poverty

Many Maryland parents struggle to feed their kids when they have to stretch their SNAP dollars during the summer months. A new program will address this.

If the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has its way, a new federal poverty calculation will underestimate the number of families living in poverty,

Much of the Port Covington development project in Baltimore qualifies as an opportunity zone for lucrative tax breaks due to misaligned maps.

The move will create resources for students living in poverty at the Towson school.

By Libby Solomon

Jun 12, 2019

An advocate started gathering items to help needy high school students six years ago. Today it is a non-profit serving several schools.

Baltimore is obligated to provide water for the health and safety of its residents, yet the Department of Public Works has functioned without accountability.

John Hopkins Hospital has filed more than 2,400 lawsuits in Maryland courts since 2009, seeking to collect medical debt from its patients, many low income.

Colleges have a responsibility to let potential low-income students know that the real costs of attendance are often much lower than the sticker price.

Denying much-needed funds from city schools with greatest burden of low-income students is an outrage. So why is that about to happen?

Just four years ago, more than 90 percent of students at John Ruhrah Elementary/Middle were identified as low-income — and that qualified the school for $250,000 in badly needed funds. A policy change has made that money disappear — even though the school's student population is no less needy.

By Talia Richman

May 6, 2019

It’s no secret that American workers face a major retirement crisis, with more and more retirees relying on Social Security for most of their income. But the average monthly Social Security benefit in Maryland is only slightly above the poverty line. What to do? Use the delay and gain strategy.

After Baltimore’s wettest year on record, housing advocates are seeking more protections for low-income tenants battling mold in their rental homes — and a city councilman is calling for a hearing on the problem.

By Yvonne Wenger

Apr 15, 2019

It is good that the General Assembly has approved a $15 minimum wage, but it won't go into affect until 2023 and families living in poverty need the increase now.

We know that it’s not only the ultra rich or those willing to break the law who have an advantage in college admissions. Many with the means will do all they can to ensure that their children get into the best college possible. Often, this means spending money on standardized test prep.

Baltimore City was ranked the least healthy jurisdiction in Maryland and Montgomery County was ranked the healthiest for the sixth year in a row, according to the latest ranking from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

By Meredith Cohn

Mar 19, 2019

Poor children in Baltimore City are being undercounted. This is a systemic problem put in place four years ago, when we stopped collecting lunch applications, used for decades to set poverty rates. The proxy for poverty, critical for determining school supports, is now a flawed measure.

The state's child support system needs to be fixed so that parents aren't punished when they can't afford child support.

The Community Builders non-profit development corporation bout 149 properties in Druid Heights in Baltimore for $1 apiece to turn them into high-quality mixed income housing. But that plan now appears to have been replaced with one for low-income rental housing, perpetuating area poverty.

In a recent discussion about concentrated poverty and our public schools, a colleague mentioned that, “poverty was going down,” in an attempt to de-emphasize the need for greater education funding. Problem is, official definitions of poverty often don’t reflect the reality of day to day life.

William "Brit" Kirwan says the work of the education commission that bears his name may be the most meaningful of his many years in education.

Why isn’t the United States doing more to address global poverty? The general public drastically overestimates what is being done to address global poverty. Americans incorrectly estimate that 20 percent of the federal budget goes to foreign aid.

The number of hate groups in Maryland and across the country grew in 2018 to its highest level on record, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported Wednesday. In Maryland, new groups included four black nationalist groups, the Proud Boys and a mix of Ku Klux Klan, neo-nazi and white nationalists.

By Catherine Rentz

Feb 20, 2019

Part of the difficulty in fighting crime in Baltimore is that the drug organizations have more money and resources than the police.

Raising standards for rental housing may displace some low-income tenants, but the answer isn't allowing landlords to rent out squalid apartments.

A new report from the Urban Institute shows that Baltimore has not overcome the racist policies of the past and investment in poorer African-American neighborhoods is woefully lagging.

By Meredith Cohn

Feb 7, 2019

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A $25 million anti-poverty initiative is launching in urban, suburban and rural areas, including Baltimore.

By Yvonne Wenger

Feb 4, 2019

Imagine what America could do if we invested $1.5 trillion in our children, instead of tax cuts going mainly to the rich. That kind of money could provide appropriate nutrition and preschool experiences to all of our nation’s children.

City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young and the city’s Department of Public Works have competing proposals on how to make water bills more affordable for those who have the toughest time paying them.

During this week’s hearings to confirm William Barr for the U.S. attorney general position, the Senate must bring Mr. Barr’s positions on important civil rights issues into sharper focus.

Water rates in Baltimore will go up 30 percent over the next three years after a vote by the city’s spending board Wednesday. The vote followed a Department of Public Works presentation in support of the increase and public testimony against it.

By Colin Campbell

Jan 9, 2019

Too many moms are bleaching and reusing diapers because they can't afford enough of a supply for their babies. The federal government needs to seriously consider covering the cost.

Five members of Baltimore’s City Council are demanding that the Department of Public Works launch an independent study to justify a recently announced water-rate increase. 

By Christina Tkacik

Jan 8, 2019

For women trying not to get pregnant, long-acting reversible contraceptives, or LARCs, are among the best options available, but we need to make sure low-income women aren't coerced into using them.

A much anticipated proposal to significantly increase state aid to Maryland’s local school systems has been delayed yet another year, to the dismay of many teachers, parents and education advocates.

By Luke Broadwater

Dec 19, 2018

We broke ground to elevate Baltimore as a model for the country by banning water privatization, and with the introduction of the Water Accountability and Equity Act, we are taking the crucial next step toward realizing a more just water system. Now the real work begins.

New datasets from the U.S. Census Bureau cover poverty, home ownership, languages spoken at home, and, for the first time, broadband internet use.

By Christine Zhang

Dec 7, 2018

Johns Hopkins University was in the news recently as the result of a $1.8-billion gift from Michael Bloomberg. When I read about it, I immediately emailed Hopkins President Ron Daniels, and joked that perhaps Mr. Bloomberg should have invested at least $100 million of that in Morgan State.

Baltimore water rates would rise 9 percent each of the next three years under a Department of Public Works proposal. It also creates a new assistance program for poor customers that would help with their monthly bills. The proposal will go before the city's spending board on Jan. 9.

By Jean Marbella

Dec 1, 2018

As the Baltimore Bike Share system languished again this summer, the program’s vendor billed the city more than half a million dollars for operational costs “highly beyond the initial level” and asked the city to bundle bicycle theft reports to exceed the company's $10,000 insurance deductible.

By Colin Campbell

Nov 19, 2018

Who received thumbs up from the Carroll County Times this week?

Pandering to racial prejudices is the last thing that Baltimore County needs from a candidate for county executive. The county has made some progress toward building more affordable housing and integrating neighborhoods; reversing course now would be tragic.

Recent FBI data show that Baltimore has the worst homicide rate in the nation, and the second highest violent crime rate, yet we shouldn’t worry, counsels Mayor Catherine Pugh, because she's "attacking the root causes of poverty." Lip service to this tired cliche will not help the city.

A few years ago, the United Way developed a statistic called ALICE, which stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. Essentially, the moniker is to paint a more realistic picture of how many people are struggling to make ends meet in a community, even though they have a good, steady j

A decade on from the financial crisis of 2008, and many economic indicators seem pretty good: Maryland’s unemployment rate has held steady at 4.3 percent over the summer, while U.S. second quarter growth hit 4.2 percent, the highest rate since 2014.

United Way of Central Maryland released its latest ALICE report, which defines residents whose income is above the federal poverty line but cannot support to afford basic household items.

By Jess Nocera

Sep 13, 2018

Social mobility — the idea that you can erase class lines, move up in the world, do better than your parents did — has all but disappeared. Inequality has reached historic proportions in today's America.

Carson's story of climbing out of poverty to become a world-renowned surgeon was once ubiquitous in Baltimore, where Carson made his name. But his role in the Trump administration has added a complicated epilogue.

SNAP is at risk as Congress attempts to reconcile two very different versions of the Farm Bill, one passed in the U.S. House of Representatives and the other, far superior bill that passed the Senate earlier this summer.

Of the many important decisions policy makers face this election season, one of the most critical is how to strengthen and preserve Social Security to ensure its availability for future generations.