Practitioner-Scholar Roundtables

WCPC is pleased to announce that two practitioner-scholar Roundtables were launched in February, 2012. The goal of these Roundtable projects is to provide a forum for researchers, practitioners, and community policy leaders with similar interests to share their experiences, and develop relationships that could lead to opportunities for collaboration.

WCPC affiliate Marieka Klawitter and Dave Sieminski, Managing Director of Express Advantage, a Seattle-based financial capability builder, led the first meeting of Asset Building Roundtable on February 17th. The lively conversation produced an outline of topics and questions for future research. The group will meet again in May to focus on issues concerning debt, credit, and pathways to asset-building.

Sarah Lewontin, Executive Director at Bellwether Housing, and WCPC affiliate Rachel Kleit led the inaugural WCPC Housing and Poverty Roundtable discussion on February 29. The wide-ranging discussion revolved around three overlapping themes: the needs and dynamics of immigrant and refugee communities with regard to housing, poverty, and social mobility; the housing experiences of low-income households; and issues of economic, social, and geographic mobility and how they intersect with local policy action and concerns for regional equity.

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WCPC AFFILIATES SPEAK AT UNEMPLOYMENT EVENT

Unemployed Nation Hearings

The WCPC co-sponsored the Unemployed Nation Hearings, which sought to bring attention to the plight of the nearly 23 million Americans who are unemployed, are underemployed, or have stopped looking for work. As WCPC Director Marcia K. Meyers noted, this 23 million is equal to the entire working-age population of Canada. According to WCPC Affiliate Becky Pettit, periods of long-term unemployment during previous economic downturns have been shown to contribute to lower wages over the life course as well as disruptions in family functioning. Pettit stressed that the impacts of the current recession, in which the average length of a period of unemployment is longer than at any other point since this data has been collected, remain to be seen. WCPC Affiliates James Gregory and Charles Hirschman also participated in the hearings.
See the PPT slide presentations here.
See the Unemployed Nation Hearings website with testimonials, resources, video of the event, and more here.

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WCPC ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR SPEAKS AT NEW MEXICO FAMILY IMPACT SEMINAR

Continuing Recession: Impact on Economic Security

WCPC Associate Director and Associate Professor of Social Work, Jennifer Romich, was an invited speaker at the January 10-11 New Mexico Family Impact Seminar. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has awarded funding to New Mexico State University to provide Family Impact Seminars for state policymakers. The Seminars provide high-quality and objective research to New Mexico legislators on timely policy issues affecting the state's children and families. The Seminars aim to build greater use of research in policy decisions and encourage policymakers to examine the family impacts of policies and programs.
See the slides here.

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WCPC DIRECTOR GIVES TALK ON INEQUALITY

Marcia Meyers speaks at session on income inequality

On January 11, Marcia Meyers, Professor of Social Work and Public Affairs and WCPC Director, spoke at the Washington State House of Representatives, Labor & Workforce Development Committee's Income Inequality Work Session.
See the agenda of the session here.
See Dr. Meyers' PowerPoint presentation here.

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NEW, MORE NUANCED POVERTY MEASURE COUNTS 16% OF AMERICANS AS POOR IN 2010

After years of debate over how to improve the federal poverty measure, the Census Bureau recently released an alternative measure of poverty. The new measure, called the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), shows a slightly higher share of Americans living in poverty in 2010 compared with the traditional poverty measure (16 percent versus 15 percent). Unlike the traditional measure, the SPM takes into account households’ receipt of non-cash benefits such as food stamps and energy assistance as well as costs such as child support payments; variation in the cost of living in different areas; non-discretionary costs such as work expenses, child care, and medical expenses; and variation in housing costs depending on whether a family rents or owns its home. In addition, the threshold against which poverty is measured under the SPM will be adjusted to take into account changes in American households’ spending patterns and standard of living.

Changes in sub-group poverty rates under the SPM reflect these differences from the traditional measure. For example, poverty among the elderly is higher and poverty among children is lower in 2010 under the SPM than under the traditional measure. This reflects the addition of in-kind benefits and government assistance targeted at families with children as well as the subtraction of medical expenses from household resources. As another example, poverty rates among residents of non-metropolitan areas are lower and poverty in metropolitan areas is higher under the SPM because of cost-of-living adjustments, which increase the poverty thresholds for families living in urban and suburban areas and reduce them for those living in rural areas.

One contribution of the new measure is that it can demonstrate the impact of government programs and non-discretionary spending on households’ financial situations. For example, if the value of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) was not included in the measure, the SPM poverty rate would have been 18 percent instead of 16 percent; if food stamps were not included, it would have been 17.1 percent. If out-of-pocket medical expenses had not been subtracted from a family’s income, the SPM poverty rate would have been 12.7 percent.

The new measure will be used primarily for research purposes and will not be used to distribute federal funds.

For more information about the measure or to read the full report, click here.

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NEW CENSUS DATA ON STATE LEVEL POVERTY

Poverty Increasing and Incomes Declining in the West Coast States

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey show that poverty rates increased between 2009 and 2010 in California, Oregon, and Washington. According to the new data, 15.8 percent of California’s population was poor in 2010 compared with 14.2 percent in 2009. In Oregon, the rate increased from 14.3 percent to 15.8 percent. In Washington State, the rate rose from 12.3 percent to 13.4 percent. Poverty rates were particularly high among children and working age adults, as well as among minority groups and female-headed households.

In addition to increasing rates of poverty, incomes declined among the general population. Real median household incomes dropped 4.1 percent in California, 5.5 percent in Oregon, and 3.1 percent in Washington between 2009 and 2010, compared with a 2.2 percent decline in the nation as a whole during that period.

Marcia K. Meyers, Professor of Social Work and Public Affairs and director of the West Coast Poverty Center at the University of Washington, notes that the fact that poverty rates are increasing more than a year after the recession ended highlights the gaps in the safety net for poor families and children. “Many safety net programs are now linked to employment and funded with state revenues, which are also on the decline,” said Meyers. “As long as unemployment remains high, we can expect to see more families falling into poverty.”

Click here to hear Dr. Meyers in a conversation about poverty in Washington State and King County.

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NEW CENSUS DATA ON NATIONAL LEVEL POVERTY

Nearly 1 in 6 Americans were poor in 2010

New Census data show that, although the most recent recession officially ended in June 2009, the poverty rate for the U.S. increased from 14.3 percent in 2009 to 15.1 percent in 2010. The poverty rate has increased 2.6 percentage points since 2007. While poverty rates are not at historic highs, the number of Americans who were poor in 2010, 46.2 million, is the highest recorded since the Census Bureau began measuring poverty in 1959. The poverty line varies by family size. In 2010, a family of two adults and two children would be considered poor if its annual income fell below $22,113. Of those who were counted as poor, 44 percent had incomes below 50 percent of the relevant poverty threshold.
Read the full Census Bureau report here.
Reach related articles quoting WCPC Affiliate and Associate Professor of Public Affairs, Marieka Klawitter: Bellhingham Herald; KPLU; KIRO.