• Financial strain pushes many veterans to the breaking point

    Courtesy Adam Legg

    Navy veteran Adam Legg said a long jobless spell after tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan left him feeling hopeless and led him to "go weeks without smiling, walking around like a shadow, like you're not there."

    By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

    Hundreds of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been flying home to a fresh fox hole: A debt crater that’s sucking in entire military families and could be helping to fuel the veteran suicide crisis.

    Courtesy Adam Legg

    "I was a watch commander where I had 25 to 30 people working beneath me, in charge of millions of dollars worth of ammunitions, weapons, vehicles, computers," said Adam Legg, a Navy veteran. "And then when I come home, not only can I not find a job, I can't take care of my family."

    A bad job market, a long backlog for federal disability benefits, and occasionally unwise spending habits have been conspiring to strain the financial and mental health of many veterans, experts say.

    "We keep hearing of suicides rising. How much pressure do you think one person can take?" asks Christopher Fitzpatrick, deputy director of VeteransPlus, a nonprofit that has fielded more than 170,000 calls from ex-service members with imminent financial concerns. 

    "No one wants to talk about the fact that there are other reasons, besides PTSD, for suicide at 2 in the morning. You know how we know? We have an online form people use to contact us, and we get those emails — they’re sent at 1, 2, 3, 4 in the morning. People are reaching out, literally: 'Can you please help me? I’m losing everything.'"

    It's a problem that could get even worse in coming years, with more than one million service members expected to make the transition to civilian life.

    Navy veteran Adam Legg, 30, ran into financial trouble following two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. A jobless and hopeless period that began after his service separation in 2009 led him to "go weeks without smiling, walking around like a shadow, like you're not there," he said.

    He couldn't secure a job at his local McDonald's or at dozens of other companies to which he applied in Central Florida. With a wife, Melissa, and a young daughter to feed, he maxed out a credit card that he was able to pay off with money he'd saved during his eight years in the Navy. 

    'Very, very dark place'
    But bigger bills — like the mortgage — went untouched. After losing his Florida home to foreclosure and two cars to repossession, Legg said he began to consider suicide. 

    "When you feel like you can’t take care of your family, feed them, shelter them, it’s a very, very dark place. A feeling of uselessness that maybe they would be better off if you’re not around," Legg said. 

    "We've been below the poverty line, absolutely. I was a watch commander where I had 25 to 30 people working beneath me, in charge of millions of dollars worth of ammunitions, weapons, vehicles, computers. And then when I come home, not only can I not find a job, I can’t take care of my family. If it weren’t for my wife, if she was not supportive the way she was, I really don’t think I’d be here right now."

    According to VeteransPlus, fewer than 20 percent of their clients have stockpiled a six-month savings cushion while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan despite untaxed, hazardous-duty wages that fattened paychecks.

    Some returning veterans planned to live off their credit cards until landing civilian work, even though the veteran unemployment rate is two points higher than the civilian rate, Fitzpatrick said. Some expected to support themselves via VA benefits, apparently unaware that average wait time for that money approaches — and sometimes eclipses — one year.  

    The Pentagon urges military personnel and their families to bank some money while in the service. This year, during “Military Saves Week," service members were reminded to “set a goal, make a place and save automatically.” Service members also can take advantage of the Thrift Savings Plan, a federally sponsored retirement savings and investment program resembling a civilian 401(k).

    But even some of those who build up savings while serving abroad find their stash exhausted after buying gifts for family and plucking shiny toys, like motorcycles, for themselves when they come home from war, according to VeteransPlus.

    "We don’t like using the word ‘entitlement,’ but often that’s what it really is for these young men and women who feel like they’ve served their country and are coming home with some money and ‘now it’s my turn,’" Fitzpatrick said. 

    Move west, young man
    For Legg, the way out was to escape Florida, not his life. He and his wife packed up their daughter, dog, cat and remaining belongings and recently drove to the Pacific Northwest. Two things lured the Legg family to Baker City, Ore.: a lower cost of living and its proximity to a military-friendly college, Eastern Oregon University. 

    He's now a full-time student, living off of his GI Bill and his VA benefits for a diagnosed anxiety disorder (not PTSD), damaged knees, a bad back, and an injured left arm — combat baggage that requires daily Vicodin consumption. They live in a small, rented house.

    Melissa was scheduled to deliver their second child last Wednesday. Soon, Legg plans to file for bankruptcy. 

    Courtesy Adam Legg

    Navy veteran Adam Legg and his family moved to Oregon from Florida.

    "I have no choice. We're at that rock bottom line," he said. "I'm not the only one. Of the (veteran) friends I've kept up with, most are struggling." 

    Many veterans panic when they face getting kicked out of their homes, or must decide between buying food or diapers, said Kristy Kauffman, executive director of Code of Support, an Alexandria, Va.-based nonprofit that proclaims to "bridge the gap between civilian and military America."

    "It happens far too often. We get at least one call, email, or referral every week," she said.

    Kaufmann agrees with Fitzpatrick that poverty is one factor behind the veteran suicide rate, adding: "It does increase the risk." 

    "The vast majority of those who have worn the uniform," she said, "are imbued with a strong sense of mission and pride in 'getting it done.' For those who have trouble reintegrating into the civilian world — whether due to physical or mental health issues, or lack of employment opportunities — it's that loss of mission that seems most debilitating."

    Related:

  • Meet the $18,000 man: From poverty and drug abuse to a job

    Patrick Semansky / AP

    Eighteen months after finding his way to Catholic Charities via a rehabilitation center, Antonio Hammond is clean of drugs, earning $13 an hour and paying taxes.

    By Steven R. Hurst, The Associated Press

    Antonio Hammond is the $18,000 man.

    He's a success story for Catholic Charities of Baltimore, one of a multitude of organizations trying to haul people out of poverty in this Maryland port city where one of four residents is considered poor by U.S. government standards. 

    Hammond says he ended up in Baltimore three years ago, addicted to crack cocaine and snorting heroin, living in abandoned buildings where "the rats were fierce," and financing his addiction by breaking into cars and stealing copper pipes out of crumbing structures. Eighteen months after finding his way to Catholic Charities via a rehabilitation center, the 49-year-old Philadelphia native is back in the work force, clean of drugs, earning $13 an hour cleaning laboratories for the Biotech Institute of Maryland and paying taxes. 

    Catholic Charities, which runs a number of federally funded programs, spent $18,000 from privately donated funds to turn around Hammond's life through the organization's Christopher's Place program, which provides housing and support services to recovering addicts and former prisoners. 

    Such success stories are in danger as $85 billion in federal government spending cuts begin squeezing services for the poor nationwide. The cuts started kicking in automatically on March 1 after feuding Democrats and Republicans failed to agree on a better plan for addressing the national deficit. They are hitting at a time of spiking poverty as the U.S. slowly climbs out of the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. 

    "All I wanted to do was get high," Hammond said. "I didn't even know any more how to eat or clean myself." 

    Now he lives with two other men in housing subsidized by the charity, got his driver's license and bought a car. What he marvels at the most is that he has been accepted after a 20-year absence by some of his nine children. That's the best part, he said. "At least I know now they might not hate me." 

    The U.S. Census Bureau puts the number of Americans in poverty at levels not seen since the mid-1960s when President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the federal government's so-called War on Poverty. As President Barack Obama began his second term in January, nearly 50 million Americans — one in six — were living below the income line that defines poverty, according to the bureau. A family of four that earns less than $23,021 a year is listed as living in poverty. The bureau said 20 percent of the country's children are poor. 

    Although it is far from the country's poorest city, Baltimore's poverty rate far outstrips the national average of one in six. 

    Catholic Charities of Baltimore is a conduit for state and federal money for programs designed to help the poor. The charity plays a major role in administering Head Start, a federal program that provides educational services for low-income pre-school children and frees single mothers to find work without the huge expense of childcare. 

    The spending cuts, known as the sequester, are going to hit Head Start especially hard. 

    "Before the sequester only half of the need was being met. Now, after the cuts fully take effect, there will be 900 children already in the program who won't be able to take part," said William McCarthy, executive director of Catholic Charities. 

    There is no question the national belt-tightening "will deepen and increase poverty," said McCarthy, citing the cuts in long-term care for poor seniors including assisted living and nursing care, and fewer low-income housing spaces, among other ripple effects. Under the spending cuts, Baltimore Housing Commissioner Paul T. Graziano said his agency faces a $25 million shortfall in funds to help poor people with housing. There are 35,000 people on the waiting list. He also lamented cuts that will hamper the city's efforts to clean up or demolish blighted neighborhoods. Baltimore has 15,000 vacant and abandoned structures as a result of a steep population decline over the past half century. 

    Patrick Semansky / AP

    Baltimore is far from the worst American city for poverty, but it faces all the problems of cities where vast numbers of the poor now live.

    "It's very, very disheartening. We take a couple of steps forward and then fall back at least one. The private sector isn't going to fix these neighborhoods. I view these things as investments, not expenditures. These things are an investment in the future that bring returns many times over," he said.

    While the U.S. economy is slowly recovering, improvements for those deep in poverty do not keep pace with the cuts now in place. The spending reductions going into effect will hit hardest at Americans whose prospects are not directly tied to the economy — people like Antonio Hammond and children in the Head Start pre-school programs.

    Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Baltimore depends on federal grants and funding for 12 percent of its budget. The austerity cuts "to housing programs_as well as those to public safety, health, and education_will have an adverse effect on Baltimore and throughout the country," she said.

    The cuts, which will also hit U.S. defense spending, were designed two years ago as an incentive for lawmakers to avoid a standoff over the federal debt and a potential government shutdown. The measures were seen as so onerous as to force Republicans and Democrats in Congress to reach a compromise spending plan. But compromise proved impossible before the March 1 deadline, and what were once seen as unthinkable cuts automatically went into effect.

    Democrats want a deficit reduction plan that includes some spending cuts and tax increases on the wealthy. Republicans balk at any more tax increases and insist the problem should be addressed solely by reigning in spending. That feud continues as the two sides battle out future fiscal issues.

    Republicans want to see even more cuts in next year's budget, reductions that would, by and large, return military spending to pre-sequester levels and provide big tax benefits to wealthy Americans.

    A 2014 budget plan proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan, the vice presidential candidate on the unsuccessful Republican presidential ticket last year, would be particularly tough on social safety net programs. His plan would slash $135 billion over the next decade from the program that provides food aid for low-income Americans. Nearly three-quarters of households receiving help from the program include children, who, census figures show, are the group hardest hit by poverty.

    Ryan's plan would also turn the government's Medicare health insurance program for Americans age 65 and over into a voucher system, providing direct government payments to seniors who would then try to buy insurance on the private market.

    Ryan defends his drive for austerity as necessary to begin shrinking the country's $16 trillion national debt.

    "If we never balance the budget, if we keep adding deficit upon deficit we have a debt crisis like Europe has. That means seniors lose their health care benefit, that means the people in the safety net see the net cut and they go in the street. That means you have a recession. These are the things we prevent from happening by balancing the budget. Balancing the budget is but a means to an end. It's growing the economy, it's creating opportunity, it's getting government to live within its means," he said in an interview with Fox News.

    Obama backs increasing taxes on the wealthy while instituting smaller government spending cuts, a plan that would reduce deficit spending but more slowly. He and most fellow Democrats argue that European-style austerity has not worked there and will harm the U.S. recovery from the Great Recession.

    It's an ideological fight that dates back decades. Republicans work from the premise that by unleashing the private sector and removing government controls, all Americans will prosper along with the economy and benefits will flow down to lower-income earners. Democrats insist there is an essential role for government in putting a floor under the poor and helping local governments with problems that the private sector cannot or will not shoulder.

    Some worry the gap between rich and poor in the U.S. will keep widening under the austerity measures.

    According to a report by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service late last year, "U.S. income distribution appears to be among the most unequal of all major industrialized countries and the United States appears to be among the nations experiencing the greatest increases in measures of income."

    Mary Anne O'Donnell, director of community services at Catholic Charities of Baltimore, said increasing income inequality has shown itself dramatically during the U.S. downturn.

    "In the last three years, there's been a great change in the kinds of people we are serving. There are increasing numbers of people who owned a home, lost their jobs, end up living in their car and are coming with children to our soup kitchen," she said.

    Her organization spent $126 million in the last fiscal year feeding the poor, helping them find jobs and housing, running nursing homes and putting men like Hammond back on their feet.

    Of that figure, $98 million came from various programs funded by the city, state and federal governments. Those now face the big cuts as politicians in Washington fail to find a compromise. 

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Sprawling and struggling: Poverty hits America's suburbs

    David Friedman / NBC News

    Tara Simons, left, and her daughter Alexis talk in their kitchen in West Hartford, Conn.

    By Allison Linn, Staff Writer, NBC News
    WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – Like many Americans who move to the suburbs, Tara Simons came to West Hartford because she wanted her daughter to grow up in a nice, safe place with good schools.

    Her fall from a more financially secure suburban life to one among the working poor also happened for the same reason it’s happened to so many others. She had a bout of unemployment and couldn’t find a new job that paid very well.

    As a single mother, that’s made it hard to hold on to the suburban life that is, in her mind, key to making sure her daughter gets off to the right start.

    “I’m basically paying to say I live in West Hartford,” she said. “It is worth it.”

    It’s a struggle that many Americans bruised by the weak economy can relate to.

    The number of suburban residents living in poverty rose by nearly 64 percent between 2000 and 2011, to about 16.4 million people, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of 95 of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas. That’s more than double the rate of growth for urban poverty in those areas.

    “I think we have an outdated perception of where poverty is and who it is affecting,” said Elizabeth Kneebone, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of the research. “We tend to think of it as a very urban and a very rural phenomenon, but it is increasingly suburban.”

    Simons’ situation is complicated by the fact she’s a single mom. Poverty and financial insecurity among single moms is far higher than for households headed by single dads or two parents.

    The rate of poverty among single mothers actually improved dramatically through the 1990s, thanks to a strong economy, more favorable tax breaks and the success of so-called welfare-to-work programs. But two recessions and years of high unemployment erased many of those gains.

    Moving for a better life
    Simons and her daughter Alexis moved from Massachusetts to West Hartford eight years ago because Simons had a job with a local rug retailer.

    Alexis, now 14, made friends, became an avid lacrosse player and is now a high school freshman.

    The picturesque suburb, with its well-kept homes and an upscale town center, has a median household income of $80,061, more than double that of Hartford itself, which is $29,107 according to the Census Bureau.

    And yet the number of people needing help has skyrocketed in recent years, said Susan Huleatt, the human services manager for West Hartford.

    About five years ago, Huleatt said a mobile van began coming to town once a month to distribute fresh produce to people in need. Now, four vans come each month, and more than 200 people sometimes line up for the food. That’s in addition to the city’s own food pantry.

    David Friedman / NBC News

    Simons chooses an outfit for a job interview.

    Simons expected to work for the rug retailer until retirement, but about a year ago she quit after disputes with one of the two owners. She had never had trouble finding a new job and was unprepared for how hard it would be.

    “I know that part of it is my fault and I absolutely take responsibility for that, but I never in a million years thought that I would (be in this position),” she said.

    Simons went without work or unemployment benefits for five months before she got her current job about six months ago. The position, as a customer service representative for a local health products company, pays $14 an hour. That leaves her with take-home pay of about $460 to $480 a week, plus about $127 a week in child support. Simons has full custody of her daughter.

    She is behind on her electric and gas bills and owes nearly $400 to her daughter’s club lacrosse team, which has her worried that her daughter won’t be able to play this spring.

    Like many working poor people, she has fallen into a debt spiral. She took out an $800 payday loan, and she estimates that it will end up costing her $1,600 to pay it back. She also has several hundred dollars in credit card debt and has worked to pay off hundreds of dollars in bank overdraft fees. She’s sold jewelry for cash.

    She and Alexis had to leave the house they were renting after she lost her job and a roommate. She got one-time aid from the city’s crisis fund to help with the down payment for her new, cheaper apartment. Still, the $1125 rent eats up more than half of her monthly take-home pay.

    She went on Medicaid after being unable to afford health insurance.

    Simons said it’s been hard, and sometimes embarrassing, to accept help.

    “The thing is, I don’t want it,” she said. “I want to pay my bills.”

    Hoping for a break
    Simons has continued to apply for jobs daily, hoping to land a higher-paying position with health insurance she can afford.

    One morning in early March, she got a break.  A rug retailer about 40 miles from West Hartford offered her a job interview.

    Excited and anxious, Simons carefully picked out her clothes and fretted about her hair. She was too nervous to eat.

    A few hours before the interview, her boyfriend Phil Volonis stopped by to give Simons some gas money. Her 2005 Chevrolet Cavalier had broken down the day before, so he had lent her a car.

    David Friedman / NBC News

    Simons takes cover from the rain as she heads into a job interview.

    Later that evening, Simons walked out of the interview confident that she had done well, but still not sure if she had gotten the job.

    Driving home in the pouring rain, Simons said that while living in West Hartford has been good for her and her daughter, she dreams of moving somewhere warmer.

    She mused that perhaps Alexis will go to University of Florida – which has a good women’s lacrosse team - and she could move down there, too.

    But for now, she said, she would do almost anything to keep her daughter in this town.

    “The kid’s been through enough,” Simons said. “So, I just want her to feel as safe and settled as possible, and I want her to know that she can count on her mom to keep her where she is and keep promises.”

    RELATED:

    'By the grace of God': How workers survive on $7.25 per hour

    Media coverage of poverty: Why 'so little'?

    Looking for a big minimum wage increase? Don't bank on it

  • Media coverage of poverty: Why 'so little'?

    Front page from part three of the eight-day Children in Poverty series from the Springfield News-Leader in Missouri.

    By Barbara Raab, Senior Producer, NBC News

    "Why is there so little coverage of Americans who are struggling with poverty?"

    So begins a thought-provoking essay by Dan Froomkin in Nieman Reports, a respected publication that covers journalism, raising a subject that is getting more ink than usual these days.

    In his essay, Froomkin examines what he sees as paltry coverage of America's poor. Citing research from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, Froomkin reports that poverty coverage takes up less than one percent of the news content in the nation's major news outlets.  

    He and others suggest some possible reasons ("neither advertisers nor readers are likely to demand more coverage, so neither will editors," for one) along with a wealth of ideas that could make compelling stories for readers and viewers.

    Froomkin's piece begins with an example of what he'd like to see more of: a major series that ran on the front page of the Springfield News-Leader in Missouri's Ozarks for five consecutive days, focusing each day on a specific problem facing children in Missouri's Ozarks region: "No home," "No shoes," "No food," "No car," and "No peace." It's outstanding work, well worth a read.

    Froomkin's article led the public editor (a/k/a ombudsman) of The New York Times to raise questions about her own newspaper's coverage of poverty, and to let readers know she'd be digging further into that question in coming weeks. Among her initial observations: The Times reporter who has covered poverty policy for decades thinks the paper "has made an extraordinary commitment" to the subject, but some advocates for the poor beg to differ. We'll be watching for more of this discussion in the weeks ahead.

    This past Sunday, some of us woke up to a lively viewer call-in segment on C-Span’s Washington Journal about hunger in America, and about media coverage of it. A lot of callers had strong feelings about the issue, and about what should be done to attack the poverty problems in the country (as did almost all of the hundreds of commenters on our first blog post for the In Plain Sight project here).

    Here is more of what the In Plain Sight team has been watching and reading this week:

    • The Philadelphia Inquirer reports Philly has the highest rate of deep poverty – that’s income below half the poverty line – of big cities in America. That's perhaps not a surprise, because Philadelphia also has the highest poverty rate – 28.4 percent – of any of America’s biggest cities.
    • The Washington Post had a terrific read on a Rhode Island town that relies on food stamps to survive. Be sure to check out the accompanying SNAP Map breaking down food stamp distribution by state.
    • Is hunger in America a “myth”? A former Montana state legislator makes the argument in an op-ed in the Great Falls Tribune.
    • And here’s one economist’s argument against raising the minimum wage.

    What are you reading and watching on poverty in America? And what are your thoughts about media coverage of poverty? 

  • 5 questions for the Gantz brothers about the toll of the great recession

    Premiering on HBO on March 18, 2013, AMERICAN WINTER is a powerful and timely documentary that follows the stories of eight families struggling to survive in the aftermath of the Great Recession, and reveals the impact of rising economic inequality, cuts to social services, and the fracturing of the American Dream.

    By Barbara Raab, Senior Producer, NBC News

     “Forget the dreams, how do we make it to tomorrow?” asks Ben,  a husband and father who’s been laid off from his job at the credit branch of a car company, has fallen behind on the mortgage and is struggling to provide the basics for his family.

    Ben is one of the distressed Americans trying to keep his head above water in “American Winter,” a documentary produced by Emmy award-winning filmmakers Joe and Harry Gantz, and debuting tonight on Monday, March 18th on HBO. It tells the story of the worst recession of our lifetime through the eyes of eight families in Portland, Oregon during one winter.

    Working with the nonprofit organization 211info in Portland, the Gantz’s were given full access to monitor and record calls from families calling the emergency hotline for help. They followed some of these callers over the next several months.

    NBC News talked with Joe and Harry Gantz about their film, and about what they hope to achieve with their firsthand view of the struggle millions of Americans are experiencing.

    NBC News: The tag line to the film is “a documentary about a country in search of its promise. “ What do you mean by that?

    Joe Gantz: The promise is that America is the land of opportunity. The American dream is that anybody can make it in this country,  that we’re all having equal opportunity, and if you try hard, you work hard, and you’re talented, you can achieve a comfortable life. I think that is slipping away in a lot of respects. It’s becoming harder and harder for somebody to raise a family. The wages for many Americans even if they’re working fulltime and overtime,  they’re working at very low paid jobs and they’re not able to support a family.  The families we followed in this film were comfortable three or four years ago, many of them were solidly middle class, they never envisioned being in this situation. As [Portland Commissioner] Nick Fish says in the film, we’re in a ‘one strike and you’re out’ economy, and so these families find themselves falling over the cliff, struggling in ways they never envisioned.

    NBC News: Were you shocked at what you found when you really got into their homes and their lives and their stories?

    Harry Gantz: I wouldn’t say we were shocked, but it certainly affected us to see the level of desperation and how it affects everybody emotionally. It’s not just trying to find a job, or trying to navigate the social services. That’s a full time job in itself. But it’s the emotional impact. Hearing these kids feel like they don’t know what their futures are going to be. This is the first generation of families that feels like it’s not going to get better. And because of the lack of decent social services and decent paying jobs, people feel like, the American dream, as one of the subjects in our film says, is [just] turning the heat on, turning the lights on.

    Joe:  We could listen to all the [211info] calls coming in. And there are hundreds of calls every day.  And that is overwhelming. You’re just inundated by the level of desperation in this country. The people who aren’t in that situation often don’t know what 211is and don’t know what it’s like for the people who are in that situation. But you listen to those phone calls, “how do I get my heat on?”, “how do I get help for getting my electricity turned off?”, “how do I get help with my rent? , “how do I get food”? It’s just call after call after call.

    NBC News: In some ways, the people you got to know are in plain sight. And yet, people who are not in that situation don’t seem to be aware of them.

    Joe: There may be a bit of willful ignorance, on the one hand, by the people who are making it. But on the other hand, the people who are struggling are so ashamed. Our society says if you work hard and you’re talented, you push and go by the rules, you will succeed. And they’re not succeeding, they’re struggling mightily, so they are ashamed. They don’t tell people. We were working with families, and the children’s friends would come over, and I’d meet the family of that child that was visiting, and I’d explain what we were working on, and they’d say, “We’re in the same boat.” But they wouldn’t talk to each other because the parents had so much shame, they wouldn’t want to tell what was going on in their households. The shame keeps everyone extremely isolated.

    Harry: The fear of destitution is inherent in everybody. So it’s in everybody’s best interests in this country to have a strong middle class, and to help people ascend from poverty.

    Joe: The way people ignore this vast chunk of America that is falling off the financial cliff is by using these derogatory stereotypes about people who need help. They say they’re lazy, they made their own mistakes, if they were capable they would be succeeding, they should pull themselves up on their own. But when you follow these families as we did, over months, and you live with them and walk in their shoes and see what they’re dealing with, these families are all extremely hard-working, they’re loving families, and they want nothing more than to get back on their feet and be a contributing member of society.

    NBC News: When you talk about help, what is your answer? Is it to put more money into the traditional safety net, or something else?

    Harry: Whether it’s from taxpayers, or secular social services, or religious social services, it takes all of those three in order to deal with this problem. That’s the short term solution. Of course the longer term solution is a living wage job and a safety net that if you have a bump in the road and your kid gets sick or you lose your job, that there’s a net that society provides to help you get back on your feet.

    Joe: And not just a net that helps you barely survive, not just a safety net that allows you not to starve. But a safety net that really helps you get back to where you once were so you can contribute once again.

    Harry: There’s such a backlash right now about anything the government is doing.  [Poor people] have been demonized to the point where it’s better just to cut government spending and “good luck, we’re all on our own, we’ll make it that way, leave me alone.” There are people in our film who felt that, and then found themselves in this situation and suddenly they had so much more insight and compassion for people in this position. What I learned is that no parent is perfect – most of these people got in this situation through no fault of their own. But even if it was their fault, and they made a bad decision – do the children deserve to suffer? No.

    Joe: When the children suffer, the repercussions last for 20 or 30 years. They don’t graduate from high school, they don’t get a good job, they can wind up in prison – and the repercussions and costs for those kids go on and on.

    NBC News: Do you feel after doing this project that there’s some takeaway that’s optimistic or some reason for hope?

    Joe: What’s not depressing is spending time with these families. And seeing how their backs are against the wall, and seeing how these families come together because they have no one else to rely on. Most of these families don’t have financial help through their circle of friends or family. They have this core of love for each other and they’re determined to get through it. When you’re in a low paying job that takes a tremendous amount of your time, it takes a tremendous amount of time to track down social services, they don’t just come to your door and hand it to you. You spend so much time just calling and going to places and seeing what you can get, so it’s difficult. The difficulties of being on the financial edge are unimaginable if you haven’t been there. And yet these families have this much love for each other and this much struggle to keep going and be positive and keep their hopes up. The human spirit is something I’m optimistic about on an individual basis.

    Harry: I feel the same way as the families do. If you’re not at least optimistic, what are your children going to say? They’re going to feel like they’re doomed. Part of the American spirit is to be optimistic and if you’re not optimistic, it’s hard to get up in the morning and go on in that situation. This film is advocating for not cutting social services. The system can’t take any more.

    Joe: Demonstrations are good too! People have to get together and show, this is the majority of this country.  And if by putting these faces in front of the public rids the shame that’s associated with being poor,  that might empower more poor people to advocate for themselves.

  • What's the matter with Camden?

    Spencer Platt / Getty Images file

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Camden, N.J., is the most impoverished city in the United States

    By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Camden was not always America’s poorest, most crime-ridden city, with scores of open-air drug markets driving children indoors and property values to bedrock lows. Yet when the New Jersey city’s collapse came, it was stark and complete. Civic mismanagement, soaring crime rates, and the flight of business all contributed to Camden’s precipitous decline, the city a victim of industrial forces that shaped the 20th century and left residents stranded. Surrounded by affluent suburbs, Camden shows an ugly face of America that many would rather ignore.

    How bad is the crime problem?

    Camden had the highest crime rate of any city in the country in 2011, according to a review of FBI data by CQ Press. It’s not just the number, but the desperation and gruesomeness of the crimes that is startling. A mother who decapitated her 2-year-old son and a man who killed a 6-year-old boy accounted for but two of the city’s record number of murders in 2012. At the same time, the drug problem has continued to grow, with an estimated 175 open-air drug markets scattered across the crumbling city. Now, officials are planning to disband the more than 140-year-old police force and replace it with county cops, due to arrive in April. There were nearly 70 murders in the city in 2012, almost one for every 1,000 people.

    How poor are the people?

    Among the nation’s poorest, according to 2011 census data, with 42.5 percent of the city’s 77,000 residents thought to be living below the poverty line. The city's median household income was $21,191, lowest among the cities surveyed by the U.S. Census. And this is in one of the nation’s richest states. Children in Camden were far more likely than children in the surrounding county or state to live in poverty according to a 2007 report by the Legal Services of New Jersey.

    What about education?

    A set of charter schools have made some inroads in the city, but the problems for most students remain dire. The graduation rate for Camden high school students was just 49 percent in 2012, according to the state Department of Education. The problem isn't even money, as Camden spent $19,204 per student in the 2011-12 school year, according to the state education department’s Education Funding Report. However, only 1.4 percent of the city’s students met the state’s College-Readiness Benchmark, the report noted.

    Compounding the problem is that plenty of children aren’t getting basic nutrition before showing up in the classroom, said Michael Moynihan, president at the United Way of Camden County. “If kids don’t eat breakfast, they can’t learn,” Moynihan said. A pilot breakfast program at six schools started by the United Way shot up to include 84 percent of eligible students, and may be expanded to the rest of the city’s 26 schools. 

    In Camden, N.J., criminals and drug deals operate in the open, and the police department is understaffed. But some residents are working hard to get their city back on track. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

    Where did business go?

    Once an industrial boomtown, Camden fell victim to the same post-World War II forces that shuttered factories and ravaged cities like Detroit and neighboring Philadelphia. Without other industries to fall back on, the city has never recovered from the economic blow. “Camden was particularly vulnerable,” said Paul Jargowsky, director of the Center for Urban Research and Education at Rutgers University. “There really was nothing else other than Campbell Soup and the shipyards and RCA Victor.” 

    What have politicians done?

    In the cases of at least three mayors in the last 30 years, the most noteworthy thing politicians have done is go to jail. The scandalous streak began with Angelo Errichetti, a son of the city and former Camden high school footballer who was caught up in the government’s Abscam probe – an FBI sting that targeted public corruption – and convicted of bribery in 1983. Arnold Webster served as mayor from 1994 to 1997 before pleading guilty to fraud charges in 1998.  Webster’s successor, Milton Milan, was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison in 2001 on bribery, money laundering, and racketeering charges.

    Can the city recover?

    Much of the development that has occurred in recent years has grown up around the healthcare and education industries, including the city’s Rutgers campus and Cooper University Hospital. “There are some pockets of real progress and there are some very visible neighborhood transformations that have occurred,” Moynihan said. “There are other neighborhoods that still have whole blocks of boarded up or long-vacant houses that serve as places for squatters, for drug users, for all sorts of risky behaviors.”

    While the city’s population has suffered over the last two decades, it may be the most stubborn residents that drag it back, Jargowsky said. “I think a lot of people are very committed to seeing people come back,” he said. “Among my students who live in the city, they’re very committed to wanting the city to have a renaissance.”

    Related: 

    'By the grace of God': How workers survive on $7.25 per hour

    Poverty in America: A problem hidden 'In Plain Sight'

    Share your story with us at InPlainSight@nbcuni.com 

     

    This story was originally published on Thu Mar 7, 2013 5:04 PM EST

  • America's 'invincible' city brought to its knees by poverty, violence

    In America's most dangerous and poorest city, Camden, N.J., bullet holes are visible in a church's stained glass window, crosses commemorating the murdered line the outside of city hall and the police staff is so outnumbered and outgunned, drug deals occur in the open. Rock Center's Brian Williams visits Camden and talks to those fighting to turn around the forgotten city.

    By Shoshana Guy, Producer, NBC News

    CAMDEN, N.J. -- Inscribed on the walls of City Hall are the words of Walt Whitman, the great American poet who spent his final years in this city: “In a dream I saw a city invincible.”

    But the decades since have not been kind to Camden. Today it is the poorest in the nation.

    Directly in the shadow of the glittering skyline of Philadelphia, Camden has long suffered the indignities that poverty breeds. A drive through the streets of the 9-square mile city reveals a moonscape of crumbling infrastructure and abandoned homes, nearly 4,000 in all.

    “I always think of Camden as the best visual aid in America to see what has gone wrong and what is going wrong,” said Father Michael Doyle, who has been serving the city’s poor from his Sacred Heart Church for more than 40 years. 

    Camden was once a manufacturing boomtown, home to RCA Victor, Campbell’s Soup and the biggest shipbuilding company in the world. But once industrial jobs began drying up decades ago – as they did in so many other cities across the United States – many people left for greener pastures.

    Then came a crushing blow: the race riots of 1969 and 1971, which left the city mortally wounded. In the decades that followed, civic corruption and mismanagement rendered Camden increasingly poor and violent. Three mayors have been indicted in the past few decades, adding to the sense of hopeless among residents.

    In Camden, N.J., criminals and drug deals operate in the open, and the police department is understaffed. But some residents are working hard to get their city back on track. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

    Last year was the bloodiest in Camden’s history; the city of just 77,000 had 67 homicides. On average someone was shot every 33 hours.

    “It was a tough, tough year,” said Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson. “And for a city as hardened as Camden is and has become over time, it buckled the city to its knees.” 

    Distraught over the level of violence, the community erected crosses on the lawn of City Hall to try and draw attention to the crisis.

    Thomson said crime rates have gone up because he has fewer cops. In early 2011, unable to fund its obligations, the city cut the police department in half, leaving roughly 200 officers to police one of the most violent cities in the country. 

    NBC News

    Crosses on the lawn of City Hall mark lives lost to violence.

    “It’s gotten to the point where even in our daytime hours in this city people are scared to leave their homes,” said Thomson.  “And this is the United States of America. Children should not have to fear even sitting on their own front steps.”

    There is movement to get more officers on the streets. In April of this year, a new county force will take over for the City Police Department, adding 200 officers to the ranks.

    The decision to regionalize the force enraged the Camden Fraternal Order of Police, which has charged the city with union busting. 

    “The experienced officers are the best chance they have to provide safety to the public,” said FOP spokesperson Nancy Webster.

    But Chief Thomson hopes more boots on the ground will help stabilize the city. “At no point in time can we ever quit,” he said. “Failure is not an option.”

    Chrissy Rodriguez, who lives on one of the most violent streets in the city, worries about her two young boys constantly. 

    “My kids don't get to go outside. They don't get to play,” said Rodriguez. “And I'm not gonna let them ride a bike down the street … in the afternoon. People are getting shot.”

    But it’s hard for people like Rodriguez to scrape together enough funds to leave. Roughly 30 to 40 percent of Camden’s citizens are out of work. Rodriguez has only been able to find a part-time job, which brings in about $700 a month. 

    About 42 percent of Camden’s population lives below the poverty line, with the average income hovering around $26,000 a year. That is in stark contrast to the rest of New Jersey, where the average household income is $71,000 a year — the third highest in the nation. 

    “America has decided to concentrate its poor,” said Father Doyle. “The wall around Camden is very high, it’s an economic wall. You can’t get over it.”

    The Rev. Michael Doyle, who has been serving the city's poor from his Sacred Heart Church for more than 40 years, tells Brian Williams there is hope for the city of Camden.

    The “walls” of Camden hold in a population that is 48 percent black and 47 percent Hispanic.

    The city is trying to revitalize. Old buildings along the waterfront have been turned into luxury condos. Cooper Hospital and Rutgers University have created stability on handfuls of blocks. And recently Cooper opened a medical school. Still, the main industry remains the drug trade and it’s been so bad for so many years that the city’s tragedies often seem to go unnoticed.

    Recently, a former citizen of the city paid for a billboard near the Camden exit off I-676 that read, “Say something nice about Camden.” 

    Camden’s got heart. And you’ll find that heart in community leaders like Tawanda Jones. Better known as Ms. Wawa, Jones is the leader of the dance troop the Camden Sophisticated Sisters Drill Team for school-age girls.

    “There's a lotta people from Camden that are so gifted and so talented,” said Jones.

    Jones has been volunteering her time for more than 25 years. She raises money to help the team travel, visits the children’s schools on her days off, and dedicates herself four nights a week, all year round to creating a safe space for children.

    “We practice all year round cause there’s danger all year round,” said Jones.

    For now, through the efforts of people like Jones, the City Invincible marches on. 

    “There's a spirit in poor people, resilience and a hope and a generosity,” said Father Doyle. “We might be invincible in that regard, that human beings do not give up.”

    Camden's got heart. And you'll find that heart in community leaders like Tawanda Jones. Better known as Ms. Wawa, Jones is the leader of the dance troop the Camden Sophisticated Sisters Drill Team for school-age girls.

    Related: 

    'By the grace of God': How workers survive on $7.25 per hour

    Poverty in America: A problem hidden 'In Plain Sight'

    Share your story with us at InPlainSight@nbcuni.com 

    This story was originally published on Thu Mar 7, 2013 5:03 PM EST

  • Video: School dinner is keeping some US children from going hungry

    West Virginia's Doddridge Elementary is just one of 120 out of 700 schools statewide where more than 50 percent of its students qualify for federally subsidized school dinners. NBC's Rehema Ellis reports.

  • New York digging up dozens of unidentified bodies in potter's field

    Melinda Hunt / AP file

    Since 1869, more than 800,000 people have been laid to rest at the potter's field on the island that lies in the waters just off the Bronx borough of New York City.

    By Jonathan Dienst, NBC New York

    The New York City medical examiner's office is digging up dozens of unidentified bodies buried in the city's potter's field as part of a new push to solve unsolved missing persons’ cases.

    In recent months, 54 bodies have been exhumed from Hart Island, which sits on the Long Island Sound. More than 800,000 people are buried there, most of them poor citizens, officials say. 


    The unidentified include runaways, the homeless and others whose families lost track of them. And now dozens of positive identifications are being made, thanks to improved DNA technology.

    Encouraged by the success, the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner applied for and received a grant from the National Institute of Justice to continue their work. Investigators are now poring over decades of records.

    "We have about 1,200 cases that we are working on that go to the late 1980s," said Dr. Benjamin Figueroa, who is helping to supervise the search effort.

    In examining the skeletal remains of unidentified persons, anthropologists are able to extract DNA samples and glean new leads that weren't contained in the original case files. Modern science can now indicate whether remains belonged to a male or female and roughly how old the person was.

    Read the original story at NBCNewYork.com

    "We can go back now and say, for example, it's actually a black female age 17 to 25," said Dr. Bradley Adams. "There's work we can do now with forensic anthropology which couldn't be done back in the time."

    Many advances in DNA technology came about from identifying human remains recovered at the site of the World Trade Center attacks after 9/11. Scientists at New York’s new forensic lab are entering DNA samples from exhumed bodies into local and national databases.

    But generating the DNA samples is only half the battle, said assistant lab director Mark Desire.

    "Equally challenging is to get a DNA profile to compare it to a family," said Desire. "Part of the big push is to make sure reference families' samples get in the system."

    Without a DNA sample from relatives, cases often cannot be solved. If some of the people buried are from out of state or overseas, it's especially difficult to make the match.

    That appears to be the case with "Baby Hope," the 6-year-old girl whose starved body was found stuffed in a cooler in the woods off the Henry Hudson Parkway in 1991.

    "You have information that can make a very straightforward identification, but nobody is looking for that child," said Adams. "Otherwise, there would be a DNA hit. It's hard to believe you'd have a child ... that's still unidentified."

    In cases where a DNA match fails, scientists may turn NAMUS, a national website that lists missing people, unidentified bodies and clothing found on bodies.

    "The great thing about NAMUS is there is a whole community of volunteers and cybersleuths ... who will analyze what we put on the website," said Figueroa. “There have been a number of times where somebody from the general public has pointed us to a missing person in connection with one of our unidentified."

    "We don't pass judgment on who that person was," Figueroa said. "If there is something that can be done, we're going to do it. It's our job to identify that person. Doesn't matter if that case came in today or 20 years ago."

    From a legal and financial standpoint, officials say a family can move forward once they have a death certificate in their hands.

    In Queens, 83-year-old Gloria Chait has held on to her son Steven's belongings and has renderings of what her son might look like now, decades after he disappeared from his dorm room at Columbia University in 1972.

    "I love this kid," said Chait, who still keeps Steven's belongings in his room in their Fresh Meadows home. "No one wants to go 40 years not knowing where your child is."

    But she also has a grim hope that the city's new push to identify the "lost souls" of Hart Island may finally give her answers as to what happened to Steven.

    "You can't be cynical about this. You have to be realistic and a bit optimistic," said Chait. "You have to understand what kind of suffering goes with a person that disappears. It is immeasurable."

     

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  • New Hampshire best, Mississippi worst in ranking of children's well-being

    Click for a larger version

    By NBC News and wire services

    New Hampshire remains the top state for children’s overall well-being, says an annual national report that again ranks Mississippi the worst.


    Based on 2010 statistics focusing on education and health, the Annie E. Casey Foundation Kid's Count Data Book released Wednesday also said more children and families across the United States are facing poverty and economic instability.

    "The economic well-being of children and families has plummeted because of the recession," researchers at the non-profit youth advocacy group reported.

    The report used 16 indicators to assess child well-being in four areas: economic well-being, family and community, education, and health.

    Massachusetts rose to second-best state from fifth, followed by Vermont, which previously was eighth. At the bottom, besides Mississippi, the report said, were No. 49 New Mexico, formerly 43rd, and Nevada, which fell to 48th from 39th.

    Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com 

    The three most populous states ranked in the bottom half of overall child well-being: California, the most populous state, fell to 41st from 16th; Texas fell to 44th from 34th; and New York fell to 29th from 17th.

    New Hampshire, the foundation said, showed progress in half of 16 indicators, including on-time high school graduation rates, and one of the best records of children covered by health insurance.

    But the data also showed an increase in New Hampshire for children living in high poverty areas and an increase since 2005 in single-parent families, which now includes about 27 percent of children, the foundation said.

    A more troubling finding, children advocates said, is a 19 percent jump from 2008 to 2010 in the rate of children with parents who did not have secure employment in the wake of the recession.

    "We remain concerned about the economic security of our children, with a rise in the poverty rate, and the percent whose parents lack secure employment," said Ellen Fineberg, executive director of The Children's Alliance of New Hampshire.

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    New Hampshire has had the report's highest score in the country, based on different indicators, in 10 of the past 11 years.

    Among other national findings:

    • 2.4 million more children slipped into poverty from 2005 to 2010, rising to 15.7 million from 13.3 million.
    • In 36 states and the District of Columbia, at least one in three children lived in households that spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs.
    • The number of fourth-graders scoring less than proficient in reading dropped in 35 states and the District of Columbia, with Maryland and Alabama seeing the greatest improvement.
    • Child poverty rates rose in 43 states.
    • Vermont and Virginia led among 47 states that saw their child and teen death rates decline.

    The results drew a variety of responses.

    "When families are spending a lot of their income on housing, they are at risk of not being able to afford other things like health care and quality child care," Jessica Mindnich, an associate research director with Children Now of Oakland, Calif., told the San Francisco Chronicle.

    Noah Berger, the president of the nonpartisan Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, said he believes his state's high scores in health and education are the direct result of laws that have overhauled those systems in the state. He pointed to the 2006 health care law, signed by then-Gov. Mitt Romney, which requires nearly all state residents to have health insurance or face penalties.

    In Oklahoma , which rose to 40th from 43rd, more children were covered by insurance and the child and teenage death rate fell, Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy director Linda Terrell said, adding that she hopes the state's elected officials will use the report to help bring children out of poverty.

    "This data should spur government to action," echoed Kentucky Youth Advocates Director Terry Brooks. Kentucky was ranked 35th, up from 41st.

    This article includes reporting by Reuters, The Associated Press and NBC News’ Jim Gold.

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  • Homeless mothers and children find a lifeline at Hope Gardens

    Photos by Lucy Nicholson / Reuters

    Lilly Earp, 8, changes the diaper of her five-week-old sister Emily, Jan. 25, 2012, in their apartment at Hope Gardens Family Center, a homeless shelter for women and children, run by Union Rescue Mission on 77 acres of countryside on the outskirts of Los Angeles, Calif.

    By Lucy Nicholson, Reuters photojournalist

    Lilly Earp changes the diaper on her 5-week-old baby sister Emily with the confidence another child would have cradling a doll. She's only 8, but she already shows the street smarts of an older child as she helps her mother. It helps to be resourceful when you're homeless.

    Her mother, Doreen Earp, 38, who is originally from Germany, and her three children ended up on the street after her relationship with Emily’s father fell apart. They stayed in a hotel for a month, then with people from their church and eventually ended up with no roof over their heads.

    Children attend an after-school class at Hope Gardens Family Center. One in 45 children, totalling 1.6 million, is homeless, the highest number in United States' history, according to a 2011 study by the National Center on Family Homelessness.

    A child's drawing is seen on the wall of the center.

    Today, they're lucky to be among the 150 or so homeless women and children living at Hope Gardens on the outskirts of LA. It's a place where those at the end of the line are given a life line.

    The shelter for families is an oasis compared to where most of LA's massive street population lives on a grim patch of downtown's Skid Row. While homeless services are concentrated downtown, it's no place for a child.

    Doreen Earp, 38, of Germany looks at her five-week-old daughter Emily in their apartment at Hope Gardens Family Center.

    The number of homeless children is at an all-time high in the United States. One in 45 children, totaling 1.6 million, is currently homeless, according to a 2011 study by the National Center on Family Homelessness. California is ranked the fifth highest state in the nation for its percentage of homeless children. An increasing number of children are dependent on poverty-stricken single moms.

    The Earps are amongst 45 mothers, 96 children, and 24 elderly women being helped by Hope Gardens, a homeless shelter for women and children, run by Union Rescue Mission on 77 acres (0.31 square km) of countryside on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

    Elizabeth Lepe, 26, (left to right) Nancy Jimenez, 35, and Sheriill Stubblefield, 31, laugh during a therapy session at Hope Gardens Family Center.

    The mothers are given therapy, and classes in life skills, parenting, financial planning, and encouraged to apply for further education, so they can get more than minimum wage jobs. They can stay at the center for up to three years if they’re in college.

    All the children attend after-school classes, and the teenagers are taught about domestic violence, job interviews, how to have healthy relationships, and how to communicate better.

    Kids grow up fast when they lose the safety and comforts of home.

    Earp's 10-year-old daughter Lindzy overhears a woman telling her mother that she is going to an NA (Narcotics Anonymous) meeting. Lindzy persists in quizzing her mother about what that means. After hearing her explain it as simply a class, the girl retorts: “I know what NA is. I just wanted to see what you would say.”

    These moments of maturity are eclipsed by the normal trappings of childhood at the shelter – the games and toys that replace those the children lost with their homes.

    Doreen nurses her newborn as her older daughters run and shriek in the playground with other children. Birds chirp in the surrounding pine trees. A stream gurgles into a koi pond.

    “They’re able to be kids here,” she says.

    Lindzy Earp (2nd right), 10, plays in the playground at Hope Gardens Family Center.

    See more of Lucy Nicholson's picture story about Hope Gardens and an earlier set of photos of an after-school tuition program for homeless kids.

  • Census Bureau clarifies poverty numbers

    By Sharon Bernstein, NBCLosAngeles.com

    Officials at the U.S. Census Bureau moved Friday to clarify widely reported figures meant to estimate the number of Americans living in poverty.

    Dueling Census reports – one based on official poverty estimates that was released just last week and another based on an experimental calculus used in November – differed from one another by 20 percentage points regarding the number of people viewed as living in poverty. The widely reported figure showed that one out of two Americans are in poverty or are low-income. Other Census figures put the figure closer to one out of three Americans.

    That’s because the experimental measure, a supplement to the official poverty figures meant to take into account such factors as whether a family is receiving food stamps and how much people pay in taxes, uses a poverty level of $24,343 for a family of four instead of the $21,113 used by the official measure.

    Read the original story on NBCLosAngeles.com

    In expensive states like California and New York, the supplemental measure classified families making as much as $32,869 as impoverished.

    However, Kathleen Short, the Census Bureau economist who spearheaded the supplemental report, said it would be wrong to extrapolate from those numbers that Americans are falling into poverty at greater rates.

    In fact, she said, the experimental calculation indicated that poverty among children is actually lower than the official poverty rate shows.

    On Thursday, reports in multiple news outlets suggested that people making roughly twice the poverty level under the experimental program were “scraping by” and should be considered low-income.

    The Census Bureau does not support that interpretation of the data, Short said.  

    “Below 200 percent of the poverty threshold is the lower end of the distribution," Short said. "But we would not call it low-income per se.”

    A number of news reports on Thursday correctly said that more people fell under the definition of living in poverty under the experimental calculation, but then went on to say that people making twice that would be considered low-income.

    However, the practice of using such figures as “150 percent of poverty” or “200 percent of poverty” to determine whether people were of moderate or low income is a practice that grew up around the older, traditional method of identifying poverty, which uses a lower threshold.

    More from NBC4 on the Census reports: Assessing poverty

    In parts of California under the supplemental approach, a family that owns its own home and earns about $66,000 per year would be earning 200 percent of the poverty level, and not necessarily be considered low-income.

    NBC4, relying on figures and analysis from the Los Angeles office of the Census, reported the newer, official poverty figures on Thursday, and questioned reports that used the supplemental figures.

    A widely distributed news story by the Associated Press (and published by msnbc.com) relied on the supplemental report.

    “We did not misunderstand the data,” AP spokesman Jack Stokes said in an email. "The AP story was vetted by the Census Bureau in Washington.”

    However, Short said that she did not agree with the news service’s conclusion that the report showed one out of two Americans to be low-income or impoverished.

    Short stressed that the supplemental measure was a work in progress, and that it should not be considered a replacement for the official poverty rate.

    The AP's calculations were correct, Short said, "but I’m not agreeing with any adjectives that are placed on being in that category.”

    “In fact we stressed the Census Bureau does not have a definition for low income.” Short said

    In the supplemental report, "we’re not characterizing what it’s like to be below 200 percent of the poverty line,” Short said. “We don’t have any information to characterize what that would be like.”

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