Half of children in 17 U.S. counties live in poverty

[Nikki Stone1]

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5AH5EH20091118

Half of children in 17 U.S. counties live in poverty

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - At least one in two children in 17 small counties in the United States is living in poverty, according to a U.S. Census survey measuring income and poverty in small areas and school districts.


Ziebach County, South Dakota, an area with a population of 2,542, leads with a poverty rate for those under the age of 18 of 67.1 percent, the survey released on Wednesday showed. For all ages, the poverty rate is 54.4 percent.

In at least 30 counties with populations ranging from just over 2,000 people to nearly 62,250 people, the poverty rate for all ages is more than one in three, the Census showed.

Douglas County, Colorado with a population of 280,621 has the lowest poverty rate of 3.1 percent, while New Mexico's Los Alamos County has the lowest rate for children of 2.8 percent.

The survey, which relies on 2008 data, is an indication of how American small towns and rural areas are faring economically. The data is also important as the stimulus plan passed in February has special programs targeted to "recovery zones," areas with high unemployment rates and low incomes, and schools where large numbers of the students live hand to mouth.

The county with the smallest median income was also in South Dakota. Buffalo, which has a population of 2,142, has a median household income of $19,182. In 23 small areas, median income does not even reach $25,000.

Virginia is home to the top two counties for median income. Loudon, with a population of 289,995, has a median household income of $111,582 and Fairfax, population 1.02 million, has a median income of $107,075.

The Census also released estimates of poverty for the more than 13,000 U.S. school districts. The New York City Department of Education has the highest number of students living in poverty at nearly 352,670, but it also has the highest number of students at 1.33 million. Still, more than a quarter of its students live in poverty.

Five out of six students in California's Kashia Elementary School district live in poverty.

[Nikki Stone1]

1. Food Stamp Use Soars, and Stigma Fades (NY Times)

MARTINSVILLE, Ohio — With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children.

It has grown so rapidly in places so diverse that it is becoming nearly as ordinary as the groceries it buys. More than 36 million people use inconspicuous plastic cards for staples like milk, bread and cheese, swiping them at counters in blighted cities and in suburbs pocked with foreclosure signs.

Virtually all have incomes near or below the federal poverty line, but their eclectic ranks testify to the range of people struggling with basic needs. They include single mothers and married couples, the newly jobless and the chronically poor, longtime recipients of welfare checks and workers whose reduced hours or slender wages leave pantries bare.....

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/us/29foodstamps.html?_r=1&hp

[Ian David]

2. But there's good news if you live in Allentown, PA.

If you live in Allentown, you have finally achieved the national average in all economic indicators.

(Per a statistic I heard on NPR this morning).


The rest of the country has settled to Allentown's level.

Congrats!

Someone find out what Billy Joel thinks.

[Nikki Stone1]

4. Allentown was a bellwether.

They lost steel early on. The rest of the nation followed suit.

[AllentownJake]

7. Because it is getting very hard to stay......

or move for that matter.

:-)

[Nikki Stone1]

3. Recession sends more seniors to soup kitchens: Increase of 81 percent...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34182502/ns/us_news-giving/

"Recession sends more seniors to soup kitchens
Increase of 81 percent last year from two years earlier, USDA reports

ALBANY, N.Y. - Older Americans who were raised on stories of the Great Depression and acquired lifelong habits of thrift now find themselves crowding soup kitchens and food pantries in greater numbers for the first time after seeing retirement funds, second jobs and nest eggs wiped out by recession.***

"What we see in line is lots of gray hair, lots of walkers," said Marti Forman, CEO of The Cooperative Feeding Program in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The help is crucial for many fixed-income seniors, who can't always keep up with rising food prices...."


***Recession? More like Wall Street theft. Robert Rubin, Goldman Sachs and Wall Street have left seniors who had saved for retirement penniless.

[beyurslf]

5. I wonder that cost of living is in many of those counties listed with such high

populations under the poverty line. The poverty line is a national standard. $20,000 a year in a small town in South Dakota is not the same thing as $20,000 in NYC. I have a kid I work with getting an apartment in a small town about 2 hours from here and the rent is $250/month with bills paid. A friend of mine's mom is selling her house in a small town. It is a nice house with 4 bedrooms and she is selling it for 55k. That is considered good there.
Not saying they aren't poor, I just wonder how far their dollar stretches comparatively.

[Hannah Bell]

9. I think we can pretty well figure that places like Ziebach County, South Dakota,

have a pretty low cost of living. It's an Indian reservation.

and I'd guess the counties are mostly in such traditionally high poverty zones: reservations, appalachia, etc., & high cost of living is not the problem, lack of income is.

Persistent Poverty Counties —

The Economic Research Service (ERS) of USDA categorizes non-metropolitan counties by their dominant economic foundation and by characteristic policy type.

Persistent poverty counties are those where 20% or more of the county population in each of four Census years (1960, 1970,1980, 1990) had poverty level household incomes.

In 1989, there were 535 such counties concentrated largely in the Delta South, Central Appalachia, Rio Grande Valley, the Northern Great Plains, and western Alaska. The average poverty rate in these counties was approximately 29% in 1989.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_Poverty_Counties

[Golden Raisin]

6. But we have unending buckets

of billions for stealth fighter planes and spend billions a week in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

[EFerrari]

8. But our tax money keeps funding the contractors that clean up the fake threats.

Cool.

[Cid_B]

10. Five out of six students in California's Kashia Elementary School district live in poverty.

Kashia Elementary School in Stewarts Point, California (CA)

Student Enrollment: 8

http://www.city-data.com/school/kashia-elementary-ca.html