Opportunity Lost

Each year, the Census Bureau asks 3 million American households to answer questions on age, race, housing, health and other demographic markers to produce timely information about communities, states and the country at large.

This annual socioeconomic snapshot is known as the American Community Survey, or ACS. It is an improvement on the old once-a-decade data collected from long-form Census questionnaires, and it has long had bipartisan support.

Even before the recession began hammering family finances, researchers say, many of Colorado's working families were falling fast into poverty.

The economic downturn continues to compound the problem. Many local families say they're losing hope for a better life here.

"There's no ‘American Dream' here for people like me," said Durango mother Theresa Rodriguez, who said she struggles to get by.

By Heather Scofield
The Durango Herald

As local residents and officials mobilize to meet struggling families' needs today, advocates say some big-picture and novel approaches also will be a necessary part of the battle against poverty.

Here are a few of the concepts gaining traction around the nation:

Tax credits

The National Poverty Center issued a report last year indicating their research found that state and federal Earned Income Tax Credits "dramatically boosted the incomes of low-income households."

(Press release issued by Denver mayoral candidate James Mejia.)

Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Denver Mayoral Candidate James Mejia comments on Bell Policy update of Opportunity Lost

James Mejia, candidate for Mayor of Denver, commented today on the Bell Policy Center report Opportunity Lost . "Colorado's working families continue to struggle. This is unacceptable," Mejia said.

Colorado's working-poor families have increased 51 percent from 2004 to 2010, according to a report released Monday by The Bell Policy Center.

"These are hard-working families, and they are not keeping up," Rich Jones, one of the 2010 report's authors, said in the study. "That has grievous implications for the rest of us and for the economic health of our state."

The new report is an update of a 2004 Bell report called "Opportunity Lost: When Hard Work Isn't Enough for Colorado's Families."

Colorado's working poor families are headed in the wrong direction – down the economic ladder.

A new report by the Bell Policy Center finds that, even before the economic downturn, our state's poor and low-income working families were struggling and falling behind.

In 2004, the Bell Policy Center produced Opportunity Lost, When Hard Work Isn't Enough for Colorado's Families, a review of economic indicators and a status report on the state's poor and low-income working families.

A compilation of data used in the 2004 "Opportunity Lost: When Hard Work Isn't Enough for Colorado Families" report.

This issue brief provides a one-year update for several of the indicators included in the Bell???s April 2004 report, "Opportunity Lost: When Hard Work Isn't Enough for Colorado's Working Families."

WASHINGTON, D.C. - More than one in four American working families now earn wages so low that they have difficulty surviving financially, a new report concludes. The report finds that too many jobs pay poor wages and provide no benefits, and that American workers are poorly prepared and supported to move into better paying jobs.

Using new U.S. Census Bureau data available through a multi-state project on working poor families, the Bell Policy Center is releasing a one-year update on its 2004 Opportunity Lost report.