Politics & Government

Poll Shows NYC Poverty Rate Eased Since 2011

Poverty level has fallen three percentage points since the end of the national recession in 2009

This article was posted by Caitlin Nolan. It was reported on and written by C. Zawadi Morris. 

From 2008 to 2010, New York City was a city deeply impacted by the recession — big declines in unemployment and earned income. The situation was dire enough to push nearly half of the city’s population into the ranks of the poor or near-poor in 2011, according to an analysis by the Bloomberg administration, reported The New York Times.   

The city says a two-adult, two-child family is poor if it earns less than $30,949 a year.    

But by 2011, about 46 percent of New Yorkers were making less than 150 percent of the poverty threshold, a benchmark used to describe people who are not officially poor but who still struggle to get by.   

That represents a rise of more than three percentage points since 2009, when the nation’s recession officially ended. By the city’s definition, a family with two adults and two children could earn $46,416 a year and still fall within 150 percent of the city’ poverty level.  

“The city we see in 2011, is one that’s at a turning point,” said Mark Levitan, director of poverty research for the Center for Economic Opportunity. “We get to 2011 and things have leveled off. We haven’t turned the corner, but that may occur soon. After two bad years, things are not getting worse, and that’s the beginning of things getting better.” 

However, while the center’s annual report, to be released this week, suggested that a better job market helped reverse the tide of poverty last year, the outlook for this year and beyond remains to be seen as cutbacks in federal programs could threaten any recovery and place pressure on the next mayor to maintain or expand public assistance. 

“Coinciding with the end of the slump in the job market is the end of the recession-related expansion of the safety net,” Dr. Levitan wrote, which could reduce food stamp benefits on top of cutbacks in unemployment insurance, tax credits and the payroll tax rate.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Fort Greene-Clinton Hill