March 30, 2016

No Food, No Phone, No Subway Fare: Daily Hardships of the ‘Unheard Third’

By Apurva Mehrotra and Nancy Rankin

"In New York City, the idea that hard work and perseverance can lead to a better life is losing ground.” That bleak assessment begins "Getting Ahead: An Upward Mobility Agenda for New Yorkers in 2016," a report based on the most recent (July-August 2015) annual survey of the city’s “Unheard Third” by the Community Service Society of New York – what CSS calls “the only public opinion poll in the nation to regularly chronicle issues facing low-income individuals and families.” Their responses about the impact of poverty, unemployment, under-employment, and low-wage work on their lives reinforce the stark conclusion of the report’s co-authors Apurva Mehrotra and Nancy Rankin: That “on the road to economic prosperity, most New Yorkers feel like they are stuck or, worse, falling further behind.” With CSS’s permission, we’re reprinting a chart from “Getting Ahead” that depicts many of the grim choices poverty imposes on millions of New Yorkers each day.

This chart is taken from "Getting Ahead: An Upward Mobility Agenda for New Yorkers in 2016," by Apurva Mehrotra and Nancy Rankin, published by the Community Service Society of New York in January, 2016.

To read the full report go to: http://www.cssny.org/publications/entry/getting-ahead-an-upward-mobility-agenda-for-new-yorkers-in-2016
 

 

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