People ask me if there still really is a need for the services Huffman House provides. And arent we just duplicating efforts? Here is one answer: Report: TANF Insufficient in Battling Poverty (Mother Jones, October 23, 2013) According to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the value of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash benefits has steadily declined since welfare reform in 1996. The few people currently receiving cash from the program don’t receive enough to cover rent or utilities. There is no state in which TANF benefits lift a poor single mother of two children above 50 percent of the poverty line ($9700 a year); TANF doesn’t provide enough to raise a poor family, in most southern states, above 10 percent of the poverty line. TANF block grant funding has not increased since 1996, so that the U.S. now spends on poor families 30 percent less overall since the advent of welfare reform. The number of families with children living on $2 a day or less – termed “extreme poverty” – has risen 130 percent since 1996. Nearly seven million more people, between 2005 and 2011, were unable to make a mortgage or rent payment, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 16:22:08 +0000
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