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Uncovering The Buried Truth In Richmond: Former Confederate Capital Tries To Memorialize Its Shameful History Of Slavery, Howard Manly

Trotter Review

Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones had the noblest of intentions.

With Virginia’s capital having a poverty rate of nearly 25 percent, no one blamed Jones, a child of the sixties and preacher by calling, for trying to develop prime riverfront property to generate revenue to create more jobs, better schools, and housing.

But when Jones unveiled a proposal in 2013 that included building a new baseball stadium near one of the city’s historic slave burial grounds in Shockoe Bottom, it was, by all accounts, troubling to historic preservationists and Black community activists. “Shameful” was one of the words most often …

Poverty, Educational Achievement, And The Role Of The Courts, Michael A. Rebell

New England Journal of Public Policy

The large and growing proportion of U.S. students who come from poverty backgrounds explains this country’s relatively low performance on international achievement tests. These students need a broad range of comprehensive educational services if they are to have a meaningful opportunity to succeed in school. These opportunities include not only adequate resources for basic K–12 educational services but also parent engagement, health and other services, and additional early education, after-school, and summer programs. In most states, the schools attended by students with the greatest needs tend to receive the fewest resources because of the inequitable systems most states use for …

Children And Homelessness In Massachusetts, Donna Haig Friedman, Katherine Calano, Marija Bingulac, Christine Miller, Alisa Zeliger

New England Journal of Public Policy

In Massachusetts, more than half a million children (15% of all children) live in poverty, 30% of all children live with parents who lack secure employment, and 41% live in households with high housing cost burdens. This article examines the root causes of poverty and its links to child homelessness in the state. Though the state has a long-standing progressive political legacy, the well-being of low-income families with children continues to decline. The article offers evidence about the extent of child homelessness and its profound effects on Massachusetts children and youth. The interconnectedness of what are usually thought of as …

The Economic Context: Growing Disparities Of Income And Wealth, Chuck Collins

New England Journal of Public Policy

In the last few years, poverty rates have remained constant in the New England states. The effort to reduce poverty in New England and the United States has been thwarted by trends of growing income and wealth inequality. Since the late 1970s, the real incomes for the majority of U.S. households have remained stagnant or fallen. During the same time, asset ownership has become dramatically more unequal, and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few has increased. The causes of this accelerated inequality are complex, but underlying the picture are a series of rule changes, both public …

Moving Target: The Dilemma Of Serving Massachusetts Poor Families, Randy Albelda

New England Journal of Public Policy

While Community Action Agencies’ original mission of serving the poor has changed little over the last three decades, government commitments to the poor, the population of poor individuals and families, and women’s economic expectations have changed considerably. This article documents the trends in family structure, women’s employment patterns, and poverty policies in Massachusetts between 1970 and 2000. The increase in poor, single-mother families and poverty policies that emphasize employment present dynamic challenges for Community Action Agencies (and others who serve the poor), but also create some new organizing opportunities.

The Nonprofit Sector And The Will To Change, Pablo Eisenberg

New England Journal of Public Policy

A greater portion of our nonprofit activities in the future will have to be devoted to policies and actions that can produce constructive change. The extraordinary problems of our society as we enter the twenty-first century — poverty, racism, environmental degradation, lack of health protection, declining trust in governments — can only be tackled by strong policy work, advocacy, and citizen mobilization. The author outlines seven challenges that nonprofits need to address including promoting democracy, strengthening government, asuring public accountability, redefining the nonprofit sector, reforming philanthropy, developing new leadership, and engaging institutions of higher learning in promoting democracies and communities. …

Masscap And The Caa Role In Advocating For Change, Joseph Diamond

New England Journal of Public Policy

Cites the efforts of the Massachusetts Association for Community Action Inc. and community action agencies (CCA) to alleviate poverty in the state. Programs offered by CCAs that aim to improve the quality of life of low income people; Efforts of the organization to call for changes in federal and state policies directed to the poor; Details of several initiatives assisted by the organization; Support for the adoption of the Massachusetts Self-Sufficiency Standard.

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

In this issue, special guest editors, Elaine Werby and Donna Haig Friedman, assemble an array of distinguished scholars, policymakers, community activists and political advocates to examine the interaction of the economic, political, and social “flows,” the undercurrents of history that stymied the war on poverty. Their articles and essays chart the beachheads that must be secured before the war can be successfully resumed; No war, they collectively remind us, is won without some battles being lost. You do not secure the future of the country if you abandon the principles of equity and equality for all, the bedrock of the …

The Economic Context: Growing Disparities Of Income And Wealth, Chuck Collins

New England Journal of Public Policy

In the last few years, poverty rates have remained constant in the New England states. The effort to reduce poverty in New England and the United States has been thwarted by trends of growing income and wealth inequality. Since the late 1970s, the real incomes for the majority of U.S. households have remained stagnant or fallen. During the same time, asset ownership has become dramatically more unequal, and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few has increased. The causes of this accelerated inequality are complex, but underlying the picture are a series of rule changes, both public …

Interrupted Progress: Forty Years Of Child Poverty, Deborah Weinstein

New England Journal of Public Policy

In the last forty years since the beginning of the war on poverty, the condition of poor children has improved and the percentage of children living in poverty has declined. Children and their families made the greatest gain when there was a good economy and an increase in government supports. But when such investments shrink, as they have in recent years, progress is impeded. Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) must be reauthorized by Congress. The legislation now under discussion does not encourage states to replicate programs that have increased work and family income and helped children.

Community Action In Massachusetts, Jim Canavan

New England Journal of Public Policy

Evaluates the contribution of community action agencies (CCA) in alleviating poverty in Massachusetts from its creation during the term of former U.S. President Lyndon Johnson until 2004. Description of the programs to the poor offered by CCAs; Operation of CCAs across the state; Affordable housing offered by the CCAs.

Race, Poverty And Education In The 21st Century, Joan Wallace-Benjamin

Trotter Review

I am here as the president of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts. I am here as a woman. I am here as a partner in the struggle for equal opportunity and access for - women, men, young people, the elderly, Black, white, Latino and Asian, who are not able to fully enjoy the educational, economic and social benefits of our American society. I am here as a colleague of Mary's, [Mary Lassen, Executive Director, Women's Educational and Industrial Union] who works with commitment and passion on these same issues and with whom I have collaborated and will continue to …

Women And Poverty, Carlos Ani

Trotter Review

The issue regarding relationships between the status of women, economic health for all people, and social justice is a challenge in every society today. Until fairly recently, poverty and under development were assumed to put all members of affected households - men, women, and children - at an equal disadvantage. "Households" were regarded as static entities where labor and resources are pooled and equally shared. The implicit conclusion was that changes thought of as beneficial for development would be neutral in their effects on the different members of the households. Empirical evidence reveals, however, that the costs and benefits of …

Responding To Poverty Through Community Development: The Role Of Women In South Africa, Junette Davids

Trotter Review

The World Bank reported that during the past three decades the developing world has made enormous economic progress. This is illustrated in the rising trend for incomes and consumption: between 1965 and 1985 consumption per capita in the developing world went up by almost 70%. Midgley, also reported that developing countries have recorded high rates of economic growth, achieved high degrees of industrialization and made significant social progress. Given this scenario one would assume that poverty has also decreased markedly. However, even though some developing countries have recorded high rates of economic growth, achieved high degrees of industrialization, and made …

Public Sector And Black Church Partnerships: A New Public Policy Tool, Marjorie B. Lewis

Trotter Review

Since the mid-sixties, local, state and federal policies and their resulting agencies have been involved in an ongoing war on poverty. The goals of this effort have been to eradicate poverty through exogenous motivators, which include "work fare" programs, "head start" programs, and welfare "reform" initiatives. As well-intentioned as these efforts may have been, results have proven less than successful, particularly for inner-city African-American youth. In his paper, "The Rich Get Richer and the Black Poor Get Poorer," Samuel Myers reiterates this assessment, and shows that the plight of the inner-city dweller who is poor, uneducated, and African American has …

Persistence Of Poverty Across Generations: A Comparison Of Anglos, Blacks, And Latinos, Anna M. Santiago, Yolanda C. Padilla

New England Journal of Public Policy

Utilizing data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, this study examines the impact of children's growing up in poverty on the probability of their remaining in poverty during young adulthood. The primary goals of the research are to examine racial, ethnic, and gender differences in patterns of persistent poverty and to identify predictors of poverty status in young adulthood. The results suggest that both women, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or adolescent poverty status, and black men who grew up in poverty are more likely to be poor as young adults than Anglo men. Logistic regression analyses reveal that …

Myths And Realities Of Puerto Rican Poverty, Edwin Melendez

Trotter Review

The following remarks were made as the closing keynote address at the conference, "Mainland Puerto Ricans: Myths and Realities on Poverty," held at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, on October 22 and 23, 1993.

There are two "stories" frequently cited to explain the causes of the poverty among Puerto Ricans: the first suggests that Puerto Ricans are poor because they are going through a transition as they move toward full assimilation; the second proposes that Puerto Ricans are becoming part of an urban "underclass." Neither of these explanations stands the test of reality.

Homelessness Past And Present: The Case Of The United States, 1890-1925, Ellen Bassuk, Deborah Franklin

New England Journal of Public Policy

An examination of the professional, political, and popular literature on the nature and extent of homelessness from 1890 to 1925 affords a comparison of the economic and social characteristics of the homeless population at the turn of the century with that of today. The discussion covers the ensuing debates over the causes of homelessness, the various subgroups among the homeless during both periods, and the relative rates of homelessness, the context of extreme poverty and dislocation, and the prevalence of individual disabilities. Except for the growing numbers of homeless families over the past decade, the homeless populations during both eras …

Homelessness: The Politics Of Accommodation, Kip Tiernan

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article considers the problem of poverty, with homelessness as the centerpiece. A survey of the problem and its roots and ancillary branches includes (1) a description of poverty in Boston (and America) from 1974 to 1991, its effects, its victims, and its predictable effects on the economy; (2) a description of displacement and of the homelessness that results from it; (3) a description of the immediate response to displacement and homelessness, that is, shelters; (4) a description of the institutionalization/professionalization/ossification of the response (more shelters); and (5) an outline of the terms of the new debate and suggestions for …

Recent Trends In The Economic Status Of Boston's Aged: Determinants And Policy Implications, William H. Crown

New England Journal of Public Policy

The economic status of the older population has improved significantly since the early 1970s. Yet poverty rates among certain groups of elderly, especially older minorities, have declined very little. To understand the reasons for these seemingly contradictory trends, changes in the income composition of the elderly in Boston are compared to changes in income for the elderly in the United States. This analysis suggests that low-income older persons were largely bypassed by one of the major factors in income growth among the older population — growth in pension income.

Despite the persistence of poverty among significant segments of the older …

Poverty Amid Renewed Affluence: The Poor Of New England At Mid-Decade, Andrew M. Sum, Paul E. Harrington, William B. Goedicke, Robert Vinson

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article examines the problem of poverty in New England during the current period of economic prosperity. Major trends in the size and composition of the poor population within the region are analyzed. Striking changes in the relative incidence of poverty have occurred among families in New England. As the economy has moved toward full employment, poverty rates among husband-wife families in the region have fallen sharply. In contrast, female-headed families in New England have not benefited substantially from recent rapid increases in employment opportunities. The result has been a persistent trend toward the feminization of poverty in New England. …

Demographic Trends In Boston: Some Implications For Municipal Services, Margaret O'Brien

New England Journal of Public Policy

The City of Boston is gaining in population during the 1980s, after several decades of loss. During the current decade and beyond, population trends will bring increases in the number of children, adults between the ages of twenty-five and forty-four, and those aged seventy-five and over, along with declines among the older teenagers and college-age population, the more mature adults, and the younger elderly. A recent analysis of the income distribution indicates that while there were more well-to-do residents in Boston in 1985 than there were in 1980, there were also more poor and near poor. Average family income has …