaring in US & Canada

dine — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 16:32:44 +0000

couch surfing

Toronto Erik Eckholm summarized the Census Bureau’s report in a clear but painful way:

“With the country in its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, four million additional Americans found themselves in poverty in 2009, with the total reaching 44 million, or one in seven residents. Millions more were surviving only because of expanded unemployment insurance and other assistance.

And the numbers could have climbed higher: One way embattled Americans have gotten by is sharing homes with siblings, parents or even nonrelatives, sometimes resulting in overused couches and frayed nerves but holding down the rise in the national poverty rate, according to the report.

The share of residents in poverty climbed to 14.3 percent in 2009, the highest level recorded since 1994. The rise was steepest for children, with one in five affected, the bureau said.”

His story leading the Times was not an editorial, but it could have been. It would have been easy to point out that we now have almost twice as many people in poverty as we have as union members. It may be that “millions were surviving…only because of expanded unemployment insurance and other assistance,” but it was only short weeks ago that the extension for exactly that “expanded unemployment insurance” was won from a recalcitrant Congress and the “party of no.”

He could have mentioned that that the “highest level” of poverty since 1994 has now wiped out the gains of almost 20 years, but as he could have pointed out in his paragraph about “couch surfing” the obliteration of home ownership and citizen wealth increases for African-Americans, Hispanics, and other low income families with more to come.

In fact just reflect on this for a minute. The United States Census Bureau is now citing personal charity, the willingness of millions of families to take in relatives, friends, neighbors, children and others into their homes as a key factor in why the numbers of the poor only climbed by 4 million rather than 6 or 8 million! For all of the headlines from the big donors and back patting in Washington, a huge factor holding people together so that they can “survive” is still the good will of others, likely other low and moderate income families, willing to share at the edge of the abyss.

Hope may not be a plan, but such help now seems to be a public policy!

The results in Canada are moving this way as well. The Globe and Mail report on paycheck surveys including a similarly telling several sentences:

“Younger workers are having the greatest trouble meeting their current expenses, with two thirds of those aged 18-34 saying it would be very difficult, difficult or somewhat difficult for them to meet their current financial obligations if they missed even one paycheque.

Among households, the situation is most precarious for single parents, with three quarters saying they would have some trouble making ends meet if their pay were delayed.”

Had enough bad news yet? All of the reports on 2009 are clear that 2010 will be the same, if not worse. Foreclosures will rise putting more pressure on even the roofs over the loaned couches for so many.

And, there is no belief that help is on the way.

US Census Backlash Hurts Cities

jstuart — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:22:20 +0000

Monteverde Admittedly in the 24-hour news cycle the memory lasts about the same length of time, but it wasn’t that long ago that we got to read about the cave-in of the U. S. Census Bureau to the partisan assault on their partnerships, including ACORN and more recently SEIU. This is all rich since it’s about their credibility particularly in immigrant, diverse, and lower income communities where government agent credibility is low and there is a traditional huge undercount. Furthermore with between 10000 and 50000 “partnerships” all of this was window dressing without a penny changing hands.

In this light an article posted on the New American Media site caught my eye entitled: “Scarcity of Non-Profits in Neediest Communities Will Hinder 2010 Census” by Cassidy Friedman. Most of the piece was focused on California and San Francisco particularly and the fact that even though the City of San Francisco had appropriated almost a half-million dollars to fund door-to-door outreach efforts by nonprofits in this well resourced city, the efforts were flagging in lower income areas where most of the nonprofits did not have a base and were not well know. Bay View – Hunter’s Point and Visitacion Valley were the examples used because the undercount was lowest in these two areas in the 2000 Census.

“This is a big, big challenge,” said Ted Wang, a census consultant with Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, which is coordinating private sector funding for outreach in California. “Neighborhoods that have the least amount of infrastructure often are the ones that are the most difficult to count.”

Does it really matter, especially to the future citizen wealth of lower income communities? Hell, yes! We are talking big bucks here.

“…when the city was undercounted by 100,000, resulting in a loss of more than $300 million in federal funding, according to a 2007 study. If the same pattern repeats across the state, California residents could lose billions of federal dollars for vital services over the next decade.”

These Republican and rightwing attacks may look like they have little impact, but when you start counting how much money is at stake especially for the beleaguered cities and strapped states in the current economy, it is easier to understand the real game here and the partisan effort to deny resources and capacity where it is needed the most.

Oh, and it goes without saying, if my memory serves me, that one of the strongest bases for San Francisco ACORN used to be in Bay View – Hunter’s Point and similar efforts. I think you can put the pieces of this puzzle together for yourself can’t you?

Census Conservative Cave In

jstuart — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:34:14 +0000

New Orleans Conservatives counted coup with another score on ACORN by forcing the U.S. Census Bureau to terminate its partnership with the organization proving for the second time in a week how willing the Obama administration is open to a cave-in to the conservatives on false pretenses on a completely fake “issue.” The cause cited by the Census Bureau was that the relationship was a “distraction,” which is becoming a hallmark excuse meaning precisely nothing I imagine. ACORN to my knowledge has not responded, because I guess they were probably distracted by things that were actually important. This is all just more reputational McCarthyism as the rightwing and Republicans attack ACORN these days at will with confidence that few will respond and close ranks as fear plagues the progressive movement and principle is in too short supply.

Calling the ACORN-Census Bureau hookup a relationship is a far stretch. Facebook friends are all blood relations compared to the casualness of this “relationship.” Various published reports count the number of such Census Bureau “partnerships” at between 50,000 and 80,000 different organizations. These are merely Census Bureau fan pages. No money changes hands for example. Neither ACORN nor any of the other gazillion “partners” would be involved in actually counting anyone out there in the vastness of America for goodness sakes, although this was the pretense for the right wingers assault. The Republicans are still wallowing in the unproven, spoilsport accusations of “voter fraud” based on some small registration kerfuffle last November, and now their fog machine wanted to bamboozle some of the vast herd that ACORN was going to mangle up the count. Poppycock!

All of this would be a total yawner except for one thing easily buried in all of this bull. In poor and minority communities the U.S. Census Bureau wildly needs credibility in exactly the low income and working communities and among the African American and Latino populations where families sign up and participate actively in ACORN community organizations. This Republican windbag effort is tactical and a perfect piece of their strategy to chill, depress, and undercount the number of poor, minority, and immigrant citizens in America in actually the same way they tried to depress the vote before last November’s election with the same tactics and wild, overheated accusations.

Fewer of the poor willing to participate in the Census and be counted, means less people where it counts to be considered in redistricting by state legislatures after the 2010 Census. Fewer of the poor also mean less money for urban cities and school districts where resources are desperately needed to create citizen wealth.