Economic Opportunity Report articles from December 2004

Economic Opportunity Report archives from December 2004

New leader for USDA.(Slants & Trends)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... NEW LEADER FOR USDA--Food stamp and child nutrition assistance programs will have a new face at USDA, as President Bush last week nominated Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns (R) to be the department's next secretary. Johanns, a two-term governor,...

And then there were eight.(Slants & Trends)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... AND THEN THERE WERE EIGHT--As expected, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson resigned last week, bringing to eight the number of Cabinet officers who are leaving the Bush administration. The leading candidate to replace Thompson...

CSBG, even start, section 8 survive in omnibus FY05 funding measure.
December 6, 2004... The anti-poverty community's major weapon in the war on poverty will survive another year at level funding, as Congress kept $641.9 million in the budget for the Community Services Block Grant. That amount is up significantly from the cut...

More elderly people among regulars at homeless shelters.
December 6, 2004... WESTERN MARYLAND -- Shortly after 7:30p.m., a small group of men sign in at a homeless shelter, three or four lightweight jackets serving as protection from the 37-degree temperature. The sign-in clerk greets most by name--Bill, Keith, Joe and...

More investment needed to provide after-school programs to poor kids.(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... More federal investment is needed in after-school programs available to low-income families, a new report suggests. As things stand now, poor parents face significant obstacles in finding quality, affordable after-school programs for their...

Number of hungry, food insecure increases for fourth straight year.
December 6, 2004... For the fourth consecutive year, the number of Americans facing hunger and food insecurity has risen, with 36.3 million people living that way in 2003. That figure, released last month by the federal government, includes 23 million adults...

Opponents win temporary order to stop Arizona's proposition 200.(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... Days after Arizona's attorney general declared that welfare benefits would be closed to illegal immigrants under the newly passed Proposition 200, opponents won a temporary restraining order to prevent the measure from becoming law. The...

Farm bill changes succeed in adding legal immigrants to food stamp rolls.(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... Some 150,000 legal immigrants were added to food stamp rolls by the end of 2003 in eight states with large or rapidly growing immigrant populations. That is the finding from a newly released federal study conducted to assess how states are...

Colorado.(Around The States)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... Colorado is falling behind in processing welfare benefits and will continue to do so unless 2,000 new workers are hired, a new report states. The report, issued by the Colorado Center on Law and Policy, said the Mile High State will have about...

Indiana.(Around The States)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... Indiana taxpayers are footing the bill for deadbeat parents. More than half of the state's residents who are due child support never receive it. The cost of enforcement is $57 million annually, and that does not count the cost of 50,000...

In Minnesota and Vermont, state officials are urging people to apply for help with heating costs early this year.(Around The States)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... In Minnesota and Vermont, state officials are urging people to apply for help with heating costs early this year. In Minnesota, oil prices are expected to be up as much as a third over last year. And in Vermont, more than 18,000 people qualify...

Ohio.(Around The States)
December 6, 2004... Ohio has been hit hard by the economic downturn, and things are not expected to look up any time soon. One in five jobs in Ohio--about 1 million --pay less than a poverty-level wage, a recent report found. The study examines the state's...

Poor moms stay on job longer with child care, insurance.
December 6, 2004... Low-income mothers are more likely to stay on the job longer if they have child care and employer-provided health insurance, a new report finds. The three-year study found that higher-income mothers were almost twice as likely to stay at...

Faith-based groups expand legal services for immigrants.
December 6, 2004... A decade ago, the Catholic Legal Immigration Network had 17 community-based programs. Today, it has almost 160 member agencies providing legal services to more than 100,000 low-income immigrants annually. That is because as many as 80...

Unemployed in some states to try personal reemployment accounts.(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... Unemployed individuals in some states will get a chance to try out personal reemployment accounts (PRAs), as the Bush administration is launching demonstration projects to test the idea. PRAs have been proposed by President Bush but have...

Federal register.(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... * Difficult Development Areas: The Housing and Urban Development Department announced the designations of "Difficult Development Areas" for purposes of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit for states and territories. These designations are based...

Public housing authorities still wrestle with community service requirement.
December 6, 2004... Since Oct. 31, 2003, public housing residents have faced a new condition on their tenancies: mandatory community service. On that date public housing authorities began implementing the community service requirement included in the 1998...

Investment in early childhood now will mean economic payoff later.(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... Investing in early childhood now will mean higher employment and earnings, less crime and poverty and better health for Americans in the next half-century, a group of economists reports. Preschool for all poor three- and four-year-olds...

Child nutrition.(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... * Child Nutrition: The new law reauthorizing federal child nutrition programs presents an opportunity to cut paperwork and provide more low-income children with subsidized meals, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says. A new paper from...

Food stamps.(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... * Food Stamps: August data show an increase of 217,639 people getting food stamps over the previous month, for a total of 24,612,845 people in the program. That figure represented an increase of close to 2.3 million participants over a year...

ED personnel change.
December 6, 2004... * ED Personnel Change: Education Secretary Rod Paige is not the only one out the door at the Education Department. Deputy Secretary of Education Gene Hickok Dec. 2 announced his resignation. Hickok had served along with Paige for all four years...

Help for immigrant moms.(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... * Help for Immigrant Moms: Immigrant mothers need more information about child development, according to a new federal study that recommends a stepped-up role for pediatricians in this education process. Lack of knowledge may have a negative...

Head start families.
December 6, 2004... * Head Start Families: A new information memorandum from the Department of Health and Human Services examines the Earned Income Tax Credit and efforts to inform Head Start families about its availability. See...

Systems monitoring.
December 6, 2004... * Systems Monitoring: HHS has made changes to the Program Review Instrument for Systems Monitoring (PRISM) used by federal preschool grantees. Key Changes to PRISM and PRISM for FY 2005 is available at www.headstartinfo.org/publications/...

Calendar.(Calendar)
December 6, 2004... * Dec. 17: The National Housing Conference is holding a free session entitled Housing and Transportation: The Vital Link with speakers representing the federal government, research and advocacy groups. Contact: (202) 466-2121, www.nhc.org. ...

Leavitt named for HHS.(Slants & Trends)(Michael Leavitt named for Department of Health and Human Services)(Brief Article)
December 20, 2004... LEAVITT NAMED FOR HHS--President Bush surprised the field last week by nominating Environmental Protection Agency head and former Utah Gov. Michael Leavitt to be the new secretary of health and human services. Medicaid/Medicare chief Mark...

Poor students at charter schools make larger academic gains.
December 20, 2004... A California charter school serving almost entirely students living in poverty has achieved academic gains that outpace those of nearby traditional schools, a Harvard University study reported last week. In fact, across the board, students...

LIHEAP increase not sufficient to keep poor out of the cold.(Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program)
December 20, 2004... Though the low-income heating program was one of the few domestic programs to get a sizeable budget increase this year, the amount is not enough to cover what are expected to be huge increases in home heating costs this winter. That is the...

Poor will have to spend nearly fifth of income on energy costs this year.
December 20, 2004... Forecasts suggest low-income households will have to use almost 19 percent of their income for home energy costs this coming year. That is, if the weather is "normal" and households eligible for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program...

WIC, food assistance programs see small increases in FY05 funding bill.(Women, Infants and Children)(fiscal year)(Brief Article)
December 20, 2004... The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) and other nutrition assistance programs will see slight expansions this fiscal year under the omnibus fund bill enacted this month. The 0.83 percent across-the-board cut instituted by Congress,...

HUD issues Section 8 guidelines in reaction to omnibus funding.(Department of Housing and Urban Development)(Brief Article)
December 20, 2004... After a tumultuous year in the Section 8 program, federal officials have laid out how the funding will be distributed for the giant program under the new omnibus funding bill. The notice explains how the Housing and Urban Development...

Small head start budget increase could mean fewer student slots.(National Head Start Association)
December 20, 2004... Fewer slots might be available for preschoolers from low-income families because of the small increase Congress allotted to the Head Start program for fiscal year (FY) 2005. While the program got a $123 million increase, to $6.89 billion,...

Head Start Bureau to target under-enrollment by grantees.
December 20, 2004... Head Start grantees that do not meet enrollment targets may face loss of funds or other consequences, in a crackdown expected by the federal Head Start Bureau. An "increasing number" of grantees are having problems meeting their fully...

Substandard housing continues to define rural minority communities.(Brief Article)
December 20, 2004... Areas heavy with racial and ethnic minorities are "the last bastions" of poor quality housing in America, according to a new report from the Housing Assistance Council. "The geographic isolation and relative segregation of rural minorities...

Prevalence of obesity rises among low-income children, study finds.
December 20, 2004... Along with children in other sectors of society, low-income children are becoming more overweight, researchers reported this month. In 2000, more than 10 percent of children ages two to four years old who were in federally funded programs...

Poor children in Pennsylvania enrolled in paid plan rather than free one.
December 20, 2004... As many as 6,000 children from low-income families in Pennsylvania who are entitled to free government health insurance are not receiving it. Instead, these children are enrolled in an Independence Blue Cross plan that has few benefits and...

Crisis in unemployment seen for employees who lack skills.(Brief Article)
December 20, 2004... "Crippling" rates of unemployment are faced by low-skill employees, including high school dropouts, minorities and teens, the Employment Policies Institute reported this month. High school dropouts average an 8 percent unemployment rate, a...

Poverty plagues large share of poor, recent immigrant children.(National Center for Children in Poverty)(Brief Article)
December 20, 2004... Poverty plagues a larger share of young children who are in recent-immigrant families than those who have U.S.-born parents, new research shows. Overall, children under six account for about 47 percent of new, poor immigrant children,...

Calendar.
December 20, 2004... Jan. 19-20: Managing a Successful Housing Choice Voucher Training will be held in Los Angeles by the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corp. and HUD. Day one will feature "nuts and bolts" training on creating or expanding a housing choice voucher...

Federal register.(Public Notice)
December 20, 2004... Emergency Repairs: Up to $10 million in grants are available for emergency capital repairs to multifamily housing projects owned by private nonprofit groups and targeted for elderly tenants. Repairs have to be to fix one-time problems that...

Head Start grantee sought.(Brief Article)
December 20, 2004... HEAD START GRANTEE SOUGHT--The Head Start Bureau is seeking a new grantee to serve preschoolers in Merced County, Calif. About $7.8 million is available for a project in which the former grantee served 1,060 children. Applications are due Jan....

Housing awards program.
December 20, 2004... Housing Awards Program: A new national awards program will recognize efforts by local governments to knock down regulatory barriers--including statutes, ordinances, regulations, fees, processes and procedures--to creating affordable housing....

Rural housing awards.(Housing Assistance Council)(Brief Article)
December 20, 2004... Rural Housing Awards: Five people were honored this month for their work with rural housing at both local and national levels. The awards were bestowed by the Housing Assistance Council at the National Rural Housing Conference in Washington,...

State budgets.(Brief Article)
December 20, 2004... State Budgets: At least 22 states project budget shortfalls in 2005, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). Deficits in these states range from 6 percent to 7.5 percent of general fund spending, or about $25 billion to...

After-school programs.(Brief Article)
December 20, 2004... After-School Programs: Eight of 10 voters say they want more federal funding for after-school programs, even if this requires tax increases, a new poll sponsored by the Afterschool Alliance has found. Eighty-two percent said elected officials...

'Tis the season.(Barnes & Noble Inc. and Verizon )(Brief Article)
December 20, 2004... 'Tis the Season: Pointing to statistics showing that 61 percent of low-income families have no books at home for their children, Barnes & Noble and Verizon have joined forces this holiday season to encourage shoppers to donate children's books...