Report: Poverty Rates Steady, But Many in NJ Still in Need
Play
TRENTON, N.J. - The poverty rate didn't move much between 2016 and 2017, but many New Jerseyans still are struggling.
On this International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, the latest New Jersey Poverty Snapshot finds more than 880,000, or 10 percent of people in the state, lived in poverty in 2017.
Renee Koubiadis, who heads the Anti-Poverty Network of New Jersey, said housing costs are a big burden. According to the report, the majority of people making less than $35,000 a year spend more than half of their wages on rent.
"We are a high-cost state," Koubiadis said, "so it makes it even harder for people who are living with incomes that are too low to get by, and to meet just basic needs - for themselves, for their families."
The report found that communities of color are hit hardest, with about 18 percent of African-Americans and more than 17 percent of Latinos in New Jersey living in poverty, compared with only 6 percent of whites. Children are the age group most likely to be living in poverty, it said, at a rate of 13 percent. The Anti-Poverty Network of New Jersey and Coalition on Human Needs put together the snapshot.
Deborah Weinstein, executive director of the Coalition on Human Needs, said the data her coalition is collecting show continued pockets of poverty and extreme poverty - despite national averages that say the nation's poverty level has improved.
"We know that in a growing economy, we should expect a lot of progress," Weinstein said. "We're getting some progress, but the rate of progress is slowing, and that's leaving a lot of people still struggling to make ends meet."
Weinstein said proposed work requirements on benefits for housing, Medicaid and food assistance would hurt many of the New Jerseyans in poverty. She said most people who receive public assistance already work - but at jobs that don't offer steady hours, or sufficient hours to pay their bills.
"They may have many expenses, no benefits, no sick leave," she said, "and all of these things make it very hard for people to work in a stable way that's going to deliver the kinds of earnings they need."
One bright spot in the report: Since New Jersey expanded its Medicaid program, the number of people without health insurance has decreased by 5.5 percentage points since 2013.
Play