Dealing with Poverty

The Homeless Alliance of Western New York is co-sponsoring a new initiative to enhance collaborations between community groups and scholars, particularly in relation to Buffalo’s crisis of poverty. Buffalo was recently ranked the third poorest big city in America, Detroit maintained in the No. 1 spot at 33.8 percent and Cleveland followed at 29.5 percent. Buffalo's median household income of $29,706 is third-lowest among large cities. Buffalo faces severe issues of vacant and abandoned houses, ranking second only to St. Louis on the list of American cities with the most vacant properties per capita.

Data released in 2008 by the U.S. Census Bureau revealed that 28.7 percent of Buffalo’s population lives below the federal poverty level, 41.7 percent of whom are under the age of 18, and 15 percent of whom are 65 and older. Erie County, with a poverty rate of 13.8 percent, has the largest concentration of the poor of any upstate county with 122,338 people listed as living in poverty.

This initiative is meant to stir discussion and offer solutions to the problem of poverty in Buffalo. The meeting which will include various community groups and researchers from the University at Buffalo will be open to the public and held at the Merriweather Library, 1324 Jefferson Avenue in Buffalo on Friday, February 26 at 1:00pm. The event is free and open to the public. For more information visit www.wnyhomeless.org.

Data provided by www.wnyhomeless.org.