Poverty in America

The U.S. Census Bureau released a new report yesterday regarding the state of poverty in the United States. The report is entitled Income, Poverty and Health Insurance inthe United States: 2010. You can find the press release which includes a summary of their findings here. You can also read the full report here.
Here's a summary of highlights from this report:

• The official poverty rate in 2010 was 15.1 percent — up from 14.3 percent in 2009. This was the third consecutive annual increase in the poverty rate. Since 2007, the poverty rate has increased by 2.6 percentage points, from 12.5 percent to 15.1 percent.
• In 2010, 46.2 million people were in poverty, up from 43.6 million in 2009—the fourth consecutive annual increase in the number of people in poverty.
• Between 2009 and 2010, the poverty rate increased for non-Hispanic Whites (from 9.4 percent to 9.9 percent), for Blacks (from 25.8 percent to 27.4 percent), and for Hispanics (from 25.3 percent to 26.6 percent). For Asians, the 2010 poverty rate (12.1 percent) was not statistically different from the 2009 poverty rate.
• The poverty rate in 2010 (15.1 percent) was the highest poverty rate since 1993 but was 7.3 percentage points lower than the poverty rate in 1959, the first year for which poverty estimates are available.
• The number of people in poverty in 2010 (46.2 million) is the largest number in the 52 years for which poverty estimates have been published.
• Between 2009 and 2010, the poverty rate increased for children under age 18 (from 20.7 percent to 22.0 percent) and people aged 18 to 64 (from 12.9 percent to 13.7 percent), but was not statistically different for people aged 65 and older (9.0 percent).

The sobering reality for me when I read these statistics is that I realize how much need is all around the TriState Habitat for Humanity service area. There are more people than ever before who may qualify for Habitat's home ownership program. It appears that there is an ever-growing number of people who may have need for a safe, decent, affordable home in which to live.

This means there is much work to do. My job is to reach out to these families and encourage them to apply. As I oversee and implement our family recuritment efforts, it is more important than ever to recognize that there is a growing number of people who maybe just a few years ago would not qualify for a Habitat home but now do because they are living in poverty.

I ask for your prayers for our family recruitment efforts. I am beginning to see the fruits of some of our targeted direct mailings but we still need more families in some parts of our service area. We are always looking for families who are in need of a decent home, have the ability to make monthly mortgage payments, and are willing to partner with Habitat by completing sweat equity volunteer hours and other requirements of the program. While our program is certainly not for everyone, I know there are people out there who do meet our qualifications. Please pray that they will be open to applying.

Thank you for your prayers and for being a part of my journey!