The social phenomenon of poverty has always been one of the most challenging aspects of social welfare in terms of policies introduced and measures taken to address the problem efficiently. For such a large and cosmopolitan city as New York, with an ethnically diverse population of 8,336,817 people (US Census Bureau, 2019). According to the latest data, the percentage of poverty in New York City constituted 17,9% of the population compared to the nationwide rate of 11,4% (US Census Bureau, 2019). However, in order to address more comprehensive statistics, it would be reasonable to appeal to the “New York City Government Poverty Measure 2018” report issued by the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity (2020), as its findings reveal more insights into the living standards in the NYC as contrasted to the rest of the country. Hence, as far as the poverty levels are concerned, the 2018 report revealed the 19,1% rate of poverty with 41% of NYC residents living in near poverty (Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity, 2020). Hence, while claiming a decrease in the overall statistics, such numbers still reveal that almost half of the NYC population is close to live below the poverty threshold.
The notion of poverty, for the sake of objectivity, is defined by the US Census Bureau (2021) as the condition when the family’s income is lower than a threshold established for a certain number of family members. Considering the fact that the standard of living in NYC is considerably higher in terms of prices on vital goods, the poverty threshold for NYC is higher than that of the overall population, constituting $35,044 compared to $25,465 for an average US poverty unit outside New York (Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity, 2020). Poverty unit, or family, stands for either a group of financially interdependent individuals who share food, housing, and other expenses or an individual who relies solely on one’s income.
The focus of the present project is placed on children’s poverty in NYC, with children’s poverty meaning “the share of children under age 18 who live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level” (The Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2020, “Definitions” section). Hence, the discussion does not account for foster children who comprise a single poverty unit. In order to understand the issue of childhood poverty in the city, it is of paramount importance to define the family units that are prone to appear below the poverty threshold.
According to the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity (2020), the primary characteristics that contribute to one’s poverty status include educational attachment, employment, citizenship status, ethnicity, gender, and family composition. Thus, single female mothers with a child under 18 years of age who represent ethnic minorities are at the highest risk of finding themselves below the poverty threshold in New York (Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity, 2020). As far as the ethnic background is concerned, poverty is the most widespread among the Hispanic population, with a predominantly Hispanic Bronx neighborhood in NYC exposing the highest poverty rates in the city (ibid.). According to the data accumulated by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (2020), prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the population of children in poverty constituted 22% of the children population, or 372,000.
However, after the pandemic started, 325,000 more children appeared below or near the poverty threshold (Brundage & Ramos-Callan, 2020). As a result of increasing poverty rates, more families across the city face Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment (SCR) allegations on the basis of negligence. The latter stands for the family’s inability to secure the children’s proper nutrition, clothing, the standard of living, and education. Hence, having considered the aforementioned data, it becomes evident that there currently exists a demand for assisting low-income families in terms of childcare in order for children to be socially secure and avoid being transferred to foster care facilities. However, for the assistance to be meaningful, it is of paramount importance to pay attention to the demographic patterns of poverty as well as communicate with families directly on the matter of their concerns and awareness of the already existing poverty protection policies.
Literature Review
The widespread issue of child poverty has long been a focus of scientific research for scholars. Indeed, it has been evident for decades that experiencing poverty and the inability to meet basic needs for one’s well-being inevitably leads to some irreversible mental and physical issues such as behavioral problems and chronic diseases. However, as outlined by Pollak and Wolfe (2020), the modern perception of child poverty should place more emphasis on the neurobiological aspect of scholarly research that may help identify how experiencing poverty at a specific age and stage of child’s cognitive development may impact one’s future. However, while developmental consequences of child poverty remain incomplete, it is still evident that the child’s predisposition to poverty leads to adverse effects and hence, shall be addressed and stopped.
Scholars generally hold the opinion that despite the known consequences of child poverty, the US, as a developed country with unprecedentedly high child poverty rates, fails to invest enough time and effort to combat the issue. Thus, in a comparative study conducted by Cai and Smeeding (2020), the authors estimate that when compared to middle-income countries, US child support policies are less effective due to the fact that both scopes of the projects and their funding are incompatible with the poverty rates. For example, Shaefer et al. (2018) indicate that some of the national child support policies, including Child Tax Credit and tax exemption, are only available for families where parents have all-time access to employment, abandoning the majority of families below the poverty threshold consisting of a single parent.
Cantillon et al. (2017) present a similar argument, claiming that during the Great Recession in the US, emphasis was placed in order not to increase the poverty rates within the state while paying no attention to the increasing cases of extreme poverty or people living for less than $2 per day. Hence, such a precedent raises the question of whether reducing the number of families with income less than $35,000 outweighs the need to provide social security for those struggling to eat in terms of priority. One of the solutions proposed by Shaefer et al. (2018) included the introduction of an unconditional monthly child allowance.
On the other hand, the research conducted by Cuesta and Meyer (2018) discusses the opportunities to secure child support in case unconditional governmental funding is impossible. Such a solution, according to the authors, includes the extensive policies on child support from non-resident parents (NRPs) or the parents who do not live with their children. Although already existing, these policies are currently extremely inefficient in the US, as a reasonable share of NRPs’ payments is withheld by the government and taxing policies (ibid.).
Most recently, scholars were urged to pay attention to the notion of child poverty in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, according to Van Lancker and Parolin (2020), school closures and education from home have presented a severe challenge for low-income families. Indeed, children have become rather constrained by their environment and inability to keep up with their studies without necessary equipment as well as unable to receive social benefits such as childcare and nutrition at school. As a result, the literature demonstrates that currently, the US is incapable of addressing the growing concern of child poverty efficiently, and the reconsideration of present policies is highly recommended.
Policy Proposals
Based on the data and scholarly evidence demonstrated above, a series of policy changes may be introduced. First, the current child allowance benefits such as the Child Tax Credit and tax exemption should be reconsidered in terms of payment frequency and eligibility. Indeed, a yearly incentive for working parents, while alleviates the possible increase in child poverty rates, abandons the majority of families below the poverty threshold. Another suggestion concerns the expansion of childcare and housing vouchers programs in order to assist families with very low income.
Third, it would be of paramount importance to enhance the functionality of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) so that children would receive proper nutrition even outside the school premises, as the ongoing pandemic limits the children’s access to education and food. Additionally, there is a strong need to implement policies such as Early Head Start and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) for children aged five and older, as there is a gap in terms of social welfare for kids who are no longer considered young enough to enroll for such programs. Finally, it is necessary to create programs aimed at assistance for single mothers and immigrants as some of the most vulnerable social groups.
References
Brundage, S. C., & Ramos-Callan, K. (2020). COVID-19 ripple effect: The impact of COVID-19 on children in New York State.
Cai, Y., & Smeeding, T. (2020). Deep and extreme child poverty in rich and poor nations: Lessons from Atkinson for the fight against child poverty.Italian Economic Journal, 6(1), 109-128.
Cantillon, B., Chzhen, Y., Handa, S., & Nolan, B. (Eds.). (2017). Children of austerity: Impact of the Great Recession on child poverty in rich countries. Oxford University Press.
Cuesta, L., & Meyer, D. R. (2018). Child poverty and child support policy: A comparative analysis of Colombia and the United States. Children and Youth Services Review, 93, 143-153.
Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity. (2020). New York City government poverty measure 2018 [PDF document].
Pollak, S. D., & Wolfe, B. L. (2020). Maximizing research on the adverse effects of child poverty through consensus measures.Developmental Science, 23(6), e12946.
Shaefer, H. L., Collyer, S., Duncan, G., Edin, K., Garfinkel, I., Harris, D., Smeeding, T. M., Waldfogel, J., Wimer, C., & Yoshikawa, H. (2018). A universal child allowance: A plan to reduce poverty and income instability among children in the United States. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 4(2), 22-42.
The Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2020). Children in poverty (100 percent poverty) in New York City.
US Census Bureau. (2019). Quick facts: New York City, New York; United States.
Van Lancker, W., & Parolin, Z. (2020). COVID-19, school closures, and child poverty: a social crisis in the making. The Lancet Public Health, 5(5), e243-e244.