Poverty

From the Austin Statesman

Poverty takes root in Austin’s suburbs

From 2000 to 2011, the Austin metro area saw the nation’s second-fastest increase in the number of poor people living in the suburbs, according to a new book to be released Monday which describes poverty dramatically shifting from America’s inner cities to the suburbs and which calls on policymakers to …

  • 11:01 p.m. Sunday, May 19, 2013
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Poverty dips in Austin area for first time since recession

For the first time since 2007, the percentage of people living in poverty in the Austin metro area has dipped. The poverty rate also fell slightly in the City of Austin, but the percentage of children younger than 18 in poverty in the city climbed for a fourth straight year, …

  • Updated: 12:02 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 20, 2012

More people living in poverty in Austin, survey finds

Nearly 1 out of every 5 Austinites lived in poverty in 2009, an increase from the previous year, the U.S. Census Bureau said Tuesday.Among the most striking increases in poverty rates were among Austin’s children.According to figures from the bureau’s American Community Survey, 27 percent of related children under 18 …

  • Updated: 10:22 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2010
Family income

Despite signs economy is rebounding, Austin metro area poverty rate doesn’t fall

Despite more signs the region’s economy is vigorously expanding, the poverty rate in the Austin metro area didn’t budge last year, according to new data showing more people struggling to make ends meet than before the recent recession began. The percentage of Austin metro residents living in poverty actually rose …

  • 12:01 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 19, 2013
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More schoolchildren in Central Texas living in poverty

About 1 in 4 school-age children in Travis, Bastrop and Caldwell counties lived in poverty in 2010 — higher than the national average — and the poverty rate for schoolchildren has risen since the recession began in 4 of 5 counties in the Austin metro area, according to census estimates …

  • Updated: 10:20 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011
A family selects coats at the Coats for Kids event Dec. 8 at the Palmer Events Center.

School-age poverty rose in Austin area after 2007, but some areas fare better than others

They started lining up at the Palmer Events Center around 10 p.m., and by the time doors opened the next morning for the 26th annual Coats for Kids giveaway, about 1,500 children and their families waited patiently for the chance to pick out that staple of kids’ wardrobes to ward …

  • 10:12 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012
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New measure shows record number in poverty in U.S.

A record number of Americans 49.1 million are poor, based on a new census measure that for the first time takes into account rising medical costs and other expenses.The numbers released Monday are part of a first-ever supplemental poverty measure aimed at providing a fuller picture of the problem. Although …

  • Updated: 10:34 p.m. Monday, Nov. 7, 2011

Growth of suburban poverty demands new approaches

For decades, Americans have associated the suburbs with the “good life.” They have regarded the suburbs as prosperous sanctuaries from the ills that afflict cities and have strived to move to them. The past decade, however, has seen the rapid growth of a suburban reality that challenges this middle-class stereotype: …

  • 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 23, 2013
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Off-campus college students boost poverty rates in some cities, census finds

College students sharing a rental house with roommates, working low-wage jobs and straining to make ends meet and make good grades is part of the American fabric. But do these struggling college students skew poverty rates in the college towns in which they live?A new census study says they do …

  • 12:00 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013
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n Wednesday afternoon, Noe Montiel receives a root canal treatment in the dental clinic at Manos de Cristo on East Cesar Chavez Street from Dr. Katherine McAleese, right, and dental assistant Iselda Einung. Manos de Cristo is a nonprofit group that provides dental, education and emergency services, as well as food and clothing, to low-income families.

More than 1 in 5 Austin residents live in poverty, new census data show

More people in Austin lived in poverty, were on food stamps and saw their median family household incomes shrink in 2010, according to new census data out today depicting the growing toll of the weakened economy in Central Texas and across the state. About 18 percent of all Texans lived …

  • Updated: 8:30 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011

Bumper-sticker policy no way to fight poverty

It wasn’t long after President Lyndon B. Johnson declared war on poverty that bumper stickers reading “I fight poverty, I work” were adorning the nation’s automobiles. The bumper sticker was a five-word retort to the federal assault on poverty.Now, four decades after LBJ marched against poverty, it is clear that …

  • Updated: 7:20 p.m. Monday, Sept. 26, 2011

Poverty rates remain at record highs; median income falls

Median household incomes fell and the number of Americans living in poverty remained at record highs in 2011, though the overall poverty rate stayed put at 15 percent. About 46.2 million people — roughly 1 in 6 Americans — remained below the federal poverty line last year, according to a …

  • Updated: 9:49 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012

Austin not ready for ‘silver tsunami’ of poor seniors, experts warn

From her home in far Northeast Austin, 66-year-old Rosaena Garcia tries to make the $441 monthly check she receives from Social Security last. But after property taxes, utilities and credit card bills, she never makes it to the end of the month. “At the beginning of the month I don’t …

  • Updated: 1:05 a.m. Sunday, April 8, 2012
Gary Farmer, president of Heritage Title Co., helped lead the original Opportunity Austin five-year initiative designed to spur regional economic growth.

Farmer: Opportunity Austin 3.0 targets Austin’s growth pains

In 2003, with Central Texas mired in the fallout of the dot-com bust, the Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce created a foundation designed to help raise money and direct spending for special business development projects. Gary Farmer, president of Heritage Title Co., took over as chairman of that organization and …

  • 12:00 a.m. Saturday, July 13, 2013

Group wants to replicate Harlem project on education, poverty

Fresh off a trip from New York, a group of officials with the City of Austin, the Austin school district, the University of Texas and various area nonprofits has announced a joint effort to try to replicate a Harlem program that President Barack Obama has called an “all-encompassing, all-hands-on-deck, anti-poverty …

  • Updated: 10:20 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009

For too many Texans, poverty erodes opportunity

The energetic, fast-growing economy in Central Texas is a source of local pride. Estimates released last week by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show the Austin-area gross domestic product reached $98.7 billion last year and is on track to surpass $100 billion this year. Despite this economic success, poverty …

  • 5:44 p.m. Monday, Sept. 23, 2013
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Poverty, religion

No poverty hereOne of the words I think is overused and used wrongly in the American-Statesman is “poverty.” The United Nations, World Bank and my dictionary all define poverty in slightly different ways. All three would consider someone who has the ability to acquire clean water, food, clothing and shelter …

  • Updated: 7:23 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011

D’Arcy and Pietruszynski: Helping the Harlem model succeed in Austin

In the next few days, President Barack Obama is expected to sign into law the budget legislation that will fund Promise Neighborhoods planning grants for up to 20 communities across the country. Replicating the successes of the Harlem Children’s Zone, the Promise Neighborhoods grants present a tremendous opportunity for us …

  • Updated: 6:40 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2009

Austin’s best chance for Promise Neighborhoods grant

Austin school trustees were right to back the Austin Achievement Zone’s initiative to improve schools and fight poverty in East Austin’s St. John community that includes Pickle elementary, Webb middle and Reagan high schools.The proposal gives the Austin community its best chance of winning a $500,000 planning grant from the …

  • Updated: 7:33 p.m. Thursday, June 24, 2010

Cartel connection reveals why La Familia targeted Austin

The two men were returning to the small, one-story house in Northeast Austin from Alabama. Hidden in the back of their SUV was $110,000 in carefully wrapped bundles, money authorities said came from cocaine sales. But responding to an informant’s tip, federal drug agents found the men in the parking …

  • Updated: 9:13 a.m. Monday, Oct. 10, 2011

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