PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The latest census numbers show that Philadelphia’s child poverty rate is on the decline, just as the national rate has doubled from about 5% to around 12%.
Philadelphia's child poverty rate dropped from 34% to 28.5% in 2022, finally hitting below 100,000 kids in poverty.
Donna Cooper, executive director of Philly-based Children First says child poverty declined in other major cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, which she says suggests that poverty among children is going up elsewhere — specifically, in rural and suburban America.
“It means that the footprint of poverty is very different than what people think now,” Cooper said. “It's always been different than what we think the majority of poor people in America are rural, always. So this just reinforces the fact that our natural assumptions about poverty really need to be changed.”
Cooper adds there's no question that Philly's reduction in poverty is also intentionally a result of good public policy. And good public policy makes kids’ lives better.
“Philly, for years, had universal school breakfast, universal school lunch. Now we have free pre-K, we have a very strong benefit access program through the city's partnership with Better Philadelphia, and the city has been really important, working hard to make sure people get their earned income tax credit.”
She says wages are up in the city for many families, which could put them above the poverty line. However, it doesn't mean families are more liquid, as the cost of living and inflation are eroding the impact of higher wages.
“When you're at $20,000 a year you’ve got subsidized child care. When you're $32,000, you may not get subsidized child care, depending on your other assets. So that family now is having to piece together things in very different ways to stay above the poverty threshold.”
She says cities like Philadelphia are doing a better job giving families the safety nets they need to succeed so the income they earn goes further. She adds the work needs to continue.
“The city's Office of Economic Opportunity has been connecting people to employment, which has helped boost their wages. And then the macroeconomic changes that are happening in the city is that we have rebounded in terms of the number of jobs we've lost since COVID.”
Philadelphia’s overall poverty rate improved from 22.8% to 21.7% but is still the most impoverished major city in America.