Poverty News Round Up

This week there’s been a lot of news around the Supreme Court and the Senate passing immigration reform. Poverty has been around for longer than newspapers, so it’s not exactly a breaking news scoop. That’s part of why poverty is under-covered in the news, and why we make sure to cover the stories that do highlight poverty as an ongoing issue that we all need to be concerned about. To paraphrase Karl Barth, one should preach with a Bible in one hand, and a newspaper in the other. To make that easier, we’re continuing to bring you the top stories in poverty for the week, and we’ve added some brief commentary based on the Revised Common Lectionary for each week. As always, leave a comment if you think we missed a big story.

The Newspaper:

1. Too many children still live in poverty, but improvements have been made in health and education, according to a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

“From roughly 2005 to 2011, the teen birth rate dropped by 15 percent to a historic low. The rate of high school students not graduating in four years saw an almost 20 percent decline, as did the child and teen death rate. The percentage of children without health insurance decreased by 30 percent.”

2. The safety net prevented children from falling into poverty during the recession by expanding during the economic downturn.

“So let’s get this straight: the poor and their advocates were not the ones who tanked the economy.  Nor should they be on the defensive when the safety net expands to offset some of the damage.  The right question at such times is thus not why the SNAP rolls are so high.  It’s whether SNAP, unemployment insurance, T.A.N.F. et al are expanding adequately to meet the needs of the poor.”

3. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle ran a two day story on poverty in Bozeman, Montana. In addition to being interesting, it’s also a great example to share with your local paper to encourage them to highlight poverty in your community.

“‘I do piecework to keep my family going, pay my rent,’ said Sara, a 40-year-old, single Bozeman mother of three.

Her hands were always busy, folding locally manufactured eyeglass retainers into plastic packages, to sell in stores to people who have more disposable income than she has.

Earning 7 to 20 cents per piece, Sara is typical of Bozeman people living in poverty. She works, but doesn’t earn enough to make ends meet. She and her kids get help in the form of food stamps, subsidized housing, Medicaid and subsidized school lunches.”

4. In a world requiring increasing financial sophistication, it’s important that there is some degree of financial literacy to prevent the poor from being swindled by payday lending and other financial arrangements.

“Finances are taught at home, and for low-income families, this isn’t a priority. People are just thinking about getting by month to month. It becomes a matter of “Do I pay the gas or groceries this week?” They’re not thinking about “What’s the interest on my credit card?” or “Should I be saving at a different bank?””

5. Bernadine Watson tells her story of climbing out of poverty, and doubts that it would be possible today.

“These days, when I open the newspaper or turn on the news, I see my past. The policy debates currently raging in this country — about welfare and food stamps, affirmative action and students loans, take me back to a time when I was dependent on social programs to pull myself out of poverty.  Given our current policy environment, I doubt that I’d be able to accomplish that today.”

The Bible:

The Gospel this week (Luke 9:51-62)  is terrifying, showing the radical commitment required to be a disciple. It’s not a commitment we are allowed to procrastinate on. It will not wait until our parents have passed on or we have said all of our farewells, it is an urgent call to drop everything and follow Jesus. This discipleship is not easy, as Jesus reminds us “”Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” This is a statement of both spiritual and physical homelessness. As an itinerant minister Jesus was poor and homeless, in need of the support of the community. 

We also hear in Galatians 5:14 “For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love means taking action to comfort ones neighbor in times of trouble. As Cornel West memorably put it, “Justice is what love looks like in public.” 

Poverty News Round Up

To paraphrase Karl Barth, one should preach with a Bible in one hand, and a newspaper in the other. To make that easier, we’re continuing to bring you the top stories in poverty for the week, and we’ve added some brief commentary based on the Revised Common Lectionary for each week. As always, leave a comment if you think we missed a big story.

The Newspaper:

1. The Farm Bill failed to pass the Senate. We’ve been following this closely, so I’ll refer you to our own post about it:

“This afternoon, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 195-234 against the Farm Bill. The good news is that the 20 billion dollars of cuts to SNAP will not become law….There are a few possibilities for what happens next. SNAP can continue without a Farm Bill through the appropriations process if a continuing resolution is passed in the fall. However, if no Farm Bill is passed, farming policy reverts to 1949, the last year that a permanent Farm Bill was passed, all the Farm Bills since then have been temporary.”

2. The New York Times profiles minimum wage workers:

“Put simply, the recession took middle-class jobs, and the recovery has replaced them with low-income ones, a trend that has exacerbated income inequality. According to Labor Department data, about 1.7 million workers earned the minimum wage or less in 2007. By 2012, the total had surged to 3.6 million, with millions of others earning just a few cents or dollars more.”

3. Giving poor people money can reduce poverty, from the NY Times Economix blog:

“It turns out that winning the money had profound effects. It made participants much more likely to enroll in skills training, and it increased the labor supply. It increased their earnings on two- and four-year horizons, especially among women. Indeed, women who won money from the program had average earnings 84 percent higher than women who did not, after four years. Winners were more likely to pay business taxes too. All in all, the annualized return on the “investment” of the cash transfer worked out to a whopping 40 percent.”

Faith and Public Policy helps to put this study in a larger context by looking beyond the Uganda study to the 40 other countries that have used direct cash transfer.

4. The World Bank is looking at poverty through a ‘climate lens’:

“At the World Bank Group, we are concerned that unless the world takes bold action now, a disastrously warming planet threatens to put prosperity out of reach of millions and roll back decades of development,” [World Bank President Dr. Jim Yong] Kim said. “In response we are stepping up our mitigation, adaptation, and disaster risk management work, and will increasingly look at all our business through a `climate lens.'”

The Bible:

This week’s Gospel (Luke 8:26-39) tells of Jesus driving out a demon named “Legion” into a herd of swine who then run into the lake and drown. Taken literally, it seems a lot like animal cruelty. Fortunately it’s much more interesting on a metaphorical level. Jews, of course, don’t eat pigs, which means that any swine that were being kept were for the Romans. Legion refers to a unit of Roman soldiers, usually around 6,000.  This interpretation also explains the fear of the crowds. Why would anyone be afraid of a simple healer who was able to cast out demons? If, however, casting out the demons and killing the swine is a sign of rebellion against the Romans, a refusal to cooperate by raising livestock grown for Roman consumption, then the surrounding village would surely be afraid of retaliation by the Romans. This fits with both Jesus’ other forms of nonviolent resistance (turning the other cheek and going the extra mile were also forms of resisting Roman occupation) and explains his eventual crucifixion as a political prisoner.

Today, the metaphorical pigs might include cash crops that are grown solely for profit. As one of my friends in the peace corps tells me, it’s impossible to get any good coffee in Ecuador because all of the good stuff is sent out of the country. While some economic specialization is desirable, far too much of it can echo Rome’s economic imperialism, in which the economy is being run for the benefit of the outside power, and not for the people doing the work.

The Farm Bill Was Voted Down in the U.S. House, What Happens Now?

This afternoon, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 195-234 against the Farm Bill. The good news is that the 20 billion dollars of cuts to SNAP will not become law. Earlier today the House passed the Southerland amendment, which would have cut off the unemployed from SNAP, and also will not become a law as the result of the failed Farm Bill.

There are a few possibilities for what happens next. SNAP can continue without a Farm Bill through the appropriations process if a continuing resolution is passed in the fall. However, if no Farm Bill is passed, farming policy reverts to 1949, the last year that a permanent Farm Bill was passed, all the Farm Bills since then have been temporary. (Among other things this would substantially raise the price of milk). This is a fairly powerful incentive for the House to revisit the Farm Bill.

Technically, the House can go to conference with the Senate, without passing a full Farm Bill. Something similar happened with last year’s transportation bill. If that happens, something close to the Senate version would probably emerge as the House would have limited leverage in the conference committee. The results of the conference committee would still have to pass the House however, which would require a coalition of Democrats and moderate Republicans if something close to the Senate version were to be passed.

We will be sure to follow any developments closely on this blog as well as through our facebook and twitter, but for now it looks like SNAP has dodged a major attempt to slash benefits thanks to your work and the work of other hunger activists across the U.S. Here’s a quick look at who is helped by SNAP:

Although it is now unlikely to become law, I’ll share a few quick words on the Southerland amendment, as the general approach of linking SNAP to work remains popular. The problem with the amendment is that most unemployment is not voluntary. (In fact, by definition being counted among the unemployed means one is actively seeking work). Removing food assistance from parents or individuals who are unable to find work is poor public policy. Below is a chart showing the number of job seekers per opening for the last 12 years. With just over 3 people looking for work for every job available, the idea that we could increase employment by denying people money for food is simply incorrect. At best we would force people into the informal economy, and at worst we would increase food insecurity and cause lasting damage:

Poverty News Round Up

To paraphrase Karl Barth, one should preach with a Bible in one hand, and a newspaper in the other. To make that easier, we’re continuing to bring you the top stories in poverty for the week, and we’ve added some brief commentary based on the Revised Common Lectionary for each week. As always, leave a comment if you think we missed a big story.

The Newspaper:

1. The Senate passed a Farm Bill. The House is expected to vote later in the month.

The bill “would cut $24 billion from farm spending over 10 years, including a $4 billion reduction to food stamps….The House is working on a rival, $940 billion farm bill that cuts spending by $39.7 billion over 10 years, with $20.5 billion of the cuts coming food stamps.”

2.  The Farm Bill  includes an amendment that would prevent felons from receiving nutrition assistance.

“If it becomes law, not only convicted criminals, but the children and other family members who depend on them will be affected — by one estimate, as many as 500,000 low-income households will have $90 less a month to spend on food.

It will make no difference if the crime was committed long ago; or if it was committed when the person was a child; or if the ex-offender has lived a law-abiding life ever since; or that he has already spent time behind bars and paid his debt to society.”

3. Brazil’s poverty rate has dropped from 22% to 7% and it’s Bolsa Familia program is the largest single anti-poverty program in the world. What can we learn from Brazil?

“Brazil still has millions of people living in poverty, and subsidising the basic needs of so many people is not cheap. But it all comes down to basics. Better-fed, healthy people contribute more to a country’s well-being. Malnutrition does the opposite, costing lives and resources. So what can the rest of the world learn from Brazil?”

4. The future of poverty may be in agriculture.

“California’s San Joaquin Valley is one of the richest agricultural regions in the world, with Fresno County farmers receiving a record $6.8 billion in revenues last year. But the region also consistently ranks among the nation’s most impoverished. Sometimes called “Appalachia of the West,” it’s where families, especially Hispanic immigrants and their children, live year after year in destitution.”

5. The safety net performed well during the recession. But it may not be able to continue.

“The U.S. safety net performed a lot better than you thought during the recent downturn, which was the deepest since the Depression. Thanks to expansions to the Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, food stamps, and unemployment insurance—all beefed up by the $840 billion Recovery Act—the safety net almost wholly mitigated the rise in child poverty. Even middle-income households saw most of their income losses substantially offset by tax and transfer policies that sharply ramped up to help them.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that most of the Recovery Act’s outlays have now been spent, and pressure to reduce deficits leaves other spending on children and families under assault.”

The Bible:

In this Sunday’s first lesson (1 Kings 21:1-10) we hear the story of Naboth’s vineyard. Jezebel has Naboth killed for refusing to sell his land to King Ahab. Often overlooked is why Naboth refused to sell.

1 Kings 21:3 But Naboth said to Ahab, “The LORD forbid that I should give you my ancestral inheritance.”

Naboth is referring to Leviticus 25, which lays out the rules for property ownership. Property can be temporarily leased out, but is to be returned to its ancestral owners every 50 years as part of the Jubilee. This was one of the ways that Israel reduced inequality and made sure that families did not get trapped in cycles of poverty, as each new generation would be able to start with its ancestral land. I recommend Richard Horsley’s Covenant Economics as a good introduction to economics in the Bible.

SNAP Beneficiaries Probably Aren’t Who You Think

As Congress considers cutting SNAP, let’s take a look at whose bodies and brains will be cut into by hunger.

Poverty News Round Up

Some interesting reading about poverty from the past week. Have a story we missed? Let us know in the comments.

1. Financial stress is going up for the poor, even while it’s going down for everyone else. From Investor’s Business Daily:

“Americans are less financially stressed — except for the poor. The IBD/TIPP Financial Related Stress Index fell 1.3 points in June to 57.1, the lowest going back to the recession’s start in December 2007. It peaked at 74 in October 2008, just after the Lehman Bros. collapse sent markets and the economy into a tailspin. But among those making less than $30,000, the stress reading jumped 3.3 points to 64.3, an eight-month high.”

2. Teacher’s are first responders to poverty. From the San Francisco Chronicle:

“Learning and laundry, in fact, get done in several area schools, where teachers and staff also buy food, prom clothes, toilet paper, eyeglasses, and countless other items for children from families with meager means.

This is on top of the hundreds, even thousands, of dollars that teachers spend each year on basic classroom supplies.

In the Philadelphia area, teachers see themselves as first responders in the ongoing emergency of poverty. Many say that if they falter, they fail the children.”

3. Cash is more effective than other types of aid, reports Bloomberg’s Businessweek:

“It is comfortable for richer people to think they are richer because of the moral failings of the poor. And that justifies a paternalistic approach to poverty relief using vouchers and in-kind support. But the big reason poor people are poor is because they don’t have enough money, and it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that giving them money is a great way to reduce that problem—considerably more cost-effectively than paternalism.”

4. Economic changes are affecting family structure. The pew report on breadwinner moms continues to be in the news:

“the evidence suggests that while men tend to applaud their spouses when they help to bring home the bacon, husbands aren’t always as enthusiastic when women start bringing home the filet mignon. And it’s especially troubling that these old-fashioned social norms about gender identity appear to be adversely affecting family formation and stability.”

5. World poverty was cut in half between 1990 and 2010. Can it be eliminated by 2030? The Economist investigates.

“If extreme poverty could be halved in the past two decades, why should the other half not be got rid of in the next two? If 21% was possible in 2010, why not 1% in 2030?”

Honor Our Fathers By Telling Their Stories

This Father’s Day, the National Council of Churches Poverty Initiative is joining with Equal Voice News in honoring fathers who are creating positive change and fighting poverty in their homes and communities.

Please send in your story to NCC Poverty Initiative Director Shantha Ready Alonso at info@nccendpoverty.org.  We’ll feature all the stories I receive on the NCC Poverty Initiative blog and post them to social media with prayer requests. All stories received by Wednesday, June 12 will be submitted to Equal Voice News for their consideration to feature on their online newspaper.

In your email to info@nccendpoverty.org, please include:

Your name:

Name of nominated father:

Home city:

Organization (if applicable):

What issue(s) is this dad involved with?

Why are you nominating him?

Please attach a photo of him.

With Father’s Day around the corner, let’s be faithful to our call to honor our fathers. Please take a moment to share a gift of recognition, prayer, and encouragement from a nation-wide community.