While the latest figures indicate some decline in poverty, caused by a robust economy and low unemployment, concentrated poverty persists in distressed urban areas, particularly within certain neighborhoods, disproportionately affecting minority populations. Moreover, while more jobs are being created, many require a higher level of skill than these urban residents possess. There is still sizable mismatch between the number of low-skilled jobs and the number of low-skilled urban residents who need work. In addition, inadequate transportation to entry-level jobs, often in the suburbs, and lack of affordable childcare remain substantial barriers for those living in poverty. As a result, African American and Hispanic families, more disadvantaged than their white counterparts when welfare rolls peaked in 1994, are leaving the system less rapidly than white recipients, pushing the minority share of the welfare caseload to the highest level on record. The JCPA believes that states must emphasize strong job placement and training, including successful welfare-to-work programs, and the provision of transportation and child care services to help those who live in conditions of concentrated poverty make successful transitions from welfare to work. As states experiment with welfare-to-work models, the JCPA will attempt to identify and encourage broader use of the most effective programs.

While more families in general have left welfare for work, many remain poor, and in some cases have fallen even deeper into poverty, resulting from the cuts of cash and food assistance in welfare. Recognizing that low-wage work often is not sufficient to lift a family out of poverty, the JCPA supports expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)-with

Return to top of this page

reasonable safeguards against abuse-to boost compensation for low-paid work, and calls for an increase in the minimum wage. The JCPA will advocate the concept of linking the minimum wage to the annual Consumer Price Index to address the ongoing need to sustain a wage level reflective of changing economic conditions.

Another concern for low-wage workers, as well as for working families and the elderly on fixed incomes, is availability of affordable housing. Currently, because federal funding has been limited, some 15 million people eligible for federal housing aid do not receive it, and an estimated 600,000 are homeless on any given night. The JCPA supports legislation with adequate funding to ensure that low-income families can access affordable housing, as well as measures to provide emergency assistance to overcrowded shelters.

In the months ahead, the nation will turn its attention to proposals to reform Social Security in order to ensure its long-term solvency. Along with Medicare, Social Security is responsible for securing the economic well being of large numbers of senior citizens. It has also kept millions of seniors, widows, children and the disabled above the poverty line. While proposals for reform range from incremental changes to privatization of the system, decisions will require serious and careful deliberation. There are concerns that changes in guaranteed benefit levels could seriously impact the elderly, placing them at a high risk of poverty. The JCPA will monitor reform efforts, mindful of the obligation to protect vulnerable groups and to avoid placing the elderly at risk.