Westra Miller, Staff Attorney

Late last week, Mayor Vincent C. Gray announced that the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP), an important program providing food to low-income D.C. seniors, would be extended through the end of 2011.  Advocates, such as Legal Aid, had been concerned that the program would end with the close of the fiscal year on September 30, leaving thousands of seniors without essential food such as juice, cereal, rice, dry beans, or canned goods.  Approximately 6,647 seniors who have a gross income below 130% of the federal poverty level receive a bag of $58 worth of groceries each month through CSFP.  They will continue to receive these critical items with no break in service due to the Mayor’s recent commitment to extending CFSP.  Given the very real economic pressures facing many District residents—and especially seniors on fixed incomes—the extension of a program such as CSFP comes at a critical time.  However, the extension is also a reminder of the precarious fates of many locally- and federally-funded benefits programs in this season of budget-cutting.  While Legal Aid is pleased that many of our clients and community members can continue to rely on the food provided through CFSP through the end of the year, we and other advocates will not stop our ongoing work to ensure that any upcoming budget cuts or programmatic reductions are fair to all D.C. residents.

Stephanie Troyer, Supervising Attorney - Family Unit

Every day at Legal Aid, we work with families living in poverty.  In a recent post, we highlighted the staggering poverty rates contained in the 2010 Census data. Further analysis of that data, together with new sobering numbers, reveal the truly dire circumstances faced by our clients and their children.  

Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported that the District has the highest rate of childhood poverty in the Nation. In our nation’s capital, almost one in three children is growing up poor. Of the more than 30,000 children living in poverty in the District last year, 90 percent were black, 8 percent Hispanic, and less than half a percent were white. Nationwide, Hispanic children now comprise the largest group of children living in poverty, and the rate of poverty for both black and Hispanic children is approximately three times the rate of poverty for white children. 

In addition to the challenges of widespread poverty, the Post also recently reported on the high rate of self-reported suicide attempts by District middle school students.  D.C. students consistently report double the national average of 6.3 percent.   

Challenging as the conditions of poverty may be for adults, the most innocent victims of these conditions are children. And as these statistics demonstrate, in the District, an unconscionable number of children are more challenged now than ever.

Saad Gul, Loaned Associate - Steptoe

Over the past 24 hours, a number of news outlets, including the Washington Post , have reported on the latest Census figures showing that a record number of Americans — nearly one in six — live in poverty. And poverty by this measure truly means poverty: An individual making $11,000 or a household of four with a total income of $22,500 is not considered poor. The release of these official Census data simply offers statistical confirmation for what Legal Aid and others in the legal services community have observed since the start of the Great Recession: that the already daunting plight of the poor has become even more desperate. 

Legal Aid has long witnessed the deteriorating reality of the District’s poorest residents. For persons living in poverty, this most recent economic crisis has depleted both government services and private giving at the precise moment when the sharp downturn in the economy has made these kinds of assistance most critical. As such, the need for civil legal services is greater now than ever before. At a recent intake in Legal Aid’s Southeast office, applicants flowed out of a packed waiting room into the lobby outside. Legal clinics to assist veterans have been steadily swamped; additional sessions are snapped up as soon as they are made available. And many agencies have lost count of desperate applicants struggling to obtain or appeal their denial of public benefits, housing, and basic government services, often fighting an uphill battle in proceedings that should never have been brought in the first place. 

Access to civil legal services can make all the difference in the world. For instance, Legal Aid recently managed to assist a client connect her newborn son — who had been born with severe development disabilities — to an assistance program for which he was eligible. Early intervention in this instance was critical: timely treatment will likely enable him to grow up relatively healthy, and almost certainly more healthy than he would have been in the absence of the treatment. Beyond securing access to public benefits and other assistance programs, Legal Aid handles civil matters that go to the very heart of health, safety and security for District residents and their families, from saving homes and to assisting victims of domestic violence. 

Especially in these challenging economic times, we are more committed than ever to ensuring equal access to justice.

Commentary By Barbara Kagan: Raise My Taxes, Please

December 02, 2010 – With the District of Columbia facing a nearly $200 million budget deficit, city hall is receiving lots of advice about how to close the gap. Commentator and longtime District resident Barbara Kagan has a suggestion that might be surprising:

I’ve lived in D.C. for over 30 years. I’m fortunate that, over these years, my family income has gone up. My quality of life has gone up. And now, as D.C. faces an unprecedented fiscal crisis that puts our city at risk, I want my taxes to go up too.

I am one of the District’s high-income earners, one of the thousands of professionals with a household income of more than $200,000 a year. A moderate increase in my taxes is no more than a daily cup of coffee. But it will mean a lot more to this city.

Right now, the District faces a $185 million budget shortfall. Risking funding for programs crucial to continued progress in the city: education reform, public transportation, innovative housing strategies to name a few. The recession has led to a major drop in savings and investment income — and a major increase in unemployment, which has more than doubled in the last three years in the District. All of this has contributed to a drop in tax collections, making it difficult for the city to pay its bills. At the same time, the financial crisis has greatly increased the number of struggling families looking to the D.C. government for help.

More belt-tightening isn’t the answer. Over the last three years, the city has made so many cuts that this year D.C. will spend — adjusted for inflation — $600 million less than in 2008.

Further cuts would cause great harm. Even well-heeled residents will be affected by a decline in those qualities that make them want to live in the city.

Right now, I pay the same tax rate as someone who earns just $40,000 a year, the city’s top tax rate. So someone earning $400,000, or even $4 million, pays the same rate. And high earners pay a lot less as a percentage of income: about 7 percent compared with 10.5 percent for someone earning $45,000 a year.

As D.C. struggles, we have to either do our fair share to keep D.C. moving forward and continue to be able to enjoy all that the city has to offer, or we can simply watch it slip away with a few more dollars in our pockets. The quality of life of upper-income residents of the city cannot in the long run be sustained while so many others struggle to maintain the basic necessities, like food, housing and medical care.

Who wants to sell their house, leave their neighborhood, and move to the suburbs for what amounts to a grande latte a day at Starbucks?

Mayor-elect Gray and Chairman-elect Kwame Brown, I ask you to support a proposal to raise income taxes on people like me.

Click here to listen to this feature: http://wamu.org/news/10/12/02.php#39024.

We thank Barbara and so many members of the legal community for their steadfast support of access to justice.

Eric Angel, Acting Executive Director

Legal Aid’s work with low-income clients facing foreclosure was highlighted in an article in today’s Washington Examiner.  Many thanks to the Neighbors in Need Fund of the Community Foundation for the National Capital Region for the support that helps to make this work possible.

Monica Bell, Liman Fellow

In recent years, the District has cut millions of dollars from its budget for critical services to the low-income community, such as homeless services, affordable housing, childcare services, adult education, mental health services, domestic violence resources, public libraries, and civil legal assistance. The District faces a Fiscal Year 2011 budget shortfall of at least $175 million, which potentially places the social safety net, and the people it serves, at even greater risk.

Legal Aid has joined over sixty other District organizations to endorse “Better Choices,” an initiative led by the Fair Budget Coalition, SOS (Save Our Safety Net), the Metro Labor Council, and Jobs with Justice to urge the District government to take a balanced approach to coping with the budget crisis.  Increasing revenue through progressive tax policy is an essential component of such an approach.  Doing so will ensure that the burden of the budget crisis no longer falls disproportionately on the District’s low-income residents, but rather, is shared across the economic spectrum.

Eric Angel, Acting Executive Director

As was clearly underscored by the Census Bureau’s recent release of poverty statistics, poverty remains a significant – and growing – problem in the nation and the District. The DC Fiscal Policy Institute just released an excellent analysis of poverty in the District entitled “Who Is Low Income In DC.” The report provides a detailed demographic profile of persons living in poverty in the District and proposes policy solutions that will help to move poor and low-income persons out of poverty. It is worth a read.

Greetings!

Over these past several months leading up to the DC primary vote, we’ve all worked hard encouraging candidates to be straight with us about just how exactly they intend to make work pay, make work possible, and make basic needs affordable for ALL district residents. You’ve joined us at countless forums across the city, called into radio shows, and hit the streets to discuss the importance of prioritizing these issues with other DC residents.

The primary vote has come and gone – but our work as citizens is still just beginning. Barring any major surprises, Vincent Gray will be the new mayor. As he begins the process of establishing priorities for a new administration, we must seize this opportunity to let him know what’s most important to us – defeating poverty in our city. But what does that truly mean? As many of you heard at our People’s Forum last Monday, for starters it means increasing access to fresh food, supporting both job creation and job training efforts, decreasing the tax burden on low-income people, and ensuring the youth get access to the services they need. The list goes on…

We need your help! All it takes is two minutes today to send a message to Chairman Gray and tell him what defeating poverty in DC means for you. Have you faced the challenges of poverty in your own life? Do you have ideas on what city leaders could do to lift up struggling residents? What do you want to see prioritized in the halls of the Wilson Building?

Please click here to make your voice heard!

 Sincerely,

Michael and the Defeat Poverty DC team

Jonathan Smith, Executive Director

The most recent numbers out of the Census Bureau on poverty are shocking.  There are more people living in poverty than any time since the 1950’s.   More than 107,000 District residents are below 100% of poverty and more than 207,000 live below 200% of poverty, a measure that more accurately approximates the minimum income needed to pay for  basic needs. 

There is a lot of good work being done by advocacy groups to try and understand these numbers.  I won’t try and repeat the analysis in this blog.   See: 

•  CBPP Statement: September 16, 2010 
• Spotlight on Poverty
• Legal Momentum

There are, however, a couple of observations that have been buried in the reporting:

1. Poverty is not a by-product of the recession.   Poverty has been a persistent problem in the United States and has remained well above 10% of the population since the end of World War II.   In fact, the rate of poverty was higher in the early 1960’s, 1980’s and 1990’s than it is today.  While it is terrific that the media has finally awakened to this issue, the newly announced rates should not be a surprise to anyone who has paid even passing attention.It is important that the goal not be to return to historic poverty levels (down from 14.3% to 12%), but to eliminate poverty altogether.   This issue should not go away just because we are no longer at record numbers of people who are poor.   Even at half of the current rate, the shame of hungery children, jobless parents and seniors without adequate shelter in this land of plenty should move us to action.
2. The rate of poverty is not because there is not enough to go around, but income inequality plays a role:   As we have previously written in this blog, the economic pain caused by the recession is not equally shared.  Record rates of poverty are accompanied by a record income inequality.  Those at the top of the economic scale are doing better than ever.
3. Ending poverty is neither impossible nor a mystery:   It will take political will and persistence to end poverty, but it is possible.   It will require a long term commitment to create real jobs with living wages and programs that connect those who have been excluded from the work force to them.   Income supports will continue to be necessary, but in a functioning job market, they will be required much less.

Jonathan Smith, Executive Director

As the recession lingers and unemployment remains high, pundits are beginning to talk about “structural” changes in the economy that may make it nearly impossible for the United States to ever achieve full-employment.  Those jobs that are being created are, disproportionately, less secure with lower salaries and fewer benefits.  Globalization, changes in competitiveness and even government regulation are blamed.

But what is the role of income inequality?  Even after the Great Recession, the gap between rich and poor is at historic levels.  Slate is doing a terrific series on the origins and effects of income inequality.  The series examines income inequality through the lens of race and gender, government policy, globalization, technology and politics.  It busts many myths and is rich in data.

This issue is of particular interest in the District of Columbia.  For many years, the income gap has been greater here than most of the rest of the nation.   The recession has aggravated the difference between the haves and the have-nots.  Historically wealthy neighborhoods have weathered the crisis and prospered while low-income communities have fallen behind.  The difference in unemployment numbers between Wards 3 and 8 are chilling.  The rate in Ward 8 is 28%, almost 10 times Ward 3 which stands at 3%.   Too bad that this question has not been more of an issue in the local election campaigns.