NJ governor commits to fighting hunger, poverty

from Forbes

New Jersey Governor recommitted to fighting poverty after a visit to a food bank on Wednesday. Gov. Jon S. Corzine said it is really important now with inflation problems in the state. - Kale

By ANGELA DELLI SANTI

"This is crunch-time out on Main Street," Corzine said. "I encourage the citizens of New Jersey to stand up, stand strong together to make sure we do everything in a time of economic stress."

"We can all make a difference by contributing," Corzine said while visiting the Community Food Bank of New Jersey in Hillside.

The governor said despite the state's dire budget difficulties, the Food Purchase Program continued to be funded at last year's level: $4 million for staples to the state's six emergency feeding centers. The centers, in turn, distributed goods to 660 food pantries, homeless shelters and soup kitchens.

The money allows food banks to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, which stimulates the local economy and helps provide a nutritious diet to those needing food donations, said Agriculture Secretary Charles Kuperus.

The first $1 million in state funds was distributed last week, including an $800,000 check to the Community Food Bank.

Corzine promised to continued to highlight hunger and poverty in events through the fall.

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Simple, spiritual life luring more to mission work

from the North Jersey Record

This shows that there are benefits to doing charity work. This article from the North Jersey Record profiles a man who has had enough of the rat race. - Kale

BY JOHN CHADWICK

During his days working in corporate America, Doug Garofalo may have seemed an unlikely candidate for the Franciscan religious order and its embrace of voluntary poverty.

But even as Garofalo worked as an accountant for chains like Saks Fifth Avenue and Aeropostale, the River Edge native maintained a strong connection to his hometown church, St. Peter the Apostle, and kept a decidedly modest lifestyle.

"I had a very modest house in Hackensack," Garofalo, 46, said. "I was living as simple as possible in the retail world of Bergen County."

His preference for simple, spiritual living and his yearning for a new direction led him in 2002 to the Franciscan Mission Service, part of the Catholic order founded by St. Francis of Assisi.

But Garofalo, who by his own description is a good dancer who enjoys dating and maintaining a wide social network, didn't see himself as a priest.

So he became a lay missioner - a role in which he wouldn't have to take religious vows but could embrace the Franciscan ethic and participate in overseas projects to help poor communities. Lay missioners are prevalent in the Catholic Church, and function like missionaries, though they typically travel to Catholic areas and focus more on relief work than evangelization, Garofalo said.

"I felt I was called by the Holy Spirit," Garofalo said during a recent telephone interview from Washington, D.C., where he now lives. "I knew I was being called to do something more concrete for the church. I knew it was not a call to the priesthood."

A growing number of Catholics are hearing a similar calling.

Jim Lindsay, executive director of the Maryland-based Catholic Network of Volunteer Service, said the number of Catholics participating in some form of lay mission work in the network has steadily increased and is now at about 10,000 per year. There are some 200 organizations, from religious orders to universities, offering lay mission work, up from about 160 a decade ago, he added.

The missions can range from one week working in an inner-city soup kitchen to spending several years overseas in an impoverished nation. The common element is that volunteers leave their homes, work full time and frequently live communally.

"Certainly priests and sisters and brothers have been doing this work over many, many years," Lindsay said. "Laypeople now have a greater realization that they are part of the mission of the church itself."

One of the people Garofalo consulted with about his decision was Julie Burkey, an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University who runs a program called Christian Employment Outreach, or CEO.

"I'm seeing people all time who reach a level of success, in terms of the how the world defines it," Burkey said. "Then they turn around and say, 'Is this all there is?' "

Garofalo signed up for a three-year program that included two years in Brazil, where he lived with Franciscan friars, worked in a day care center and helped administer a micro-credit loan program for the working poor.

After returning last year, he has been serving as the development director of the Franciscan Mission Service.

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Report puts spotlight on state's working poor

from the Jersey Journal

By SUSAN K. LIVIO

TRENTON - One of every five New Jersey families does not earn enough to afford the basic necessities - housing, food and child care - though most households have at least one breadwinner, according to a study released yesterday.

The report by the Poverty Research Institute highlighted the characteristics of these 500,000 households to debunk stereotypes about the poor and encourage lawmakers to fund more effective programs. The study found 85 percent of these families had at least one person working, although not everyone held full-time or year-round employment. Only 6 percent of them received welfare.

"Public policy is horribly out of touch with what real people have to face in terms of their economic reality," said Melville Miller, president of Legal Services of New Jersey, which founded the Poverty Research Institute.

Serena Rice, the poverty institute's managing director, said lawmakers could close the income gap by raising the minimum wage of $7.15 to $8.50 and allowing it to rise with future inflation. They could raise the child care subsidies and make them available to more parents.

"Government has to get back in touch with the people it is serving," Miller said. "Those in dire situations are not being helped, even though the vast majority are working."

Speaking at a Statehouse news conference, Gwendolyn Wilson, 33, of Toms River, said her family falls into this category, even though she and her husband hold associate's degrees and work full-time to raise their four sons.

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Number of kids in poverty stays constant

from the Ashbury Park Press

By Tom Baldwin

TRENTON — The population of New Jersey's children who are growing up in poverty remained stable from 2002 to 2006, despite expanding state aid to kids' programs and general prosperity, according to a report unveiled Monday.

"Shocking" is the way Cecilia Zalkind, executive director of the Association for Children of New Jersey, described parts of her group's wide-ranging annual Kids Count report, especially that New Jersey has 255,000 poor children who lack health insurance.

"It's about income. We live in a state of great disparity," said Zalkind.

A quarter of New Jersey's 8.7 million people are children under 18 years of age, and 244,000 of them are classified as poor, the report said.

"We are making progress," Zalkind said, noting the advocacy group each year maps and analyzes the state's children trapped in poverty.

"Despite everything, there are bright spots," said state Human Services Commissioner Jennifer Velez, addressing a gathering of children's advocates at the Trenton War Memorial.

Velez mentioned state services for children are not being cut across the board, unlike other areas of state spending.

Zalkind agreed. "The Legislature and the governor's office have really held children harmless in this budget," she said.

One troubling piece of data is the rise by 6 percent statewide of children born underweight, a condition that signals health problems in later years. Gloucester County led the state, increasing by 48 percent, followed by Warren County, with a 35 percent rise.

The association takes its definition of "poverty" from the federal government — a maximum of $13,690 a year for a family of two, $17,170 for a family of three and $20,650 for a family of four.

Another major problem, said Zalkind, is that increasingly people are having to spend more than the suggested maximum of 30 percent of income on monthly rent. "That is a concern," she said.

Among the findings:

* • The number of females giving birth between the ages of 10 and 19 dropped or stayed level in every county except Monmouth and Somerset, where the number rose marginally.

* • While infant deaths have declined most everywhere, they have risen in Camden County by 10 percent, as well as by 16 percent in Mercer County, 21 percent in Ocean County and 4 percent in Burlington County.

* • Camden, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean counties landed in the upper levels of proven cases of child abuse and neglect — 977 cases in 2005 in Camden, 897 cases in that year in Middlesex, 827 cases in Ocean and 622 cases in Monmouth. Essex topped the list with more than 1,500, ahead of No. 2 Camden.

* • Children in foster care or other out-of-home placement fell statewide by 24 percent from 2003 to 2007.

* • "Suburban areas in the central and western parts of the state tend to have higher incomes and perform better on many measures of child well-being," a pocket guide to the report said.

* • Hunterdon County youths stand out as test-takers; its 11th-graders score 10 to 19 points higher on state language arts, math and science tests than the state average and 22 to 37 points higher than the lowest, Cumberland County.

* • More kids are passing assessment tests, and the gap between scores in wealthy versus working-class school houses has narrowed.

* • While the New Jersey statewide level of children in poverty has stayed flat, so has the federal level, which at 18 percent is above New Jersey's of 12 percent.

* • Median family income for whites in New Jersey is $85,199. For African-Americans, it is $52,949, and $46,918 for Hispanics.

* • Of all New Jersey people ages 18 to 24, more than one in 10 — or 13 percent — have no degree beyond high school, and are neither attending school nor working.

* • Hudson County has the most children living poor — 26 percent of the youngsters there. Passaic County has 23 percent, Cumberland 21 percent and Essex 19 percent.

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Social services chief: Fees could push NJ poor to skip care

from Newsday

By TOM HESTER Jr.

The state human services commissioner Monday said it was a "valid concern" poor people would avoid medical care if Gov. Jon S. Corzine's proposal to charge them new fees for prescription drugs and some hospital visits is approved.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine proposed co-payments for Medicaid recipients to raise $7.55 million for the cash-strapped state budget.

Legislators fear the payments could prompt poor people to forego health care, especially senior citizens, the disabled and mentally ill.

"I do think it's a valid concern," Jennifer Velez, the state human services chief, told senators during a Monday hearing. "I couldn't tell you that it's not."

New Jersey is among eight states that don't charge Medicaid co-payments for prescription drugs.

Corzine proposes a $6 co-payment on emergency room visits that aren't a true emergency to raise $550,000, and a $2 co-payment on prescription drugs to raise $7 million. The prescription drug co-payment would be capped at $10 per month per person.

Corzine proposes spending $33 billion next fiscal year, but legislators and advocates for the poor fear the co-payments, even if small, could be too painful for people with little margin for extra expenses but serious medical problems.

"They obviously will make a choice, whether it's food, clothing or shelter, as opposed to pursuing their meds," said Sen. Dana Redd, D-Camden.

Velez said the state has little choice. Corzine has proposed $2.7 billion in cuts amid chronic budget woes.

"There are very few, if any, really good options," Velez said. "This is not a particularly good option, but the reason why it's in the budget this year is the dire situation."

Mary Lynne Reynolds, executive director of The Mental Health Association in Southwestern New Jersey, said 5,000 New Jerseyans with mental illnesses live in boarding homes.

She said most of those people receive Medicaid and Social Security insurance that pays for room and board and a $50 per month personal allowance to buy personal effects and amenities such as snacks and newspapers.

"Boarding home residents barely get by now," she said. "Forcing them to pay up to $10 a month will make their lives more difficult, and many will have to chose between medications and other important basics."

Legislators and Corzine must adopt a budget plan by July 1.

This is the third time the Democratic Corzine has proposed Medicaid co-payments since becoming governor in 2006. His fellow Democrats who control the Legislature rejected them the first two times.

New Jersey spends 11 percent of its $33 billion budget on Medicaid, which is jointly funded by the state and federal government and pays for health care for the poor, elderly, disabled and low-income families with children. It serves more than 1 million people.

Recent state audits found wasteful spending in the program, including allowing people earning as much as $295,000 per year to join, and equipment purchasing problems.

Velez told senators the department is fixing the problems and reported six people who may have committed fraud to the state Attorney General's office. However, senators remained skeptical that enough steps are being taken.

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Somerset Co. takes initiative in poverty battle

from the Courier News

By LAURIE LEVOY
STAFF WRITER

SOMERVILLE — Social service agencies, nonprofits, businesses and philanthropic foundations were challenged Wednesday to think outside their comfort zones and perceptions about poverty in Somerset County, and work toward eradicating — and in the process not unwittingly sustaining — the plight of local families in poverty.

Participants at a forum called an "Invitation to End Poverty," heard Scott Miller, the national director of the Circles Initiative, speak on the philosophy behind and the elements of his Circles Campaign, which is headquartered in Ames, Iowa.

Sponsors of the program, United Way of Somerset County, Northwest New Jersey Community Action Program Inc. (better known as NORWESCAP) and the Somerset County Department of Human Services are partnering a new initiative based upon the Circles Campaign to "move families out of poverty" in Somerset County.

"Our outreach in New Jersey will also be called the Circles Initiative and will work with families in Sussex and Somerset counties," said Terry Newhard, chief executive officer and executive director of NORWESCAP.

Locally, Newhard said an inaugural meeting in the next few weeks of the Guiding Coalition, one of the leadership arms of a Circle, will becharged with identifying 12 to 13 families living in poverty in Somerset County — each to become a Circle embraced and empowered by the community. The family will be coached to work hard and play by the rules, while learning how to navigate the various financial and social resources currently available and as they move toward self-sufficiency.

People living in poverty in suburban, affluent Somerset County can become invisible behind government statistics, Miller said. He noted the NORWESCAP findings: One adult living with one infant and one child in Somerset County needs an annual income of $61,000 to be self-sufficient, while nationally, that break-even number to achieve self-sufficiency hovers at about $30,500.

Lynn Weckworth, a vice president at United Way of Somerset County, is excited about the Circles Initiative because "its approach is unique. And on a larger scale, it's an opportunity for us in Somerset County to make changes at a systemic level, and ultimately at a community level" to address the issue of local poverty.

The Circles Campaign strategy strives to transform all players, whether client, sponsor or mentor to see local poverty as a community-wide problem where solutions build new relationships that bridge class, race and educational barriers. Success is based upon cutting across socioeconomic class delineations and social service bureaucracies, ultimately teaching the "community to take responsibility for the problem of poverty," Miller said.

For example, the client becomes the "circle leader" — no longer spoken about, or, in time, behaving like a victim. A circle of "allies" is formed, not to "fix" the circle leader and the family, but to guide the family to make their own plan to move forward out of its predicament.

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Report: Many New Jerseyans can't afford bare-bones needs

from The Daily Record

Advocates push for boost to minimum wage, more education, tax reform

By MICHAEL RISPOLI

TRENTON -- One in five New Jerseyans aren't paid enough to afford bare-bone necessities without seeking outside help, as the gap between their earned income and cost of living widens, a report released by poverty advocacy groups Wednesday says.

A one-adult, one-preschooler household would need to make between nearly $36,000 through more than $54,000 -- depending on the region -- to meet needs such as housing, health care, food and other costs, the report found. The average minimum wage for this family would have to be $26.56 per hour -- nearly four times New Jersey's minimum wage.

This leads to tough choices and sacrifices, said the report's author, Diana Pearce, director of the Center for Women's Welfare at the University of Washington.

"It should be shocking and a wake-up call to people that we are increasingly not acknowledging that people are struggling," said Pearce. "This is hard on people who are struggling because they have income over the poverty level, so you're not 'poor,' and yet families can easily become homeless because you don't have enough money to meet your rent or your food."

This is the fourth such report conducted by Pearce and the Poverty Research Institute at Legal Services of New Jersey. Pearce has conducted self-sufficiency reports for 35 other states.

An estimated 1.8 million residents in New Jersey are in households with incomes that are less than double the federal poverty level, which for a family of three is $17,600. The state's self-sufficient wage is anywhere from $18,000 to $35,000 above the federal poverty level, Pearce said.

Stephanie Baldwin, who used to rely on help from Catholic Charities in Trenton and now works as a secretary for the group, said her $25,000 a year salary can only afford to find apartments for herself and her 5-year-old son that are "rarely clean, comfortable or safe."

"The most common scenario is you pay $600 a month, a real bargain, and live in an area that is high in crime and where the owner or super never fixes things," said Baldwin.

The report recommends revamping and expanding governmental policies, which the advocates admitted would be tough because of hard economic times statewide and nationally. Among the suggestions were increasing the minimum wage, improving access to education and tax reform to help struggling families, said Melissa Quaal, senior researcher and policy analyst for Legal Services of New Jersey.

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Working families struggle, despite NJ's overall wealth

from the New Jersey Star Ledger

Posted by LCraven

New Jersey is the nation's second wealthiest state, but 20 percent of its working families don't earn enough money to adequately support themselves, a report found.

The analysis by the Rutgers Center for Women and Work and New Jersey Policy Perspective found 200,000 Garden State families with a working adult earn too little in pay and benefits to be self-sufficient at a time when proposed state budget cuts threaten to reduce services for the poor.

"New Jersey is a tale of two states," said Eileen Appelbaum, the director at the Rutgers center. "On the one hand, we have a large number of highly educated members of the work force who are doing well, but this report makes clear that there are also hundreds of thousands of working adults who lack the skills, training and opportunity to adequately support themselves."

The Economic Policy Institute said a family of four requires income ranging from $49,572 to $57,144 to be self-sufficient, depending on where in the state they live.

The study focused on families of four that earn less than $39,942, or twice the federal poverty level. It found the state has 16 percent more of such families since 2000, with those 200,000 families accounting for 750,000 people.

The state has about 8.7 million residents, who earn, on average, $46,344, ranking New Jersey behind only Connecticut for income per capita and 28 percent above the U.S. average.

Jon Shure, president of the liberal-leaning NJPP, noted the report comes as Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine proposes a $33 billion budget with $2.7 billion in spending cuts to key programs, including several that help the poor and elderly.

"As the state faces shortsighted budget cuts, the message of this report is more important than ever," Shure said. "This is wake-up call that says we need to invest, not cut, to build a secure future and a prosperous state."

The report proposes:

-- Increasing the state minimum wage from $7.15 to $8.50 an hour and adjusting it yearly.

-- Approving paid work leave to give low-income families flexibility to handle emergencies.

-- Expanding eligibility for a state-run health insurance program for the working poor.

-- Expanding child care assistance and adult education courses.

-- Targeting more higher education aid to low-income working adults.

-- Helping welfare recipients not just find work, but jobs that let them become self-sufficient.

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Forum focuses on fighting poverty

from The Times of Trenton

BY MICHELLE McGUINNESS

TRENTON -- The Trenton Area Soup Kitchen provided the setting yesterday morning for a public forum about the causes of and solutions to poverty.

TASK's policy forum brought together residents and experts in social issues to discuss poverty. TASK spokesman Irwin Stoolmacher said the group intentionally invited a wide range of panelists to the 8:30 a.m. forum to show that "one could be conservative or progressive or liberal and still care about the needs of those in poverty."

He said the event was intended to inform the general public, something it seemed to accomplish since the question-and-answer session ran past the scheduled ending time of 12:30 p.m. due to the amount of questions and comments.

"In a time when the state of New Jersey is making some cuts, it is important" for the public to know about the needs of the poor, Stoolmacher said.

According to Jon Shure, president of New Jersey Policy Perspective, one in five working families does not earn enough money to live in New Jersey, yet the government categorizes only 8.7 percent of the state's population as being under the poverty line. This, Shure said, is because the cost of living in New Jersey is much higher than in many states.

Shure said the fact that most people in poverty do have jobs contradicts an American tendency to view poverty as an individual failure or a racial issue, even though "nobody makes it in this country entirely on their own. As someone once said, 'It takes a village to raise a billionaire.'"

Gregg Edwards, president of the Center for Policy Research of New Jersey, said the problem of poverty isn't purely economic, however. Edwards contended that family structure and education is just as important as the economics of poverty. He focused on education for solutions, saying that charter schools and Catholic schools are often good alternatives to public schools, which he believes fail students.

He said the "complete and total failure of our public schools in urban settings" is "the most pressing civil rights issue" facing society. For example, Edwards said, teachers at public schools in urban areas are often young and inexperienced because the compensation at such schools is low.

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Legal Services study suggests anti-poverty efforts are failing

from the New Jersey Star-Ledger

BY SUSAN K. LIVIO
Star-Ledger Staff

New Jersey may have the second-largest population of millionaires in the country, but the poverty rate hasn't budged in three years -- a signal that anti-poverty programs aren't working, according to a report released yesterday by Legal Services of New Jersey.

Between 2004 and 2006, 9 percent of the state's 8.5 million citizens lived below the federal definition of poverty, earning no more than $16,000 a year for a family of three. Children fared even worse, making up nearly 12 percent of the poverty class. The state also has the 13th-highest foreclosure rate in the nation, according to the report, "Poverty Benchmarks 2008."

"What is discouraging is that poverty rates have remained stagnant at all levels of poverty, suggesting that policies aimed at the low-income populations have failed to substantially reduce income inadequacy," according to the report.

Some programs are "important investments" but have limited im pact. They include the Department of Children and Families' "Family Success Centers" and "Differential Response," both of which link families to community-based social services. The programs, which collectively cost $10.4 million, do not "increase the available funding to actually address ... issues a family may be experiencing," according to the report.

"I don't want to underplay the progress. Some programs are mak ing a difference," said Serena Rice, managing director for Legal Services' Poverty Research Institute, citing the state's rental assistance program that benefits up to 5,000 tenants. "But there are a lot of concerning trends, and we need to be taking more action as a state for our low-income residents," she said.

Legal Services recommended a half-dozen strategies, three of which wouldn't add any cost to the state budget's bottom line.

They include raising the minimum wage from $7.15 to $8.25 an hour, and enacting a paid family leave program that would provide up to six weeks of pay, funded by a tax deducted from a worker's pay, Rice said.

Assemblywoman Bonnie Wat son-Coleman (D-Mercer) has spon sored a bill (A1774) that would raise the minimum wage, although it has yet to be heard in committee. Senate Majority Leader Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) sponsored the family leave bill (S687), which passed a committee last month but faces stiff opposition from business leaders.

The Department of Human Services could make the food stamps and free school breakfast programs more accessible at no cost to the state because they are supported solely by federal money, Rice said.

More people would apply for food stamps if the state authorized county welfare offices to extend evening office hours and permitted people to apply without having to submit as much proof of their in come, said Adele LaTourette, di rector of the Statewide Food Net work Center for Food Action. If school superintendents and principals agreed that breakfast would be served in the classroom after attendance is taken, more kids would participate. Newark boasts a 92 percent participation rate because its schools provide breakfast "after the morning bell."

New Jersey ranks 48th in the nation for its participation in the school breakfast program, according to the report.

"What's so frustrating is we are leaving behind federal funding" -- $17 million alone in money to bolster the school breakfast program, LaTourette said.

Legal Services also called on state leaders to raise the monthly welfare grant, which hasn't been increased in 21 years, enact universal health care and expand affordable housing programs in suburban areas.

A parent with two children must work or attend a job preparation program in order to qualify for the monthly welfare check of $424.

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Group: Poverty worsening, Corzine can help

from the Cherry Hill Courier Post

By TOM BALDWIN
Gannett State Bureau

Poverty is worsening in New Jersey, an anti-poverty group said today, though it says Gov. Jon S. Corzine could help ease the pain without affecting his expected bare-bones budget due out next week.

"Not only are poverty rates failing to move down, the people counted in those percentages are facing a harder time," said Shivi Prasad, policy analyst for the Legal Services of New Jersey Poverty Research Institute, based in Edison.

Serena Rice, the institute's managing director, joined Prasad and others in a news conference to highlight the Poverty Benchmarks 2008 report, which paints a broad-stroke picture of the poor in New Jersey, among the wealthiest of states, where nevertheless people cannot find housing, health care and good-paying jobs.

The report said the poverty rate has not dipped in three years and that from 2004 to 2006, 9 percent of New Jersey's 8.7 million people lived below the federal poverty bar - a family of three scraping by on $16,000 a year or less.

"When compared with the data on need identified in this report, New Jersey's responses are clearly inadequate," Rice said.

The group noted that Corzine has said he will propose deep cuts in the budget he intends to propose to lawmakers next Tuesday, which he said will keep spending at its current level despite rising costs for things such as salaries, benefits and ordinary inflation. But the advocates said they hoped the poor would be the exception.

"Even no increase is a cut," Rice said.

Corzine spokesman Jim Gardner said, "Governor Corzine has made clear that the budget for the upcoming fiscal year will involve deep and painful cuts. The governor's guiding principles are maintaining public safety and caring for the most vulnerable in society. But it will be necessary to cut at nearly $2.5 billion just to keep ... at last year's level of $33.5 billion, and additional reductions may also be necessary.

"These cuts are an essential first step to restoring New Jersey's financial health, and must be followed up with future restrictions in spending and borrowing," Gardner said.

There are ways, Rice said, to help their cause without affecting the budget.

She said New Jersey could increase its minimum wage from $7.15 to $8.25 an hour, allow for employee-funded paid family leave and step up outreach efforts to enroll people in established programs such as food stamps and school breakfast programs.

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Proposal Seeks a Break for Low-Wage Workers

from The New York Times

By DIANA MARSZALEK

YONKERS

A SINGLE mother of two grown children, Deborah Smith puts in 46 hours a week as a home health aide — a job she has held for more than 20 years — yet barely makes ends meet.

Earning $9.38 an hour for her union job, Ms. Smith, 47, said her pay is quickly consumed by rent, insurance and bus fare. The Yonkers resident lives in one of the city’s public housing projects, rounds out meals with help from local food pantries and regularly borrows a few dollars from her sister.

With no money left for extras, Ms. Smith splurges only on cable TV. Her son-in-law, a barber, cuts her hair free.

“It’s very hard living in the gracious City of Yonkers at $9.38 an hour,” said Ms. Smith, who is the treasurer of the Westchester-Putnam Working Families Party. “It’s not enough.”

Ms. Smith is one of the thousands of Yonkers workers at the crux of a continuing debate in the city about a “living wage” proposal that would make Yonkers the first Westchester municipality to increase the hourly wage above the state minimum. The issue, being debated once again at City Hall, pits advocates for low-wage workers who support the idea against opponents who argue a wage increase will keep businesses away at a time of unprecedented economic development.

The proposal — which in the last year has been approved by the City Council and vetoed by Mayor Philip A. Amicone twice — would require larger businesses to pay their employees at least $11.85 an hour, and $1.50 toward health or other benefits, which is above the state minimum wage of $7.15.

That increase would bring an individual working full time up to the Westchester County poverty line, said Chuck Lesnick, the City Council president, who is a lawyer and supporter of the wage increase. The law, Mr. Lesnick said, is meant not only to help longtime workers like Ms. Smith but also to set a new standard for the owners of retail stores and other businesses expected to come into the city.

The aging Cross County Shopping Center is under renovation. A new mall at Ridge Hill is hoping to lure high-end retailers, and the plans for downtown mixed retail and real estate developments near the Yonkers waterfront are under way.

“The idea is that the rising tide lifts all boats, so we want to make sure that everybody is getting a little bit,” Mr. Lesnick said.

Opponents, however, say that increasing the cost of doing business in Yonkers could deter retailers from moving into the city at a time when the city is trying to court them.

In Mr. Amicone’s second veto message (he vetoed the City Council’s first approval of the proposal in March), the mayor said a minimum wage increase could put the city at a competitive economic disadvantage that would harm efforts to attract a range of retailers. In addition, the proposal could cost the city millions of dollars in higher wages and contracts, he said. (Estimates show the wage increase would cost the city $700,000 to $2.5 million, Mr. Lesnick said.)

Dee Barbato, a city councilwoman who voted against the proposal, said she did not want to send the wrong message to businesses the city has worked so hard to attract.

“The last thing I want to do is chase out developers and businesses and not have any jobs, let alone living wage jobs,” Ms. Barbato said. “Everyone says we’re on the brink of a recession. Is this the time we should be hammering new businesses that are coming into the city?”

The law would apply to a wide range of businesses, including those that have at least $25,000 a year in city contracts or receive at least $150,000 in city subsidies, like tax exemptions and other incentives.

Private businesses with more than five employees, occupying more than 15,000 square feet or generating more than $1 million in gross revenues, would also be affected. That aspect is a major difference between the Yonkers proposal and the Westchester County living wage law, which applies only to entities that do business with the county. The law does not apply to workers under age 18.

Some of the restrictions were meant to quell concerns that the proposed wage increase would hurt small business owners, local leaders said.

Mr. Lesnick said he was not concerned about offending large retailers since the kind of stores being lured to the city — L. L. Bean, Whole Foods and Target are possibilities — should, and often do, pay higher wages anyway.

Some business leaders disagree. Kevin Cacace, president of the Yonkers Chamber of Commerce, said a local minimum wage increase would take its toll on the city by giving businesses reason to leave. “Requiring these companies to pay rates that far exceed those in the surrounding towns and cities doesn’t make sense,” Mr. Cacace said.

Mr. Cacace said he also believed the proposal was too aggressive by applying to private businesses, rather than just those with government ties as the county law does. “I think that’s a big mistake,” he said.

Individuals on the retail floor, however, say a wage increase could ultimately benefit businesses as well as employees, primarily by making hourly jobs attractive to qualified individuals who otherwise would not take them.

Able to offer only slightly more than the minimum wage, Kevin Nichols, manager of KB Toys at the Cross County Shopping Center, said he would have better luck attracting a qualified sales staff if he could offer more money.

Instead, Mr. Nichols, who started as an hourly KB employee 12 years ago, said he now has to piece together a fleet of part-time staffers willing to work for less.

“I would be able to get more high-quality people who wouldn’t mind doing retail,” Mr. Nichols said.

Meantime, proponents say they are discussing the details of their most recent living wage proposal, which the City Council approved in October, and deciding whether they will change portions of it in response to opponents’ concerns. That could require concessions on certain points of dispute, like whether tenants of new developments would be excluded from the law, they say.

While such concessions may be necessary for both sides to come to agreement, proponents like Mr. Lesnick say they believe Yonkers has little to risk by keeping low-paying businesses out of the city.

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Experts: Giftedness harder to identify in kids from low-income families

from The Asbury Park Press

By ERICA HARBATKIN

Identifying giftedness in children who have grown up in low-income neighborhoods is more difficult than identifying giftedness in their middle-income peers, experts say.

New Jersey law attempts to offset that disparity by requiring school districts to compare children to others in their own district, rather than comparing them to children throughout the state. But setting rules for identification often isn't enough to counterbalance the roadblocks born out of poverty.

"All of our evidence seems to indicate that when you take a child and put him in a poverty environment the result is to rob the child of his potential giftedness," said Dr. Michael Lewis, director of the Gifted Child Clinic at Robert Wood Johnson University Medical School.

State law requires that all school districts implement a board-approved gifted and talented program, but leaves the specifics of the program to the district administration.

"When we were writing the definition for gifted in New Jersey we were very cognizant of the fact that there are 600 school districts and they're doing 600 different things," said Roberta Braverman, vice president of the New Jersey Association of Gifted Children, and who helped write New Jersey's law for gifted education.

But children in low-income districts do not exhibit giftedness as readily as their middle- and upper-income counterparts. So giftedness is easy to miss, even when they are being compared to their neighborhood peers.

That's why children who grow up in poverty cannot be identified through the same tests as their middle-income peers, Lewis said.

"So we decided we would have to identify them by looking at different skills and capacity," Lewis said, citing reasoning, auditory memory, vocabulary and special ability. "If the child shows giftedness in any one of those areas we would consider the child gifted."

The Gifted Child Clinic developed screening techniques for low-income children and taught them to preschool teachers in Newark, who were then able to successfully identify their gifted pupils. The clinic then helped to develop a gifted program in Newark, but it lapsed after about 15 years due to lack of funding, Lewis said.

"I think we could have been prepared to actually do it if funding wasn't such a problem," he said.

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Advocates press for anti-poverty initiatives for New Jersey poor

from MSNBC

By ANGELA DELLI SANTI

TRENTON, N.J. - Though the challenges of alleviating poverty in costly New Jersey are many, and money is tight, advocates for the poor, homeless and disabled hope to push lawmakers to direct limited state funds to programs that do the most good.

The advocates, known collectively as the Anti-Poverty Network of New Jersey, paint a grim picture of low-income families fighting to stay solvent in a state where affordable housing is scarce, health insurance is hard to come by, and minimum-wage workers seldom break out of their low-wage rut.

Advocates say even limited state aid can make a big difference to the poor if directed to the right programs, like one that lowers the tax liability.

During its annual conference Wednesday, APN urged its members to pressure lawmakers to fund programs that truly help the poor.

Melville D. Miller, president of Legal Services of New Jersey, points to $37.5 million in rental assistance that he said surely would have been cut from the current state budget but for eleventh-hour lobbying by APN.

"Our only stock in trade at APN is to shine a light on poverty, to bring to light in a transparent way the terrible challenge it is for folks to live in poverty and to then use that information to demand that something be done about it," he said.

Serena Rice, director of the Poverty Research Institute of Legal Services of New Jersey, said it's a myth that poor don't do enough to help themselves.

She said nearly three-quarters of people living in poverty in New Jersey are working; welfare payments have not risen in 20 years; and Medicaid reimbursement rates are so low, it's tough to find doctors willing to treat the poorest patients.

Department of Human Services Commissioner Jen Velez called the snapshot jarring, but said the data helps state agencies like hers shape its priorities.

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NJ Group Asks for Anti-Poverty Programs

from The Houston Chronicle

By ANGELA DELLI SANTI

TRENTON, N.J. — Though the challenges of alleviating poverty in costly New Jersey are many, and money is tight, advocates for the poor, homeless and disabled hope to push lawmakers to direct limited state funds to programs that do the most good.

The advocates, known collectively as the Anti-Poverty Network of New Jersey, paint a grim picture of low-income families fighting to stay solvent in a state where affordable housing is scarce, health insurance is hard to come by, and minimum-wage workers seldom break out of their low-wage rut.

Advocates say even limited state aid can make a big difference to the poor if directed to the right programs, like one that lowers the tax liability.

During its annual conference Wednesday, APN urged its members to pressure lawmakers to fund programs that truly help the poor.

Melville D. Miller, president of Legal Services of New Jersey, points to $37.5 million in rental assistance that he said surely would have been cut from the current state budget but for eleventh-hour lobbying by APN.

"Our only stock in trade at APN is to shine a light on poverty, to bring to light in a transparent way the terrible challenge it is for folks to live in poverty and to then use that information to demand that something be done about it," he said.

Serena Rice, director of the Poverty Research Institute of Legal Services of New Jersey, said it's a myth that poor don't do enough to help themselves.

She said nearly three-quarters of people living in poverty in New Jersey are working; welfare payments have not risen in 20 years; and Medicaid reimbursement rates are so low, it's tough to find doctors willing to treat the poorest patients.

Department of Human Services Commissioner Jen Velez called the snapshot jarring, but said the data helps state agencies like hers shape its priorities.

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Poverty advocates slam Corzine plan

from North Jersey Media

By GEOFF MULVIHILL
ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOUNT LAUREL -- Advocates for poor children are bashing the Corzine administration's plan to overhaul New Jersey's formula for giving aid to schools even before many of the details have been released.

The administration sought to quell early criticism, briefing more than 60 education experts, followed by members of the media on Friday. But it left the biggest question hanging by failing to provide a district-by-district breakdown of new aid amounts.

"We can't tell that yet because we don't have it finished," said Education Commissioner Lucille Davy. Those numbers will be available "probably within a week to 10 days," she said.

The administration says its proposal simplifies the state aid system and provides more stability to communities struggling with rising budgets. It will require Supreme Court approval because it seeks to change the way aid is distributed to the poorest districts.

Although the administration says those districts will not see their state aid reduced, critics say it's unfair that the state won't be recognizing concentrations of poverty as in the past.

Irene Sterling, a member of the Paterson Education Fund, called Corzine's plan "a shell game."

"Despite what looks like an overall increase in school spending, the school funding proposal could have an especially harsh impact on the children who are most at risk and vulnerable," she said.

While the very words "funding formula" might sound mundane, they go to the heart of two of the New Jersey's biggest issues: struggling urban schools and highest-in-the-nation property taxes.

The state sends about $11 billion per year -- one-third of its budget -- to help run local schools. About half the money goes to schools in 31 poor communities known as the "Abbott districts," so called because of a state Supreme Court decision requiring the state to provide them extra aid.

Most of the rest of the cost of running public schools is paid for by local property taxes.

Over the past five years, the state has not given much additional money to most school districts but has increased contributions to the Abbott districts. That has forced many of the state's 600 school districts -- most of them in the suburbs -- to raise property taxes sharply to keep up with costs.

Meanwhile, some of the poor urban districts say they are still not given enough.

Corzine has said that the state would increase its contributions to schools statewide by about $500 million per year.

But under Corzine's plan, school districts would get aid based partly on the number of disadvantaged children, regardless of whether those children live in high-poverty areas. That means the Abbotts would have their aid determined the same way other schools do, a change that likely will require the approval of the state Supreme Court.

It would also mean additional requirements for many schools. For instance, the state has paid for all-day preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds in the poorest districts.

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Catching Up with Camdens Superman

This is a follow up story to a 20/20 report a couple years ago about children who were stuck in poverty in New Jersey.

Catching Up with Camdens Superman

via Google Video - Video Search [poverty news] by ABC News on 11/6/07

Catching Up with Camdens Superman
ABC News
4 min - Nov 6, 2007

One little boy's struggle to escape poverty.

 

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Containers Wall Off a Newark Housing Project

from The New York Times

By ELIZABETH DWOSKIN

NEWARK, — Tasha Solomon opened the grimy plastic blinds of her first floor-apartment in the Millard E. Terrell Homes, a housing project hard by the Passaic River.

She need not have bothered.

Although the river is only 100 yards from her apartment, Ms. Solomon, a 25-year-old mother of two, cannot see it from her window. Her view is a wall of rusty shipping containers that rises more than four stories, taller than any of the 12 buildings in the rundown housing complex.

“Is there a river over there?” she asked one recent afternoon.

Like drugs and gangs and poverty, the containers have simply become another unavoidable fact of life here, residents say.

For decades the project, operated by the Newark Housing Authority, has been flanked by storage depots where thousands of corrugated, trailer-size containers — a byproduct of the brisk commerce at the port in Newark and Elizabeth — sit stacked one atop the other in the barren cityscape.

There used to be some daylight.

An expanse of concrete between Ms. Solomon’s building and the murky river once served as the complex’s recreation area. Older residents recall mother-daughter kickball tournaments, dance contests, and summer evenings spent watching the lights from downtown shimmer in the distance.

“This is where we used to let it all hang out,” said Valerie Hall, who moved to the project in the mid-1960s and is one of the few who remember life before the containers. “When you’d look at those lights, it was like you could go downtown, and all you had to do was stand here.”

But about 15 years ago the housing authority, a troubled agency that barely avoided a takeover by the federal government in 2005, leased the gritty three-acre recreation area to a private container storage company. What once was a baseball field is now an expanse littered with shards of glass. And a patch of open space that allowed residents to look out on the river now provides a view of ripped and rusted cargo containers.

Keith Kinard was appointed executive director of the housing authority 16 months ago after a federal investigation called the agency “absolutely dysfunctional” for much of its 70-year history.

Initially, a spokesman for Mr. Kinard said there was no record of a lease or rent payments to allow containers to be stored on the premises, but two weeks later he said the agency had discovered an agreement in perpetuity in 1993 with the container storage company, Palmer Industries.

The agreement allowed Palmer, which had stored containers on each side of the housing project, to let them spill over onto the baseball field for $650 a month, linking its properties together with rows of containers. Now Mr. Kinard says he intends to have the containers removed, although other problems must be addressed first. “I want them off my property,” he insisted.

But residents are not ready to break out the barbecue grills just yet.

“The city won’t do anything about them,” said Claire Johnson, 80 years old, who said the containers had been there for as long as she could remember. “They don’t care. Besides, they get a lot of money to park them there.”

While the few dozen containers on agency property are only a tiny fraction of the more than 27,000 that tower over this hardscrabble section of Newark, they were enough to seal residents off from the river.

Today, waist-high weeds stab upward through the concrete, and the homeless who make this neighborhood their home string clotheslines between broken container doors.

One man, known by friends in the project as Florida, was found dead last month, the police said, locked inside a container in the depot alongside the homes. The death is still under investigation. High up in the stacks, a container overflowed with trash, evidence of someone’s precarious third-story dwelling.

Reaching the complex requires trekking through some of the most dense and polluted industrial corridors of urban America. Every several minutes, the roar of jets taking off from nearby Newark Liberty International Airport drowns out any hope of conversation. The rancid smell of garbage — perhaps from the Newark incinerator a mile away — permeates the air at the slightest gust of wind.

Just down the road is a dioxin-tainted Superfund site, where about a million gallons of Agent Orange was produced during the Vietnam War.

But with a price tag of $25 million to bring the deteriorated buildings — two of which have broken heating systems — along with their mildewed hallways and 1940s-era electrical system, up to safety and sanitation standards — $8 million more than the housing agency’s maintenance budget for the entire city — containers are not high on Mr. Kinard’s list of priorities.

“I’ve got homeless people squatting inside the apartments themselves,” he said. “If containers were my worst problem, this job would be a walk in the park.”

Last month, Mr. Kinard said, he asked the agency’s legal department to find a way to terminate the agreement with Columbia Container Services, which took over Palmer’s storage depots in 2003. He said negotiations would begin in the coming weeks. Two directors of Columbia Container, John Armstrong and Bruce A. Fenimore, did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.

One tenant, a 20-year-old bank teller, who declined to give his name for fear of being associated with the project, said he gave up looking out his window years ago. “It’s an asbestos river anyway,” he said.

For Mayor Cory A. Booker, the plight of Terrell Homes is yet another test in the effort to revitalize this long-struggling city. As Newark begins to explore ways to develop its waterfront for recreational and residential uses, officials have to figure out what to do with thousands of containers that land at Port Newark-Elizabeth — the third largest port in the United States — and line long swaths of the Passaic.

“The city can’t come to us and ask for jobs with the port and then say it wants to take the land these businesses are located in and turn it into parks or condominiums,” said Randy Brown, a spokesman for the New York Shipping Association, which represents Newark’s three storage depots.

The port and the network of trucks, warehouses, and storage lots that service it account for about 300,000 jobs, Mr. Brown said, one of the largest sources of employment in New Jersey.

He said a vast majority of containers stayed in the region for only 12 days before being shipped out on barges. The abandoned ones sit in the depots until they are repurchased, increasingly for scrap metal, Mr. Brown said, although he acknowledged that the industry did not keep track of the number of derelict containers stacked along the river.

But officials say the city, which recently began work on a public park along the waterfront from Newark Penn Station to the edge of the storage depots — including the Terrell Homes — is determined to find out just how many there are. Joel Sonkin, counsel to the deputy mayor for economic development, said the city had enlisted researchers from Rutgers and the New Jersey Institute of Technology to investigate the question.

For now, residents of the Terrell Homes remain in their walled city. Older women chat away the afternoon, and teenage boys in bandannas cluster around the cars in the benchless complex, their voices smothered by the drone of planes. Children dare one another to scale the fence that separates them from the container-choked lot.

“It looks like some kind of scrap yard or recycling plant,” said Denise Suver, 46. “This is a place for people to live, not a garbage dump.”

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Students raise money by fasting

from The Daily Targum

By skipping meals sunrise to sunset, participants give funds for humanitarian aid in Darfur, Sudan
By: Esther Liu / Contributing Writer

Non-Muslims at the University will fast for a cause Oct. 9 during Fast-A-Thon, a charity event seeking to raise funds for the people in Darfur, Sudan.

The event - whose tagline is "Skip a Meal, Save a Life" - coincides with Ramadan, an Islamic religious holiday where Muslims all over the world are required to fast from sunrise until sunset for an entire month.

"We select a charity every year and we raise money for that charity by asking members of the Rutgers community here - students, faculty and staff - to pledge to fast for a day from dawn to dusk, sunrise to sunset," said Usker Naqvi, head of public relations for SALAM, the Muslim student association at the University.

The Fast-A-Thon is geared towards non-Muslims at the University, offering them an opportunity to participate in charity and to learn more about the Islamic culture, said Naqvi.

"We want to invite them to do what we do every day, for just a day, just for charity," Naqvi said. "[We want to] bring all Muslims and non-Muslims at RU together while taking part in our customs and learning about our faith - why we do what we do."

Naqvi said local businesses and sponsors donate money to a designated charity. Last year, 200 pledges raised $3,500 for Elijah's Promise, a community-based soup kitchen. This year, the Fast-A-Thon will help the Darfur Action Project, an initiative that provides relief for the conflict and poverty in Darfur.

SALAM Treasurer Hassan Popal, the brothers' committee head of the Islamic Society of Rutgers University and a Rutgers College sophomore, also said the organization gets $10 from Islamic Relief, a relief and development agency that will transport the money directly to Darfur.

Non-Muslims are already signing up.

"I'm just trying to help out," said Angela Matos, a Rutgers College senior. "I mean, they get $10 for my name."

"It's Darfur - I mean, why not?" School of Arts and Sciences student Ryan Anderson said in agreement. "It's the least I can do to help out."

Pledging for the Fast-A-Thon ended Thursday at the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue campus, but those interested can still sign up online at http://muslims.rutgers.edu/fastathon.

Popal used personal experience to stress the importance of signing up and supporting the embattled Sudanese region.

"My high school tore me up because it was racist, and since I'm both Muslim and Afghani, I had it the worst," he said. "I thought I had it bad, [until] I found out that people all across the world are struggling … I just want to support them."

Naqvi admits fasting is not an easy thing to participate in, but believes it is beneficial to the mind.

"It keeps you in check," he said. "All year round we overindulge, while other parts of the world don't have these kinds of luxuries."

According to Islamic beliefs, Ramadan is a holy time because that is when the Holy Quran was found. The main conditions of the fast include abstinence from eating, drinking or smoking during the daytime, as well as an opportunity to self-reflect and avoid poor conduct.

"This means no foul language, lying, impure thoughts, etcetera," Naqvi said.

The Ramadan still includes exceptions for those who cannot handle fasting.

"You're not going to die just going 12-14 hours without eating or drinking," he said. "Nobody I know has had problems, but if it would cause someone harm, that person is exempt from it."

The Fast-A-Thon will start at sunrise Oct. 9 at approximately 5:47 a.m. and will end at sunset around 6:30 p.m. A free dinner will be hosted after sunset in the Multipurpose Room of the Rutgers Student Center for all participants. There will also be a guest speaker from a Darfur organization and other charity organizations will also be present.

The Islamic Society of Rutgers University, SALAM and the Office of the Muslim Chaplaincy organized the annual event. The Center for Middle Eastern Studies acts as a co-sponsors.

"Hunger is always there, but the great part about fasting is finding the strength in yourself to overcome that temptation," Naqvi said. "It makes you a stronger person. If they keep their sights set on the purpose - raising money for relief efforts in Darfur - then [participants] shouldn't have a problem completing a single day's fast."

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Affordable housing shift blocked by court

from The Philadelphia Inquirer

By Tom Hester Jr.
Associated Press
TRENTON - A state appellate court yesterday ordered the state to reconsider a plan by a wealthy Monmouth County community to pay a poverty-laden nearby town to take on its affordable housing obligation, a decision hailed as crucial by affordable housing advocates.

The court ordered the state to reconsider a regional contribution agreement (RCA) it approved under which Colts Neck, N.J., was to pay Long Branch $2.83 million to repair and develop 107 homes for low-income residents.

Under a historic 1975 state Supreme Court ruling, each New Jersey municipality has a constitutional obligation to provide housing for poor residents.


The Fair Share Housing Center, which sued the state to annul the agreement, said the decision is the first time a court invalidated an RCA, under which suburban towns typically pay struggling cities to take their affordable housing requirements.

The decision doesn't prohibit other communities from entering into the agreements long criticized by housing advocates as unfair to the poor.

Rather, Adam Gordon, a Fair Share Housing Center attorney, said the court agreed with its argument the state improperly counted housing units in approving the agreement.

"No longer can towns evade the law through bogus RCAs that serve only to exclude working and middle-class families from New Jersey's most desirable towns," he said. "It is time for all of New Jersey towns to step up and do their fair share in providing opportunities so that all of our families can choose to live where they want."

Chris Donnelly, a spokesman for the state Department of Community Affairs, which oversees affordable housing, said the ruling wasn't significant. He said the court didn't invalidate RCAs nor speak to their merits.

Donnelly said the state will reconsider the agreement under new affordable housing tax rules currently being devised.

The decision comes with key legislators such as Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr. (D., Camden) sponsoring proposals to ban RCAs. Roberts has said he expects housing policy to be a major focus when legislators return to action after November's elections.

In January, an appellate court invalidated the latest regulations used by the state to determine how many affordable homes each community must provide. The state continues working to devise a new plan.

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