Data and Neighborhood Revitalization

I haven’t had the time to read all 118(!) pages of this report, but I wanted to share it before it gets swallowed by the paper monster that is my desk right now.  The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System published Putting Data to Work: Data-Driven Approaches to Strengthening Neighborhoods. 

The report looks at how communities are building and using data systems to target resources.  Individual sections are written by authors from The Urban Institute, LISC, Brookings, The Reinvestment Fund, and other organizations.  The report is part of a broader effort from the Federal Reserve, Urban Institute, The Reinvestment Fund, and LISC to “help communities develop the infrastructure and data sources they need to make strategic policy decisions with respect to neighborhood stabilization.”

SNAP…sounds simple enough. Right?

My intellectual love affair with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’s Off the Charts Blog continues with their work on SNAP (formerly Food Stamps).  I always find myself trying to correct misconceptions about SNAP and how it impacts the lives of low-income Americans.  I may start memorizing the urls for these CBPP fact sheets.  It would save me so much time.

The first  Policy Basics: Introduction to SNAP provides an overview of what SNAP is, who is eligible for SNAP, program costs, special features, effectiveness and efficiency, the application process, and the amount of money for which families are eligible.  And as always the fact sheet makes great use of visuals like this one:

 The second

Guest Blog: How we Can Move From Good Child Care to Quality Early Learning

This post was written by Paul Shinn, CAP’s Public Policy Analyst

At Community Action Project (CAP) we provide direct services to Tulsa’s low-income families through high-quality early learning programs and programs that provide families with career, health, and financial supports. Through this work we’ve increasingly appreciated that public benefit programs are an essential support for Oklahoma’s low-income families. As a result, CAP has launched Better Benefits for Oklahoma Families, a series of assessments of Oklahoma public benefit programs.

Our first issue, released in November, looks at the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF). CCDF  is a federal-state program to provide child care subsidies to low-income families with parents who work or are in school. CCDF gives families vouchers to pay for some or all of the child care for children up to age 13. Many families pay some of the cost of care as a co-pay that depends on their income and the number of children in care. In Oklahoma, CCDF is run by the Department of Human Services (OKDHS) and is known as child care subsidy.

There’s good news about CCDF in Oklahoma but bad news as well.

Do Section 8 Recipients Work?

I must say that I really kind of love the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ Off the Charts Blog.  They provide great information on a wide range of topics, but most importantly, they provide me the data to back up arguments I have with my friends about these same topics.  One of the ongoing arguments I have with a couple of friends is that people who receive housing vouchers (specifically Section 8) are lazy and don’t work.  Today on the Off the Charts Blog, Barbara Sard, CBPP’s Vice President of Housing Policy, posted about just this topic. 

In her post, she summarized a new CBPP report analyzing the demographic characteristics and labor force attachment of voucher recipients.  The analysis shows:

Voucher recipients who do work make around $17,000 per year, which is not enough to afford decent housing in most places.

The analysis also shows:

Guest Blog: Why Measures Matter

As part of a new project at CAP, each month we will be featuring a guest blogger from across the agency.  Monica Barczak, Director of  the Innovation Lab, is our third blogger.

Until recently, it was difficult to demonstrate the effects of government assistance programs on poverty, because the official measure of poverty does not take into account the value of what families receive through these programs.  This is critical because policies are under increasing pressure (rightfully so, I would argue) to show successful performance.  But it’s been too easy to watch a rising poverty rate and conclude, incorrectly, that government assistance had failed.

The “official” poverty measure, in use since the 1960’s, was established based on the cost of a minimum diet at that time multiplied by three.  It varies depending on family size, and has increased a bit each year.  The new measure, the less-than-creatively named Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), makes several important corrections to more accurately reflect today’s realities.  It includes certain benefits and tax credits and excludes taxes, certain work expenses, and certain medical expenses.  It considers the cost of not only food, but also clothing, shelter and utilities.  It considers geography and housing status, and defines a “family” slightly differently than the official poverty measure. 

Hard Times Generation

Yesterday evening I was channel surfing before the football game started.  I ran across a 60 Minutes segment on child homelessness in Central Florida.  What struck me most was how matter of fact the children in the piece handled being homeless.  One said, “It’s life.”  That same teenager said that education was her way out of homelessness.  This idea was being supported by her father who took the children to the library everyday after school to do homework and checkout books.  I highly recommend that everyone check out the video (linked below), so much so that I have linked on all of my personal social network outlets. 

Hard Times Generation (Video)

Spotlight on States

Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity has released an interactive map they are calling Spotlight on States.  According to the email newsletter I received today, the 50-state map includes the following data for each state:

• State poverty data and statistics: A compilation of data, including poverty, unemployment and asset poverty rates, and information on housing. Each data point links to its source.
• State policies: A listing of key state tax, asset-building and work support policies that help support low-income families; includes links to state or national organizations that track the issue.
• Research: A compilation of relevant state research reports on issues related to poverty and opportunity.
• News: A news feed of articles about poverty in a given state.

From the brief time I spent looking at the data for Oklahoma, I found the map really useful.  I like that I can quickly compare Oklahoma with surrounding states on data points such as food insecurity and participation in federal programs like SNAP, TANF, and EITC.

Guest Blog: Gentrification with Justice

As part of a new project at CAP, each month we will be featuring a guest blogger from across the agency.  Kirk Wester  Director of  Neighborhood Revitalization Initiatives, is our second blogger.

As someone whose job it is to work to revitalize neighborhoods and to bring about systemic change, I am intrigued by the idea of a man named Robert Lupton, PhD. He developed an idea he calls, “Gentrification with Justice.” He starts with the belief that the deterioration of our nation’s urban landscape came as mobility and the capacity for independence paved the way for a mass exodus of resources from urban areas to the suburbs. In his book, Return Flight, he describes a neighborhood in his home of Atlanta, called Summerhill as this shift to the suburbs occurred following the Civil Rights Movement:

Guest Blog: Budgeting…It’s Personal and for Everyone

As part of a new project at CAP, each month we will be featuring a guest blogger from across the agency.  These guest posts will cover a myriad of topics chosen by the guest blogger.  I am excited to see what everyone produces.  Pat Douthitt, Financial Analyst in CAP’s Accounting Department, is our first guest blogger.

Based on statistics reported by MyBankTracker.com, 61% of Americans are living from paycheck to paycheck.  In an annual survey conducted by the American Payroll Association, 71% of workers would find it somewhat difficult to very difficult to meet current financial obligations if their next paycheck were delayed for a week.

How do we overcome this?  Depending on individual situations, the path will vary, however, the basic starting place is budgeting.

US Census Bureau 2010 Income Data

The release of new Census data regarding income, poverty, and insurance coverage in 2010 has caused quite a stir over the last few weeks.  I posted a preview from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities , but over the next week or so, I will be posting my thoughts on the new data. 

As you all know the data has been given a thorough review on various blogs, in newspapers and magazines, and on television.  I think they do a great job of covering the major trends like median income has declined since 2009, but I think they miss the details sometimes.  To me the details of this kind of data are important, so in my posts I will be pointing out the details that struck me in this data.  Today’s post will focus on income data.  Specifically: