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Report: Food Stamps Kept New Yorkers Out Of Poverty
By
Jaya Saxena
Published Mar 21, 2011
Modified Mar 21, 2011
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By
Jaya Saxena
Published Mar 21, 2011
Modified Mar 21, 2011
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Currently about one in five New Yorkers are on food stamps, but many new recipients are not on welfare. That's because New Yorkers are special, and what would count as being in "poverty" here doesn't always count as poverty in the rest of the country. A new report (below) on city poverty from 2005 to 2009 from the Center for Economic Opportunity echoes that fact, saying that "the official poverty measure provides little useful information" for the city. However, they do argue that things like food stamps have kept people out of poverty.
The study states, "To a large degree, policy initiatives aimed at bolstering family income succeeded in preventing a rise in poverty in New York City from 2008 to 2009," and that "the most important initiatives that directly bolstered family incomes came from
Unemployment Insurance, Food Stamps, and new or expanded tax rebate and credit
programs." In 2009, the poverty line for a two-adult, two-child family living in the city was $29,477, whereas the national line was $24,522. And though the city's poverty level was at 19.9 percent in 2009, it could have been much worse: "Rather than a 1.2 percent decline in income at this rung [20th percentile] of the income ladder, there would have been a 7.6 percent plunge, had it not been for the lift from new tax initiatives and the larger role of the Food Stamp program." Can the millionaires get on on that? We wouldn't want them to stop feeling rich.
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center for economic opportunity
food stamps
poverty
study
Jaya Saxena
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