| More blacks extreme poverty { May 1 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active) http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-pov01.htmlhttp://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-pov01.html
More black kids live in extreme poverty: study May 1, 2003
BY GENARO C. ARMAS
WASHINGTON--The number of black children living in extreme poverty has risen sharply in recent years, an advocacy group said in a report released Wednesday.
About 932,000 black children fell into that category in 2001, a 50 percent increase from the 622,000 classified that way in 1999, according to an analysis of the latest Census Bureau figures by the Children's Defense Fund.
It's the highest number since 1979, the earliest data available.
The organization defined extreme poverty as a family with after-tax income that is less than half what the federal government defines as the poverty line. For a family of three, the federal figure was $14,128 in 2001--making the extreme poverty line $7,064.
The fund's definition of income includes the value of food stamps, subsidized school lunches and housing benefits.
While the report itself focused on blacks, researchers estimated there were 733,000 extremely poor Hispanic children in 2001, an increase of about 13 percent from 2000. The number of very poor children who are white rose about 2 percent to 1.8 million.
More than 8 percent of all black children lived in extremely poor conditions in 2001, double the percentage for all races, according to the study.
Census Bureau data from September showed a steady decline since 1993 in the number of black children living in poverty. The 2001 figure of 3.4 million children was 200,000 fewer than in 1999.
The Census Bureau does not differentiate beyond those below the federal poverty line.
The fund's report said safety nets to help the poorest of the poor have been eroded through welfare reform, and recent Bush administration proposals will not help, said the group's president, Marian Wright Edelman.
Robert Rector, senior researcher at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative-leaning think tank, disputed that the welfare overhaul contributed to the increases.
''Most black families reacted positively to welfare reform, and there was a small number that did not,'' Rector said. ''But the solution is not to restore the one-way checks in the mail.'' AP
|
|