Pew Trusts, Stateline: Poverty Grows Despite Economic Recovery; Left Behind

Houston, Texas Food Bank … http://www.houstonfoodbank.org; houstonFOODbank.org

Even as average personal incomes rose during the pandemic largely because of government aid, millions of people who didn’t receive such help have fallen into poverty, struggling to pay for food and other basic expenses.

That group, trying to get by with the help of local charities, may have been excluded from the federal payments because of immigration status, lack of time in the labor force needed to claim unemployment benefits, or just red tape in states that have been slow to pay jobless claims.

The situation in the Houston area is particularly desperate, with almost half of residents struggling to pay basic expenses in the week ending Dec. 7, according to a Census Bureau survey. That share has grown 10 points since October to 48.4%, the highest of the 15 metro areas included. In Miami and Riverside, California, more than 45% of people said they had trouble paying for routine expenses such as food, rent and car payments.

Statewide, Nevada had the highest rate, at 44.7%. Experts say the hardest-hit areas have large numbers of immigrant workers who aren’t entitled to pandemic relief, or, like Nevada, have an unemployment system that has broken down under the strain of unemployment applications in the pandemic. Nevada also lacks a state income tax, which can help verify unemployment claims.

The new COVID-19 relief bill Congress passed in December includes help for more families with mixed immigration status, who were excluded from previous $1,200 stimulus payments. And lawmakers in some states such as New York are proposing measures that would create relief funds for workers shut out of jobless payments.

Average personal income was up in almost every state in the third quarter of 2020 compared with 2019, according to a Stateline analysis of data from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis. That’s in part because many unemployed people were still getting supplemental $600 weekly checks through July 26, as well as the earlier $1,200 lump sum. A smaller $300 weekly unemployment supplement and $600 lump sum are in the new relief bill.