BY ANTHONY O’REILLY
The percentage of children living in poverty in New York City has risen to its highest levels in more than 10 years, according to a report by the Citizens’ Committee for Children (CCC), a nonprofit organization that keeps track of the well-being of the city’s children.
“For far too many New York City children, the cumulative barriers to well-being – poverty, food insecurity, unstable housing, and lack of access to essential programs – are great, and disparities are profound and apparent on a geographic level,” said Jennifer March-Joly, CCC’s executive director.
Since 2008, poverty levels have increased from 26.5 percent to close to 30 percent in 2011, the study found, the highest level since 2000 when more than 30 percent of the city’s children lived in poverty.
In Queens, 21.1 percent of the borough’s children were living below the poverty level in 2011, the second-lowest rate of the five boroughs.
Families are considered to be living in poverty when their total income is lower than the national threshold of what a family needs to live, based on the number of people in the family and the ages of those in the house.
The report also listed the best and worst places for children living in New York City, examining rates of child abuse, child poverty and literacy. Mott Haven, Hunts Point and Brownsville were ranked the worst, with about half of the children living below the poverty line.
The best neighborhoods for children included Bayside, Tottenville, the Upper East Side, Bay Ridge and Rego Park/ Forest Hills.
RECOMMENDED STORIES
- Queens Village high school students paint over the past
- Bloomberg budget takes aim at after-school programs, teachers’ jobs
- One family’s struggle in wake of bus drivers’ strike
