Talking Points: Responding to Human Need

Ethical Reflection

• Scripture challenges us to ask: "Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or imprisoned and did not take care of you?" (Matthew 25:44).
• Community requires that all are cared for. Government responsibility for the common good includes caring for the most vulnerable and a just sharing of resources. The NY State Constitution recognizes this (Article XVII).
• Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of [themselves] and [their] family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond [their] control (UN Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25).

Human Need in Our Midst

• 2,660,000 New Yorkers live below the poverty level. This is equal to 14% of the population (FRAC).
• 20% of New York’s children live below the poverty level (Annie E. Casey Foundation).
• Inflation, driven by rising fuel prices, burdens vulnerable populations.
• Many jobs pay too little to lift people out of poverty.
• Some have to choose whether to pay for rent, utilities, medicine or food.

State Response to Its Vulnerable Populations

• NY has not raised the welfare assistance grant since 1990. During that time, the cost of living has gone up 49%.
• NY recently raised its minimum wage but not to a livable level.
• The 2008 state budget cuts funds for the Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP) – the main source of state funding for emergency programs.

Reliance on Charitable Emergency Programs

• For decades churches have made up for inadequate public support with their emergency programs.
• They serve children, women, people of color, people with disabilities and the working poor, many of whom live at or below the federal poverty line. Growing percentages are the “working poor”.
• Economic conditions and scaling back of direct government programs means more families are looking for help.
• Over 2.1 million New Yorkers rely on emergency food programs each year (Hunger in America 2006).

What Will Help

• Raise minimum wage to a livable wage, then index for inflation.
• Increase the welfare grant.
• Restore monies cut from HPNAP.
• Expand services for housing, hunger, heating, health care and child care.
  
  
  (6/2008)