Alaska Progress Report

Alaska tied for second-lowest poverty rate

It must be true, I read it in the American Community Survey (as reported by the Alaska Dispatch): "According to the survey, 9.9 percent of Alaska households fell below their respective poverty thresholds in 2010, putting the state in an effective statistical tie for second-lowest with Connecticut, Maryland, and New Jersey. New Hampshire's rate was found lowest, at 8.3 percent. Mississippi's was highest, at 22.4 percent."

More on poverty from the Alaska Economic Overview: "Alaska is a high-cost place to live, which can be especially challenging for those who have the least. To accommodate these high costs, federal poverty guidelines are 25 percent higher in Alaska than in the Lower 48. (Hawaii also has special poverty guidelines.) The guidelines are used to determine eligibility for a number of federal programs.

"In Alaska in 2010, a person was considered to be living in poverty if he or she earned up to $13,600 annually, or up to $27,940 for a family of four. For comparison, the average annual wage in the state was $47,700, as shown in the chart below. According to the 2010 American Community Survey, 9.9 percent of all individuals and 7.2 percent of families in Alaska were living at or below the poverty line."

Alaska caregiving valued at $1.1 billion in 2009

And now for a walk on the wonky side. A new report from AARP shows the value of family caregiving in Alaska in 2009 to have been $1.1 billion. This was calculated based on an estimated 88,000 caregivers at any given time, 84 million hours of care total and a value of $13.10 per hour.

The report compares the ratio of the economic value of caregiving to Medicaid spending by state in 2009, for three different measures. For total Medicaid spending Alaska's ratio was 1.03 versus a national average of 1.25. For Medicaid long-term services and supports Alaska's ratio was 2.9 versus 3.8 nationally. For Medicaid home and community based services Alaska's ratio was 4.4 versus 8.2 nationally.

Alaska one of 12 states with no online services for low income

From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: "Virtually all states have made basic program information on the five main state-administered low-income benefit programs — SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as Food Stamps), Medicaid, CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program), TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), and child care assistance — available to the public via the Internet.  Many, however, go much further, providing information such as application forms and data on the number of participants.  A number of states allow individuals to apply for benefits and transact certain related business online."

Oh well, at least we can apply for the Permanent Fund Dividend online...

Alaska tied for lowest increase in bankruptcies

It doesn't tell us where we stand in absolute terms, i.e. number of bankruptcies per capita, but a new AP report says we're doing allright: "The AP gathered data from the nation's 90 bankruptcy districts and found 1.43 million filings, an increase of 32 percent from 2008. For Alaska, where the economy was in a mild recession compared with a sharp recession in many other states, the increase in filings was 12 percent. Nebraska's increase was the same...

"Bankruptcies surged to slightly more than 2 million in 2005 as consumers rushed to file before the new law took effect but then plummeted to 600,000 in 2006. They've been climbing ever since and in 2009 became the seventh-highest year on record, behind only the years 1998 and 2001-2005." They add that there's no sign of a slowdown in filings.

Alaska has area with highest food stamp rate

According to a new analysis by the New York Times, almost half of the population of Alaska's Wade Hampton census area - 49% of all people and 62% of children - receives food stamps in 2009. This is the highest percentage of any county area in the nation. The national average is 11.5%, where "the number of food stamp recipients has climbed by about 10 million over the past two years, resulting in a program that now feeds 1 in 8 Americans and nearly 1 in 4 children."

This is an increase nationwide of 32% since 2007. There's an interactive map where you can hover over census areas for details. Althought the rural areas have high rates, not all are increasing and some are decreasing. The real story is the increase in the highly populated areas: in Anchorage it's 8% of all people, up 28%; in Fairbanks it's 5%, up 27%; in Juneau 8%, up 32%.

Alaska middle of the pack for food insecurity

From the USDA Economic Research Service comes a new study: Household Food Security in the United States, 2008. From the tables on pages 20-21 Alaska is ranked roughly in the middle, with 11.6% of households surveyed from 2006 to 2008 reporting low or very low food security, versus 12.2% nationally. The numbers also show that this is an increase of 2.9% from the 1996-1998 rate of 8.7%. This is a much larger increase than the national rate, which increased only 0.9%.

The liberal Huffington Post matched these rates with state median family income figures to determine how states provide for those with food insecurity relative to how wealthy the state is. According to them Alaska is the second worst state by this measure after Colorado.

From the USDA report: "Prevalence rates of food insecurity and very low food security were up from 11.1 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively, in 2007, and were the highest recorded since 1995, when the first national food security survey was conducted. The typical food-secure household spent 31 percent more on food than the typical food-insecure household of the same size and household composition. Fifty-five percent of all food-insecure households participated in one or more of the three largest Federal food and nutrition assistance programs during the month prior to the 2008 survey."

Alaska Has Highest Rate of Increase in Food Insecurity

The Associated Press reports, "Alaska and Iowa top the nation in the growth of 'food insecurity' with a 3.7 percent increase in the number of families struggling to eat adequately or with substantial food disruptions, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics. 'Food insecurity' means families' access to adequate food is limited by a lack of money and other resources. Overall, 12.4 percent of Alaska households reported food insecurity in the study period, 2005-07."

The USDA report comments on national trends: "Eighty-nine percent of American households were food secure throughout the entire year in 2007, meaning that they had access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members. The remaining households (11.1 percent) were food insecure at least some time during the year. About one-third of food insecure households (4.1 percent of all U.S. households) had very low food security—meaning that the food intake of one or more adults was reduced and their eating patterns were disrupted at times during the year because the household lacked money and other resources for food. Prevalence rates of food insecurity and very low food security were essentially unchanged from those in 2005 and 2006."

The progressive Center on Budget and Policy Priorities recommends that any new economic stimulus package include temporary increases in food stamp benefits.