Year: 2015

Prevent homelessness? Break the cycle of poverty? It’s not just his dream but his job.

Sometimes, he just hopes they’ll open the door. But the prospect seemed unlikely on this cloudy morning as Lamar Smith, 36, approached the brick walk-up. The lights were off, the blinds closed; no sign of anyone in this Southeast Washington home.

Grapes of wrath: California farmworkers fight to unionize

FRESNO, Calif. — When Jose Dolores began picking grapes at Gerawan Farming in California’s San Joaquin Valley in 1990, the company was paying a little over the state minimum wage of $4.25 an hour. “We just weren’t making enough, and everything cost a lot. That’s why people wanted the union,” he recalls.

Majority of U.S. public school students are in poverty

For the first time in at least 50 years, a majority of U.S. public school students come from low-income families, according to a new analysis of 2013 federal data, a statistic that has profound implications for the nation.The Southern Education Foundation reports that 51 percent of students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade in the 2012-2013 school year were eligible for the federal program that provides free and reduced-price lunches. The lunch program is a rough proxy for poverty, but the explosion in the number of needy children in the nation’s public classrooms is a recent phenomenon that has been gaining attention among educators, public officials and researchers.

This powerful Reddit thread reveals how the poor get by in America

The poor pay more for everything, from rolls of toilet paper to furniture. It’s not because they’re spendthrifts, either. If you’re denied a checking account, there’s no way for you to avoid paying a fee to cash a paycheck. If you need to buy a car to get to work, you’ll have to accept whatever higher interest rate you’re offered. If you don’t have a car, the bus fare might eat up the change you’d save shopping at a larger grocery store as opposed to the local corner store.

As aid reaches Syrians, U.N. chief says withholding food is a war crime

UNITED NATIONS — The head of the United Nations said on Thursday that the warring parties in Syria were committing war crimes by withholding food from civilians. He called for all sides to lift their sieges immediately and unconditionally “as a confidence-building gesture” ahead of peace talks scheduled for Jan. 25.