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PATH PartnersDavid Henderson
David Henderson is the founder of Idealistics Inc., a social enterprise that builds web-based technologies that help social sector organizations help people better. He is the Editor of Poverty Insights and writes about the social sector at Full Contact Philanthropy.
Posts by David Henderson
Welfare Expenditures at Strip Clubs Underscore Rationality of the Poor
A new bill being floated in the US House of Representatives aims to abolish a loop-hole that allows cash-aid welfare recipients to use welfare benefits at strip clubs and casinos. As reported by Politico, the bill, introduced by Republican Representative Charles Boustany is intended to prevent the “fraudulent misuse of funds” in the government’s welfare program.
Sounds pretty serious. So how big of a problem is this?
Apparently, it’s not a big problem at all. In California, former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger enforced an executive order prohibiting casinos from accepting welfare benefits as payment. His order was in response to this LA Times expose on the unintended use of benefits.
Weighing Racial Inequality and Poverty
Yesterday the country celebrated Martin Luther King Day. While Dr. King is well known for his efforts to combat racial inequality, his focus on poverty is less known, largely on account of his untimely death.
Shortly before his assassination, Dr. King turned his attention to highlighting endemic causes of poverty beyond racism, such as persistent unemployment and low-paying jobs that failed to pay living wages. He also noted that more whites lived in poverty and received public benefits than any other racial group, a historical fact that is still true today.
Evidence that Blogging Does Matter
Last Friday I wrote a post questioning whether blogging, particularly my own writing, has any value in the social sector. I received a lot of great comments and examples of blogging leading to actual social change. I’ll first share some of those comments and then further clarify my own thinking and evolving position on this topic.
Carey Fuller shared some of her blogging successes, writing “If it hadn’t been for blogging, I wouldn’t have been able to raise funds to put a homeless vet dying of pancreatic cancer into a motel or collect camping gear for homeless youth to survive through winter.”
Does Blogging Matter in the Social Sector?
Professionally I do two things; I help organizations make high impact data-oriented decisions, and I write. As 2011 draws to a close, I reflect on another year helping a lot of great organizations increase their social impact, and a pile of blog posts that I hope help advance the social sector toward lasting change.
Obviously I believe writing, and the exchange of ideas that comes with it, is important to the growth of our sector and advancement of solutions. If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t write anything. But as someone who prefers evidence to anecdotes, facts to feelings, I’m at a loss for much evidence that blogging (at least my blogging) helps move the needle even a little bit.
Is Building Affordable Housing Always the Answer to Homelessness?
In my heart, I’m a Californian, but for the last year and a half I’ve been living in Pittsburgh attending graduate school. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area where housing is scarce, then moved down to Los Angeles for nine years, the homeless capital of the country, before moving out east.
Homeless advocates have long argued that the answer to ending homelessness is straight forward, build more affordable housing. I too subscribed to this dogma before moving to Pittsburgh, where the last thing any neighborhood needs is more housing development.
Supplemental Poverty Measure Offers Valuable Insight for Poverty Advocates
For years, academics and government statisticians have been developing and testing alternative poverty measures. Indeed, the individual responsible for developing our current poverty measure has long called for a more modern approach.
Recently, the US Census Bureau published a recalculated poverty rate for 2010, using an alternative method called the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). The SPM considers more than just food costs in its calculation, including the cost of clothing, shelter, and utilities as well as adjusting for regional differences in the cost of living. Additionally, while the current poverty measure only considers gross, untaxed income, the SPM accounts for taxes paid, and also credits individuals and families with income supplements like cash-aid welfare and food stamps.
Profile of those Living in Poor Areas Changing
A new report by the Brookings Institute examines the profile of those living in extremely poor areas. The authors of the report define extreme poverty areas as neighborhoods with poverty rates greater than or equal to 40%.
Using 2000 US Census data and the 2005-2009 American Community Survey, the report estimates that the total number of people living in extremely poor neighborhoods rose by 33% in the last decade. While the number of people living in poor areas has spiked after falling throughout the 1990s, the profile of those living in impoverished neighborhoods seems to be shifting.
How Having Enemies Solves Poverty
A few weeks back I wrote a piece titled How Trashing Each Other Solves Poverty. My message was so persuasive that the comment section is littered with people trashing each other.
I’ve never been the “kumbaya” type, which surprises people outside our sector who assume all do-gooders are low-blood pressure peace loving folks. We’re not.
Rising Poverty Rates Demonstrates Failure of Innovation
If we are to really believe that we live in an era of rampant innovation, then why do we have so much poverty?
Entrepreneurs solve problems. And poverty is a big one. Yet the entrepreneurial focus of today is not on big problems.
Countless companies are developing frivolous applications to entertain me while I wait 87 seconds in line for a cup of coffee. There’s even more than a handful of companies working on ways to help me avoid the line all together, ordering coffee from my phone.
