Releases Survey that shows Cost of Basic Household Items have increased 284% over last 18 years while Welfare Basic Grant has remained the Same

The Hunger Action Network today said that Governor Paterson needs to make raising the welfare grant the cornerstone of his effort to reduce poverty in New York State.

The new poverty data released earlier in the day by the federal government showed that NY’s poverty rate remains far too high at 13.7%, above the national average of 13.0%. The data  also showed  an  increase in the number of  New Yorkers  without health insurance (from 12.8% to 13.6%) and that  New York  remained the worse in the country in terms of income inequality. The percent of the state's income earned by the wealthiest 20% actually rose from 52.6 to 53.2%.

The basic welfare grant - $291 for a family of three – has not been raised in New York State since 1990. The combined welfare grant, including the shelter allowance, now comes to less than half the federal poverty level.

Standing in front of the Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building in Harlem, Hunger Action released a survey showing the cost of goods covered by the basic grant (e.g., food, toilet ries, cleaning supplies, etc.) has increased much faster than the overall inflation rate of 63% over the last 18 years. A survey of 23 items showed an average increase of 284% during that time period. For instance, a half-gallon of skim milk that in 1990 cost 68 cents now goes for $2.24. The cost of a 6.4 ounce tube of toothpaste went from $1.77 in 1990 to $3.18 today. The cost of 4 rolls of Charmin toilet paper went from $1.37 to $3.89.

Anti-poverty advocates are urging the Governor and State Lawmakers to increase the non-shelter portion of the welfare grant from $291 to $475 a month for a family of three to reflect increases in the cost of living since 1990;

- increase Fuel for Healting allowances to account for inflationary increases since the last adjustments in 1987; and

- Establish a commission to investigate the adequacy of all public assistance allowances and to recommend mechanisms to provide for annual cost adjustments.

The group is also requesting that the Governor and candidates for State Legislature sign a Pledge for Prosperity. The Pledge highlights seven key economic security issues: raising the welfare grant after 18 years; raising the state minimum wage to $10 an hour; supporting job creation, including a massive home energy conservation initiative; establishing single payer universal health care; funding affordable housing; providing state funding for the Home Energy Assistance Program; and reforming tax rates.

Hunger Action also said that on the 10th anniversary of welfare reform in New York, far too little progress had been made in helping welfare participants become economically independent. President Clinton signed welfare reform into law on August 22, 2006. State implementation came two years later.
 
“While welfare reform promised to help lift welfare participants out of poverty by focusing more on jobs, those promises have yet to be realized. Virtually no one who has left welfare for work actually makes enough to escape poverty. While the number of families receiving help from welfare has declined sharply, the number being helped by food pantries, soup kitchens and shelter has risen sharply. New York should follow the lead of other states in investing part of the billion dollar annual surplus from the federal block grant in raising benefits,” noted Mark Dunlea, Executive Director of Hunger Action Network.

The 1996 federal changes provided a block grant to the state for welfare programs. The amount of money provided to the state does not change, regardless of the number of people receiving welfare benefits. New York’s federal block grant now provides a surplus of more than a billion dollars annually (the difference between the block grant and the amount of benefits provided to participants).

In 1975 public assistance for a three-person family was eq ual to 110% of the Federal Poverty Level. Today it has fallen to less than half of the poverty level. Within the past two years, there has been a modest, inadequate, increase in the shelter portion of the public assistance grant, but the basic allowance for all other expenses has been unchanged for almost 18 years. To keep pace with the rising cost of living, the $291 a family of three received in the non-shelter portion of its public assistance grant in 1990 would today have to be increased by 63% to $475.

In addition, many families must use a portion of their basic allowance to pay the rent, because the shelter allowance in the public assistance grant is rarely sufficient to meet the housing cost. For example, in New York City, a family of three with children has a shelter allowance of $400 per month, while the HUD fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,318. In New York City it is estimated that by 2007, 86% of families living in private housing will have a rent level higher than the amount provided for rent in their welfare grant.

The new poverty data released today showed  a modest decline in the number of Americans living in poverty in 2007, advocates noted that these numbers came at the end of a four year economic expansion. The poverty rate nationwide in 2007 was 13.0%; NYS was at 13.7%, a 0.5% decline since 2006. However, in 2008, the economy has moved into a recession. July 2008 was the seventh consecutive month of job declines, with employers shedding nearly half a million jobs so far this year, and an official unemployment rate of 5.7% in July.

New York has some of the worst child poverty rates in the U.S. According to last year’s Census data, 888,000 (20%) of our State’s children are living in poverty.  New York ranked 36th in the country on child poverty rates – not far from states like Alabama, Kentucky, and West Virginia.  Our Northeastern neighbors are far ahead of=2 0New York, because they have realized that the critical years of early childhood development should not be spent in poverty.  Furthermore, in many areas of New York State, the overall poverty rate is far above the national and statewide averages.

Poverty is particularly severe in the state's cities.  Last year, New York City's poverty rate was 19 percent but poverty rates in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse exceeded 30 percent.  Child poverty rates were greater than 40 percent in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany and more than 10 percent of the residents of these four cities had incomes below 50 percent of poverty. A family of four is considered poor if the family’s income is below $19,971—a bar far below what most people believe a family needs to get by.

There were only a handful of food pantries and soup kitchens in NYS prior to the 1981 federal budget cuts under President Reagan. There are now more than 3,000 such programs, feeding more than 2 million New20Yorkers annually. “New Yorkers shouldn’t have to rely on emergency food programs to feed themselves. It is time that state lawmakers make a commitment to shut these programs down by ensuring that all New Yorkers have the resources needed to support their families. We need to provide economic security not just for the poor but for all New Yorkers,” added Lisa Ritchie, Hunger Action’s NYC Policy and Hunger Coordinator.