NewsCloud.com Poverty News

Higher prices are making it harder for elderly to buy food they need

While the shaky economy has made it more difficult for low-income people to meet their basic needs, the problem is deeper for the elderly and those with disabilities. Many are unable to shop for groceries, get to food banks or prepare their meals. They spoke of the choices they had to make between buying food or medicine, or paying their utility bills. "There's quite a bit of people here who live on peanut butter sandwiches -- that's it," one resident said.

More People Living Below Poverty Line

The poverty-fighting institution said there were 1.4 billion people a quarter of the developing world living in extreme poverty on less than $1.25 a day in 2005.

Seattle Mayor and Council Think $1,115 a Month for Rent is Affordable Housing

While the abundance of cranes on the Seattle skyline seems to indicate there remains some profitability in development, the Seattle City Council hesitated Tuesday to actually put some teeth behind infrastructure taxes on this period of growth: To some low-income-housing advocates, spending $1,115 a month to rent a studio apartment in Seattle does not sound affordable. Mayor Greg Nickels and the Seattle City Council say it is. The city defines an affordable place as costing no more than 30 percent of a household's income. Separately, the city now spends $40 million a year in voter-approved levy funds on low-income housing targeted at people who make below 50 percent of median income.

YouTube - Social crisis in Detroit

The World Socialist Web Site interviewed workers and professionals in Detroit about the worsening social conditions as gas prices and food prices soar through the roof. In this clip, our reporters spoke with Jada Browning a young mother of three who recently lost her job.

Vancouver's Bed Bug Plague

At least once a week in Vancouver, bug exterminator Mark Amery enters a private home, lifts a mattress and watches the box spring move with blood-sucking vermin. It's an optical illusion caused by up to a thousand twitching bed bugs, each no larger than a lentil, which are infesting more houses, rental apartments and hotel rooms in Vancouver today than at any point in the city's modern history.

America is rotting from the inside

Politicians are failing to comprehend the breadth of the US infrastructure crisis. Only disasters move our representatives to act - and in an election year, even those actions seem spotty at best and disingenuous at worst. The United States has much more than failing bridges to find, fund and fix. A comprehensive report by Dr. Denny Wilkins.

Local Retired carpenter offers hot soup, warm smile to homeless on Seattle's Capitol Hill

Bill Pond parks his pickup twice a week on Broadway Avenue East near a boarded-up Jack in the Box. There, he offers chicken soup, egg-salad sandwiches and juice to the homeless. The retired carpenter pays for it out of his own pocket, collecting and recycling aluminum cans to help offset some of the cost.

Poverty Built into BC's System

Two-year study looks at welfare policies' effects on people.

The report calls her Lorraine. After being cut off welfare for a reason she said was unfair, she had no income. She lost her home, started skipping more meals to save money and returned to prostitution. In hopes of leaving the sex trade, she went back to an abusive ex-partner who assaulted her badly enough to break some of her bones.

A neighbourhood speaks - and hears its own voice

'I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them," photographer Diane Arbus once wrote. It's a comment that came repeatedly to mind reading Hope in Shadows, a collection of photographs taken and stories told by residents of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. The book, which comes out next month, grew from a popular program run over the past five years by the Pivot Legal Society, a non-profit legal advocacy organization based in the neighbourhood. Since 2003, Pivot has been handing out cameras to residents and assembling pictures in a calendar. If you live or work in the downtown area, Gastown or Yaletown in particular, you've likely bought one of these from a street vendor at some point.

From Welfare Shift in ’96, a Reminder for Clinton

In the summer of 1996, President Bill Clinton delivered on his pledge to "end welfare as we know it." Despite howls of protest from some liberals, he signed into law a bill forcing recipients to work and imposing a five-year limit on cash assistance. Skip to next paragraph Blog The Caucus The CaucusThe latest political news from around the nation. Join the discussion. * Candidate Topic Pages * More Politics News Todd Rosenberg The measure weakened the friendship of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Marian Wright Edelman, shown in 1999. As first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton supported her husband's decision, drawing the wrath of old friends from her days as an advocate for poor children.

As Jobs Vanish and Prices Rise, Food Stamp Use Nears Record

Driven by a painful mix of layoffs and rising food and fuel prices, the number of Americans receiving food stamps is projected to reach 28 million in the coming year, the highest level since the aid program began in the 1960s.

What microloans miss

But, on their own, they often don’t do much to make poor countries richer. This isn’t because microloans don’t work; it’s because of how they work. The idealized view of microfinance is that budding entrepreneurs use the loans to start and grow businesses — expanding operations, boosting inventory, and so on. The reality is more complicated.

Why Democrats Should Not Neglect the Deep South

Still, during national elections, the more progressive party, the Democrats, basically write off the South as un-winnable during national elections which in turn, further fuels a sense that parts of this nation have been truly left behind.

"$5 iPod" follows in $100 laptop tradition

Bridging the Information and Literacy Divide with a $5 audio player and content network for the poorest of the world.

Pickton found guilty on 6 counts of 2nd-degree murder

A B.C. Supreme Court jury on Sunday found Robert William Pickton guilty on six counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of women who disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. He still faces murder charges in connection with the deaths of 20 other women, but no decision has been made on whether to hold a second trial, B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal said.