July-August 2011

Fifteen years after federal welfare reform, five years after New York City embarked on a quest to reduce poverty, more Americans are poor than ever before and one in five New Yorkers remains below the poverty line. Yet poverty is absent from political debates and media headlines. Everyone, it seems, is tired of talking about poverty--except poor people. In this 35th anniversary issue, City Limits lets low-income New Yorkers talk about their daily fight for survival and independence. Their stories defy simple explanations of poverty's causes or consequences. And they reveal that efforts to assist low-income people often serve to complicate their lives, even as they provide crucial support.