Poverty hits 1 in 8 Americans

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By Joseph Weber

About 2.5 million Americans slipped below the poverty line as recession and layoffs hammered the economy last year, driving poverty to its highest level since 1998, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday.

The annual survey showed that more than one in eight U.S. residents - 13.2 percent - are living on less than $10,991 for an individual - slightly more than $200 a week - or $22,025 for a family of four.

The report came as no surprise to those who work daily with the poor and homeless.

B.J. Iacino, public affairs director for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, said her organization has been stretched to the limit by the heightened demand for services. "We are definitely seeing dramatic increases in the numbers of people coming here for help, both for housing and for medical and mental health care," she said.

Barbara Droher Kline, president and chief executive officer of Lutheran Social Services of Northern California, said the economic crisis has driven up the number of families in need of food, housing, employment and youth services.

"It's just so monumental, so widespread," said Ms. Kline, whose administrative offices are in Concord, Calif. "Fresno is in tough straits, all the way down to Bakersfield. It's like, 'Where do you look?' There is so much of it going on, and I don't know how some people are getting by. ...

"Everybody here is trying to figure out how to stretch everything as much as they can. It's really, really rough."

The increased poverty rate was accompanied by falling real incomes for all Americans, the Census Bureau report showed. The country's median household income fell to $50,303 from $52,163 a year earlier, the first drop in four years.

The data also showed poverty disproportionately affecting families, which accounts for a 19 percent poverty rate last year among children, or those younger than 18. That was up from 18 percent the year earlier.

"The number of families, as opposed to individuals, coming to us is increasing, and that's a trend," Ms. Iacino said.