low income

Fights shut down low-income housing voucher event

The Associated Press — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 23:44:00 +0000

TAYLOR, Mich. (AP) - Fights in a line of several thousand people seeking applications to get on a waiting list for housing vouchers in a Detroit area community forced police to cancel the event.

The Taylor Housing Commission says Saturday in a release that upward of 4,000 people arrived ahead of the 9 a.m. start to get Section 8 voucher applications.

Some people began lining up Friday evening at the Taylor Human Services Building, southwest of Detroit.

The Detroit Free Press reports that four people were arrested for disorderly conduct.

Report: Michigan and other states raising taxes on the poor

Mark Brush — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:39:49 +0000

The report was put out by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Its authors write there is "significant room for improvement" in how states tax low-income families. Some of it is inevitable, they write, since states are facing "the most difficult fiscal conditions in decades.":

But a few states have moved significantly backward in this area, raising taxes on low-income working families in order to finance tax cuts that benefit corporations and wealthy individuals. Michigan, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, for example, have scaled back their EITCs [Earned Income Tax Credits] over the last two years while cutting business taxes, taxes on the wealthiest families, or both.

The Associated Press' Kathy Barks Hoffman wrote about the report. She writes that Michigan's low-income families will lose around $260 million annually next year, while businesses will be getting "a $1.1 billion tax break starting in January and a $1.7 billion tax break the year after":

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder originally wanted to eliminate the state Earned Income Tax Credit, but agreed to reduce it from 20 percent of the federal credit to 6 percent for tax year 2012. He said earlier this year that the state needed to make cuts to balance the budget and noted no cuts were being made in Medicaid programs providing health care to low-income working families. He also has said the business tax cuts will create employment opportunities.

National pilot program targeting child hunger in the summer launches in Grand Rapids

Lindsey Smith — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 22:33:33 +0000

More than half a million Michigan kids qualified for free and reduced lunches last year. But only about 1 in 6 of them took advantage of the programs offered during the three month summer break.

By the numbers

The nation: 18.5 million children are eligible – 3.3 million (18%) participated
In Michigan: 546,000 children are eligible – 92,500 (17%) participated