Poverty in New Jersey

Through the Poverty Research Institute, Legal Services of New Jersey has begun conducting basic research on poverty in New Jersey - exploring its impact on our clients and its interrelationship with employment and welfare. The papers generated by this research will be posted to this page in the future. And if you are an attorney licensed to practice in New Jersey please consider volunteering your services to assist just one client this year.

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• Not Enough To Live On: Characteristics of Households Below the Real Cost of Living in New Jersey - This report discusses the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of New Jersey residents with inadequate incomes according to research on the Real Cost of Living (RCL) in New Jersey. The report builds on the RCL report series that was inaugurated in 1999 and most recently updated in 2008, and uses the alternative measure of income sufficiency calculated in these reports to analyze the characteristics of three different groups — those with incomes below the federal poverty level, those with incomes above the federal poverty levels but below the RCL and those with incomes above the RCL. This analysis provides a more accurate estimate of households whose incomes fall short of self-sufficiency and how they compare to other, more economically-stable groups. Factors such as employment, demographic characteristics, educational attainment and geographic distribution of income inadequacy across the state are examined to provide insight into patterns income insufficiency in the state and policy choices that will help improve the economic situation of households that lack essential financial resources. The report’s unit of analysis is households rather than individuals, and the Study Population is restricted to households with working-age adults that have no work-inhibiting disability.
  
  
• The Real Cost of Living in 2008: The Self-Sufficiency Standard for New Jersey
  • Full report
  • Printable report
  • Data by family type for separate counties and for all counties
    
    

  An updated report in the Real Cost of Living series produced by Dr. Diana Pearce, Ph.D. of the University of Washington. The report provides a detailed analysis of the cost of living in New Jersey for working families based on the true cost of basic household expenses including housing, child care, health care, and food. It also provides a comparison of the Real Cost of Living to other benchmarks of income including the federal poverty level, welfare income, and minimum wage income. Several policy implications flow from the report’s themes and the report includes information on key action the state could take to help New Jersey families meet their basic needs given the high cost of living.

• Poverty Benchmarks 2008: Assessing New Jersey’s Progress in Addressing Problems of Inadequate Income - The Poverty Benchmarks Project is an on-going data collection effort that aims to increase understanding of poverty in New Jersey as a foundation for more effective public response to the reality of poverty and its consequences. This report is the second in the annual series and updates key poverty trends and attendant policy implications. It also examines for the first time the state’s progress in addressing poverty by reviewing selected anti-poverty programs that address specific impacts of poverty.

For earlier reports in the Poverty Benchmarks series, see the Poverty Benchmarks Archive.

• Poverty in the City of Camden - This second report of the Poverty Benchmarks Project highlights poverty in the City of Camden, New Jersey.  The report presents both an overview the city’s poverty and an examination of specific poverty-related challenges in order to understand the positive and transformative impact that state-wide policy changes such as an expansion of the state EITC and an increase in TANF grant levels could have on one of the state’s most distressed cities.  The report profiles the city; analyzes the health data, work and employment issues, housing situation, welfare reliance, food and nutrition information, and education statistics; as well as providing concrete policy recommendations.  As the Fiscal 2008 State budget is drawn up this report is an attempt to bring attention to its potential impact on the city of Camden.

• Selected poverty and income data for New Jersey state and counties

• 2003 New Jersey County SAIPE Statistics

• The Critical Shortage of Affordable Housing in New Jersey: A Brief Overview

• Housing New Jersey's Workforce: Instituting a New Jersey State Housing Policy

• A Desperate and Widening Divide: The Concurrent Increase in Poverty, Income and Inequality in New Jersey

• Hard Times Amid Prosperity: A Current Profile of Poverty in New Jersey - An initial report from the Poverty Research Institute of Legal Services of New Jersey

• Assessing Work First: Challenges Facing Long-Term Welfare Recipients in New Jersey - Report two from the Assessing Work First series, released June 2000.

• Assessing Work First: What Happens After Welfare? - Report one from the Assessing Work First series, released June 1999.

• New Jersey Poverty Research Institute brochure (PDF)

• Research Links

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