Who Are My Neighbors?

I feel very fortunate to have been a part of the Neighbor-to-Neighbor Lifeline (N2N) investment process since its inception in 2009.  Our partnership with the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven over the last three years has helped raise awareness and funds to address emergency housing and hunger needs in Greater New Haven.

Working with diverse applicants and stakeholders alike has been an incredibly inspiring experience as well as important learning opportunity for me. I have been uplifted by incredible acts of charity that have brought our community together to help restore some dignity and hope for almost 13,000 individuals. Many of my assumptions about poverty, however, and who my neighbors are have been challenged.  

We know the chronically poor continue to struggle during the economic downturn.  There has been a 37% increase in long-term homelessness, for example, in Connecticut and in New Haven, and chronic homelessness has jumped 12%.  Last year, Connecticut’s emergency homeless shelters served approximately 11,700 people, including more than 1,500 children and over 1,300 homeless youth between the ages of 18-24.  What you may (or may not) find surprising, however, is that almost half of all families (46%) and 40% of adults without children had never been homeless before.

Poverty is also now a real concern in Connecticut’s suburban communities.  The number of individuals under 200% of the Federal Poverty Level in Branford, Guilford and Madison increased by 23% from the 2000 to the 2005-2009 Census estimate (an increase of 6,318 people to 7,796).  In February of 2010, Peter Goodman wrote about the “new poor” in a New York Times article, “Despite Signs of Recovery, Chronic Joblessness Rises.”  He writes “… call them the new poor: people long accustomed to the comforts of middle-class life who are now relying on public assistance for the first time in their lives — potentially for years to come.”  A job loss, car accident, or medical situation can catapult once financially secure neighbors, family and friends into crisis during a time when social services are not only diminishing, but also difficult to navigate, especially for those newly in need facing a myriad of problems. 

To that end, N2N has also highlighted for me the challenges of meeting immediate needs while simultaneously working to provide more comprehensive, longer-term supports for a changing demographic and reminded me how intertwined education and health are in the financial stability of our community.  By partnering with organizations that effectively provide emergency assistance as well as connect individuals and families to additional services at the local, state and federal level, we are moving in the right direction.  There will always be, of course, more to learn and understand about the complexity of poverty.  My colleague, Amy Casavina Hall, recently posted a blog “What does it take to end homelessness” that does a great job of looking at this piece of the puzzle and how we can ensure people don’t find themselves in crisis in the first place.