New York has the rather dubious honor of being the city with the most billionaires — 78 — in the world. Not that this makes any difference to the nearly 1 million children stuck in poverty who live practically next to them.
Yes, despite the mind-boggling wealth of some of its residents, 23% of kids — up from 19% in 2008 — live in dire conditions in one of the richest cities in the world. Shamefully, contrary to what one would expect, more children in New York are living in poverty now than during the Great Recession.
The 2015 Kids Count Data Book from the Annie E. Casey Foundation reveals that the percentage of children living in high-poverty neighborhoods has also increased — from 15% in 2006-2010 to 18% in 2009-2013. Not a pretty picture.
The 2015 Data Book covers the nation. It measures child well-being in four domains: economic well-being, education, health, and family and community.
“Although we are several years past the end of the recession, millions of families still have not benefited from the economic recovery,” said Patrick McCarthy, president and CEO of the foundation. “While we’ve seen an increase in employment in recent years, many of these jobs are low-wage and cannot support even basic family expenses.”
Just ask Wilbert Santiago, 34, who after two years as a baggage handler for Prime Flight at LaGuardia Airport, makes $10.10 an hour.
“We (need) a better salary and better benefits,” Santiago said. “I was making $10 until I got a 10-cent raise in February. A 10-cent raise! I have six children, how am I supposed to support my family?”
A real, living wage of $15 per hour for all workers, not only fast-food ones, would be a life changer for thousands of hardworking families like Santiago’s.
To nobody’s surprise, minority children in the nation are in worse shape than white children.
According to the report, 39% of African-American and 33% of Hispanic children lived in poverty in 2013, versus just 14% of non-Hispanic white children.
Luckily, not everything is bad, according to the report. Although New York State ranks an undistinguished 28th overall for child well-being and 19th in education, some progress has been made in fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade math, and the number of students graduating high school on time has increased.
In terms of children’s health, New York fares much better: it is 9th out of 50 states. New York has shown “improvements across the board, with more children with access to health insurance and lower rates of child mortality,” the report found.
Yet, as McCarthy said, “Far too many families are still struggling to provide for the day-to-day needs of their children. We can and must do better: We can make policy choices to lift more families into economic stability.”
