Poverty Rate

The national poverty rate fell slightly last year, its first decline in a decade, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released yesterday. Yet while the median household income rose, it remained below 1999 levels in terms of buying power, and real wages fell for a third straight year. "I'm putting in longer and longer hours, and I'm looking for a second part-time job," said Donna Waldemarra, 44, of Newtonville, N.J., who works as a receptionist at a car dealership. "It's very tight.

At a time when much of the nation was recovering from recession, many more of Philadelphia's citizens were slipping into poverty. At time when Philadelphia was winning acclaim for getting its fiscal house in order, many more of its children were joining the poor. Even as state and federal lawmakers are considering deep cuts in welfare and other aid crucial to cities, new research at Temple University provides a disturbing picture of Philadelphia in the early 1990s. The Temple analysis shows that the region's "urban poverty rate" went from 18.2 percent in 1989 to 25.6 percent in 1993 as Philadelphia stumbled out of the national recession like a weakened fighter.

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.

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.

WAS WELFARE reform really a success? We're about to find out. The 1996 welfare reform law, which is up for re-authorization in Congress (the deadline is Monday), just happened to coincide with the biggest economic boom in the nation's history. Jobs were plentiful, even for unskilled single mothers. Yet a typical entry-level $7-$8 an-hour wage is not exactly livable. Not when it takes an estimated $16.75-an-hour wage to make a two- bedroom apartment in Philadelphia affordable.

Riding a growing economy, household income rose last year for the first time in six years, and poverty in America declined for the second year in a row, the Census Bureau reported yesterday. The median - or midpoint - household income was $34,076 in 1995, a gain of nearly 3 percent from 1994. The poverty rate declined, from 14.5 percent of the population in 1994 to 13.8 percent in 1995. About 36 million Americans lived below the official poverty line - $12,158 for a family of three.

The poverty rate among Hispanic children in the United States is soaring because their parents lack the education to hold anything but low-paying jobs, according to a report by the Children's Defense Fund. Hispanic children represent the fastest-growing group of children in the country, census statistics show. They also are falling into poverty more rapidly than white or black children, said Leticia C. Miranda, a policy analyst who wrote the report, which is scheduled for release today.

Obama prepares to shift blame I am sick of hearing President Obama castigating Republicans for not supporting his tax proposals. What Obama has done is perfectly position himself to shift blame for next year's even-worse economy. He can argue then that the failed economy is the fault of mean, insensitive, and uncaring Republicans for obstructing his wise and caring policies. I urge the Republican Party to call his bluff. Give him everything he wants, from soak-the-rich taxes to boondoggle stimulus to new environmental regulations.

The Philadelphia School District has failed to spend about $30 million in federal funding for remedial programs for needy students over the last three years, and despite plans by the administration to spend some of it now, school board members were asking questions yesterday. "Surely we're not in a position of lack of need," board member Jacques Lurie said last night. "If there is $30 million available, we sure as heck ought to be putting it toward programs we say we need. " In an interview last night, Superintendent David Hornbeck said the $30 million accumulated largely because the district could not find the people to fill budgeted positions.

Hispanics are expected by 1990 to replace blacks as the ethnic group with the highest poverty rate in the nation, according to one analysis of recent Census Bureau data. While income levels among blacks are rising, Hispanics are losing ground and per-capita income among Hispanics is now lower than that for blacks, according to the study. The study noted that the black poverty rate of 31.3 percent last year was about the same as it was in 1979. But the poverty rate for Hispanics increased from 21.8 percent to 29 percent during the same six-year period, said the center, which based its findings on U.S. Census data.