URSI 100--Introduction to the City

Poverty in the City

Poverty line—level

Poverty line—basis

Why hasn’t poverty declined since early 1970s?

            --Structure of poverty

                        >children

                        >family structure

            --Urban “ghetto”

                        >meaning of term (shtetl)

                        >disappearance of work

History of Poverty Programs

            --New Deal:  AFDC, WPA (“worthy poor”)

            --1964  Economic Opportunity Act--War on Poverty (roots of poverty are systematic rather than individual)

                        > CAPs (“maximum feasible participation”)—HeadStart, VISTA

                        >Manpower development—JobCorps (1964), CETA (1973),  JTPA (1983)

            --1965  Food Stamp program & Medicaid

            --1970’s—HEW studies (DIME & SIME) find that income support reduces hours worked and increases divorce & separation

            --1996—Comprehensive Welfare Reform Act

                        >abolished AFDC

                        >limited public assistance to 5 years over a lifetime

                        >welfare to work provisions

 

Based on LEVY, J.M. 2000. Urban America:  Processes & Problems.  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Prentice Hall.

MSU

© 2003 A.J.Filipovitch
Revised 1 January 06