Living on the Edge in Brooklyn, New York

Sol and Marilyn Weltman never thought of themselves as poor. And statistically speaking, they are not. But that doesn’t mean that things aren’t tight, as they are for all those aging Americans who, while not technically below the poverty line, live lives in which income never quite keeps up with costs.

Call them the “new poor.”

“All your life you’ve lived in the middle class, and suddenly you find you’re in the poor class,” Marilyn says.

In November, the US Census Bureau unveiled an additional way to measure poverty in America. The “supplemental poverty measure” attempts to address shortcomings in the way poverty has been calculated since 1965. Its goals include reflecting the effects of government policies, adjusting for increased standards of living over the years, and taking into account medical costs across different population segments.

Read the rest of the story in The Brooklyn Ink, written by Emily Judem, with additional reporting by Olivia B. Waxman

and Poor? Not Me, Say Low-Income Elderly in Red Hook and Sheepshead Bay written by Olivia B. Waxman