Topics

Poverty

  • Red Lake seeks better programs for kids
    Red Lake community members are talking about ways to improve the lives of kids on the reservation. Perhaps the most visible effort involves the Boys and Girls Club. Tribal and club officials hope the national Boys and Girls Clubs will provide funding to help Red Lake's club broaden its impact on kids.April 28, 2005
  • Bishops take poverty tour; call for "moral" state budget
    As lawmakers try to close a $700 million deficit, the leaders of the state's two largest religious denominations want to put a human face on potential cuts to human services.January 20, 2005
  • Banks say "trust us" on community reinvestment
    Federal officials want to change banking rules that have helped low-income people buy homes and start businesses. Bankers say the rules are a burden, and they can be trusted to reinvest in poor areas on their own.January 10, 2005
  • Finalists for Kroc center money advance
    Duluth and St. Paul have moved a step closer to winning millions of dollars to build new community centers to be run by the Salvation Army.January 5, 2005
  • South Minneapolis 'wasteland' sprouts new development
    A wave of development is sweeping through one of Minneapolis' poorest neighborhoods. Ground was broken on the city's south side for another phase of the Portland and Franklin Gateway project. The Phillips neighborhood intersection was once plagued with crime. The project grows out of three decades of work started by a group of women from a religious order.November 17, 2004
  • Two ex-HUD secretaries, two strategies for reducing poverty
    Two former secretaries for Housing and Urban Development--Jack Kemp and Henry Cisneros--passed through Minnesota recently, and both shared what they claimed were time-tested recipes for reducing poverty. The only catch: the plans they said had proved effective beyond a shadow of a doubt during their times in office were exactly opposite.September 28, 2004
  • ACORN: A renegade reputation for helping the poor
    A conference in St. Paul Monday presents what organizers say are successful ideas that organizations have used across the country to reduce poverty. One Twin Cities organization known as ACORN is presenting its methods for winning victories against unscrupulous mortgage lenders. But ACORN has also developed a renegade reputation that has alienated people and organizations that cross its path.September 12, 2004
  • Poverty rate climbs
    A new U.S. Census report says the number of people in poverty increased by more than a million between 2002 and 2003. And more than a million more people nationally reported they did not have health insurance over the same period. The latest figures show children under age 18 are increasingly at risk from poverty.August 27, 2004
  • Census numbers show 'a lot of wealth' in Minnesota
    New government numbers show Minnesota remains among the most affluent states in the nation, with one of the lowest rates of poverty. Wisconsin and Iowa, two other political swing states, also showed fewer signs of poverty than many other states in the country.August 26, 2004
  • Cleaning up the White Earth Reservation
    The White Earth Indian Reservation in northwest Minnesota has struggled for years with poverty. Unemployment hovers at around 25 percent, well above the national average. The tribe employs some 1,500 people at its casino and in tribal government jobs. But White Earth leaders have had little success in attracting jobs in the private sector. Now, the tribe is getting some help. A Detroit Lakes-based non-profit group is working with White Earth to make the reservation more attractive to new businesses.March 17, 2004
  • Work isn't always the solution to poverty
    It can be as minor as a car breakdown or as major as serious illness. Either can send the working poor deeper into poverty. One author explores various lives of people on the economic edge which show the cycle is tough to break.March 9, 2004
  • State plummets in ranking of child care generosity
    Minnesota plunged 25 places in a state-by-state ranking of the subsidies available to families needing child care, according to a report by several child advocacy groups.January 29, 2004
  • Cub Foods store may revitalize Minneapolis neighborhood
    For most Twin Cities residents, it's not difficult to find a large grocery store, like Cub or Rainbow, close to home. However, people who live in north Minneapolis have to drive outside the city to find a big box grocery store. But the neighborhood is getting a Cub Foods store and residents hope this is a sign of better economic times ahead.January 14, 2004
  • Minnesota is hungry for help
    Each day, thousands of Minnesotans go hungry, and their numbers are growing. Officials at area food shelves say there are more hungry people this year than last.November 27, 2003
  • Homeowners victimized by foreclosure rescue scam
    A St. Paul real estate investor is accused by his customers of duping them into selling their homes and taking their equity. Minnesota officials want a judge to order Hendrie Grant to turn over documents from transactions. Several homeowners facing foreclosure say Grant rushed them through a complicated and confusing real estate deal they thought would help them save their homes. Instead, they discovered they'd sold their house to Grant and had agreed to a lease-back deal with much higher monthly payments. His accusers say the deals fit the pattern of a foreclosure rescue scam. It's a little-known form of predatory lending that appears to be spreading.October 22, 2003

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