Poverty Rate

In yet another sign that many Americans remain shut out from a growing economy, the Census Bureau reported yesterday that the poverty rate rose last year to its highest level in 10 years. There were 39.3 million poor Americans in 1993, or 15.1 percent of the population. Although that marked only a slight change from a poverty rate of 14.8 percent in 1992, the increase came at a time of economic expansion. The poverty rate in 1983 was 15.2 percent. The poverty level for a family of four was $14,763 in 1993.

The number of people living in poverty in America last year remained stalled at the same record high level as in 2010, newly released government figures show. In addition, real median household income declined by 1.5 percent between 2010 and 2011 to $50,054. At the same time, the number of people without health-insurance coverage fell from 50 million to 48.6 million during the year. The figures, released Wednesday, come from a U.S. Census Bureau report. According to the report, 46.2 million Americans were living in poverty in 2011, a poverty rate of 15 percent.

Demonstrating the power of a strong economy to help the poor, the nation's poverty rate fell in 1999 to its lowest level in two decades, the Census Bureau reported yesterday. Last year 32.3 million people lived in poverty, which the government defines as a maximum annual income of $8,501 for a single person and $17,029 for a family of four. That is 11.8 percent of the nation's 273.5 million people, down from 12.7 percent, or 34.5 million people, in 1998. More than 80 percent of the decline nationwide occurred in "central cities," the urban cores of metropolitan regions.

The poverty rate in Philadelphia jumped nearly two percentage points from 2009 to 2010, according to a federal report released Thursday, underscoring the growing plight of residents being swamped by unemployment and hard times. "I'm always crying," said Valencia Sydney, a 34-year-old Northeast Philadelphia single mother of one who lost her part-time certified nursing assistant job last year, then plummeted from the working class into poverty. She and her 21/2-year-old daughter face eviction from their $640-a-month apartment, and the two may have to move into a shelter, she said.

Driven by the relentless recession, the U.S. poverty rate soared to 14.3 percent in 2009, its highest level in 15 years, new government figures show. The rate was up from 13.2 percent in 2008, according to a report the Census Bureau released Thursday. Locally the picture was less dire, with poverty rising slightly to 11.1 percent in Pennsylvania and to 9.3 percent in New Jersey. The number of people in poverty nationally rose from 39.8 million in 2008 to 43.6 million in 2009 - the most in the 51 years for which poverty figures are available.

In an irony of the economic boom, a drop in the poverty rate in Philadelphia's schools and an increased rate in some suburban districts are raising bittersweet concerns about the effect on federal education aid. Fresh estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau being released today show that the percentage of Philadelphia school-age children living in poverty fell by about 19 percent between 1995 and 1997, the last year surveyed. The rate slid from about 36 percent to just under 29 percent.

When it comes to violence, the explanation may lie in place, not race. Living in areas of concentrated, segregated poverty is likely to breed violence in any group of people. Consider who gets murdered, and where. In 31 of the 60 biggest Philadelphia suburbs in Pennsylvania last year, the number of murders was . . . zero. None. Not one. Lower Merion Township, a suburb of 58,000 on Philadelphia's western shoulder, didn't have a murder. Neither did Middletown Township in Bucks County, population 45,000; nor Tredyffrin Township, population 30,000.

The poverty rate fell in 1994 for the first time in four years, the Census Bureau reported yesterday, but median income remained stuck - a sign that gains from a surging economy are not getting through to all middle-class households. The Census Bureau also found that nearly one in seven Americans - 39.7 million people - lacked health insurance in 1994, about the same as the previous year. Single mothers and black families gained ground in 1994, but full-time workers and single people living alone fell behind economically.

Block grants to states - a portion of which will wend their way to cities - are an active item in the current policy debate and there are compelling reasons for the nation's political leadership to use these grants to design a new urban strategy. The GOP, in particular, has not been identified as a close friend of urban America. And cities, for their part, have rarely been shining examples of efficiency. But a new strategy is needed to address skewed national responsibilities.

Remember when moving to the suburbs meant you were fulfilling the American dream of a life of plenty in greener pastures? That's less true today, with poverty showing up in communities where many Americans would least expect it. The Philadelphia suburbs, on both sides of the Delaware River, have become home to a growing segment of the region's poor. That disturbing national trend is being seen in communities across the country. The population of poor residents in America's suburbs jumped 64 percent between 2000 and 2010, which was twice as fast as the urban rate, according to a new book recently released by the Brookings Institution.

Say poverty in the Philadelphia area, and it conjures images of North Philadelphia or Kensington, not the suburbs. But the suburbs on both sides of the Delaware River are becoming steadily poorer, part of a national trend that confounds long-held beliefs that life is always better in greener pastures beyond urban limits. "People have this cliched notion of poverty being based in the inner city," said Adele LaTourette, director of the New Jersey Anti-Hunger Coalition, which has offices in Trenton and North Jersey.

There is a specter haunting Philadelphia; it is the specter of job loss. In each economic cycle in the last four decades, the number of jobs attained at the top of expansion was less than what we had at the prior peak. There are 264,240 fewer jobs today than in 1970 - a decline of 25 percent. At the rate we are going, there will be 60,000 fewer opportunities for Philadelphians by 2023. Mayor Nutter's Five-Year Plan put it out there for all to see: We have the second-highest poverty rate among the 20 largest American cities, behind only Detroit.

Philadelphia has the highest rate of deep poverty - people with incomes below half of the poverty line - of any of the nation's 10 most populous cities. The annual salary for a single person at half the poverty line is around $5,700; for a family of four, it's around $11,700. Philadelphia's deep-poverty rate is 12.9 percent, or around 200,000 people. Phoenix, Chicago, and Dallas are the nearest to Philadelphia, with deep-poverty rates of more than 10 percent. The numbers come from an examination of the 2009 through 2011 three-year estimate of the U.S. Census American Community Survey by The Inquirer and Temple University sociologist David Elesh.

In a new effort to battle poverty, Mayor Nutter is creating a cabinet-level office that will oversee city efforts to deal with hunger, homelessness, job development, and other issues. Nutter was expected to announce the formation of the Mayor's Office of Community Empowerment and Opportunity on Tuesday. It will be headed by Eva Gladstein, 60, deputy executive director of the Planning Commission. Gladstein was executive director of the Philadelphia Empowerment Zone from 1998 to 2007.

"Don't come in here with no soup, 'cause that's not Thanksgiving. " That's the edict 73-year-old Gertrude Johnson, the queen of the kitchen, issues to her fellow Faith Chapel volunteers, who prepare and serve meals for over 100 Germantown residents on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. They must take it to heart, because I didn't even see a ladle. What I saw was a feast - turkey, ham, stuffing, string beans, salads, candied yams, macaroni and cheese, rice and gravy, and apple, pumpkin, and lemon cream pies.

WASHINGTON - The ranks of America's poor edged up last year to a high of 49.7 million, based on a new census measure that takes into account medical costs and work-related expenses. The numbers released Wednesday by the Census Bureau are part of a newly developed supplemental poverty measure. Devised a year ago, this measure provides a fuller picture of poverty that the government believes can be used to assess safety-net programs by factoring in living expenses and taxpayer-provided benefits that the official formula leaves out. Based on the revised formula, the number of poor people exceeded the 49 million, or 16 percent of the population, who were living below the poverty line in 2010.

By 10 a.m. Saturday, at least 75 people had lined the sidewalk outside St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Glassboro. Some held infants, some waited in wheelchairs, and some helped the elderly carry canvas bags or push small carts. They had all come for food. Asked what was left in his kitchen at home, Tim, 13, giggled. "Carrots," the Elk Township teen said. Not a favorite. "Good morning, everyone," Vivian Hanson, the archdeacon's wife, shouted as she opened the door of the Gloucester County church.

A COUPLE of weeks ago, MSNBC's Chris Hayes' program unearthed a clip of a 1965 black-and-white ad from the War on Poverty: "Today," it went, "millions of Americans are caught in circumstances beyond their control. Their children will be compelled to live lives of poverty unless the cycle is broken. " Talk about Ancient History, or at least Ancient Sociology: The latest figures show poverty in America at 15 percent in 2011, affecting 46.2 million people (the most ever), with income disparity the worst since 1929, and experts predicting it will reach levels not seen since that black and white ad. But the prevailing political "wisdom" on poverty is very different now. One argument that has gained currency is that the poor aren't really poor, because they have refrigerators and cell phones.

CAMDEN, LONG among the nation's poorest and most crime-ridden, is on the verge of dismantling its police department and starting anew with a force run by the county government. City officials are making the move to increase the number of officers while keeping the cost the same by averting rules negotiated with a union that city officials have seen as unwilling to compromise. Unless the union - which is skeptical of the stated motivations for the change - reaches a deal with the county, no more than 49 percent of the city's current officers could join the new force, and those who do will get pay cuts.