Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Public Assistance in Flint

Khalil AlHajal of The Flint Journal reports:
The average number of Genesee County households that relied on government food assistance during the first three months of this year was 23.2 percent higher than it was during the same period last year, while the number of people on cash assistance has increased by 15.7 percent, according to statistics from the Michigan League for Human Services.

One in four Genesee County residents depended on government food assistance, compared to one in five last year, while only Muskegon County had a higher percentage of its total population receiving cash assistance during the first quarter of 2010, with 5.3 percent compared to Genesee County’s 4.7 percent.

“It’s staggering. It’s just really amazing,” said Sheryl Thompson, DHS director for Genesee County, about the rising numbers. “The caseloads are just constantly going up.”


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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.