The number of American kids in poverty went up by 3.7 million last month, partly due to the expiration of monthly child tax credit payments. That’s a 41 percent increase and the highest rate since the end of 2020.

Senior research fellow Zach Parolin said Black and Latino children are being disproportionately affected.

“In January 2022, one in every four Black or Latino children lived in monthly poverty, according to our estimates,” Parolin said.

Child tax credit payments were given to families from July to December of last year as part of the American Rescue Plan. The Internal Revenue Service paid out $250 per child aged 6 to 17 and up to $300 per child aged under 6. The payments reached more than 61 million children in over 36 million households.

“A massive policy success in terms of its impact on child poverty, in terms of its impacts on food hardship, and the evidence also suggests that at least for the six months that the policy was around, it didn't do much at all to affect rates of unemployment among parents who were receiving it,” Parolin said.

Robert Campbell, the senior Robert Campbelldirector of policy with Feeding America, says any resource to help get food on the table is important.

“While we can't speak directly to how individuals are using their child tax credit resources, we do know that households with low incomes often spend a large portion of their budget on food, upwards of 30 percent," Campbell said, "And we also know that food-insecure families often have to make tough choices between things like food versus rent or food and medicine.”

Despite the program’s success, there is no momentum to restore the child tax credit payments in Congress. Senators are split on whether to add a work requirement for families who receive the money. Regardless, both Campbell and Parolin say that investing in the country’s most vulnerable lifts everyone up.

“If you're low-income family, you receive these benefits when you have a young child, that child is less likely to face hardship and therefore is more likely to do better in school to go on and graduate high school and to experience a number of long-run benefits as a result of this policy,” Parolin said.

 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M -- As difficult as it can be supporting two kids as a single mother, Melissa Martinez says her children are her motivation in life.

“I'm glad that they have each other," Martinez said. "They're a handful.”

Working a minimum-wage job, she says it can often be a struggle to put sufficient food on the table.

“They love their juice, they love their milk, and at one point there was a time when they were limited to resource of milk and formula when he was little, that was scary,” Martinez said.

Martinez isn’t alone. Research analyst Derek Lin with New Mexico Voices for Children says food insecurity was already a big issue in the state of New Mexico and across the county. The pandemic made it worse.

“In New Mexico, before the pandemic, 1 in 4 children suffered from child food insecurity after the pandemic started," Lin said. "That rate went up to 1 in 3.”

In recent months, Martinez says life has been made a little easier thanks to child tax credit payments that were expanded under the American Rescue Plan.

According to U.S. Census data, about 35 million eligible families received the first monthly payment of up to $300 for each child ages 5 and under and up to $250 for each child ages 6 to 17.

“What the administration and Congress did in recent legislation was make available those payments in monthly installments to low-income families, up to $300 per month, and those payments started in July, and we've already seen a very significant impact on food insecurity," said Geoffrey Plague, managing director of tax public policy and government relations with Feeding America.

Plague says the percentage of families indicating inadequate access to food dropped by 24%. Lin says more money in the pockets of families facing poverty can help end the cycle.

“When children aren't able to access enough high-quality food, they're not able to perform well in school," Lin said. "They're not able to do extracurricular activities. There are correlations between food insecurity and academic, behavioral and emotional issues.”

He says if they can’t do well in school, then it's difficult to go on to higher education and a life of better resources. Martinez says she hopes her kids can break that cycle.

“How do we offer them the best when some of us are so limited," Martinez said. "The workforce is hard because we're, we're striving to make the best of those minimum wage jobs, but we can't afford to make ends meet when we have to pay for back to school items. I don’t want them to remember that I struggled. I don’t want them to remember that it was hard for me. I want them to remember that they had really good things."

Martinez says the extra help is needed to be financially stable in a single-income household and she hopes the child tax credit payments will continue.

The current payments will continue monthly through December, but Feeding America is pushing for those payments to become permanent.

“The child tax credit has, for the history of it, for the entirety of its existence, proven to be one of the most effective anti-poverty provisions that we have at the federal level," Plague said.

For now, Martinez is taking it one day at a time. She says she’s thankful the tax credit has helped her give her children adequate food and clothing.

“We bought him new shoes, new sketchers, they even light up,” Martinez said.

There's a silver lining for one nonprofit with the frenzy around the Robinhood stock trading app that's now facing dozens of lawsuits after the company restricted trading on GameStop.

Robin Hood, an organization that has been fighting poverty in New York City for 32 years, is welcoming the new attention.

The organization initially got confused for the stock trading app on social media, which led to some angry comments directed at the nonprofit. But it has also led to an increase in donations when people realized the nonprofit's mission.

Their CEO, Wes Moore, says they've received hundreds of donations in the last few days from across 29 states.

“It’s also provided an opportunity for people just to learn more about the work, to learn more about why an organization like ours exists and why this issue of poverty, this issue of entrenched poverty in many ways is something that everyone should be spending and focusing their time,” said Moore.

The CEO says the last year has really shown the extent of the challenges we were already facing with poverty.

Robin Hood launched a relief fund during the pandemic that has been supporting social services in New York City and offering cash assistance.

“A core focus of our work is not just addressing the very human need right now, but it's also understanding the fact that the reason that we have such a significant human need oftentimes is because of holes in policies,” said Moore.

One policy they're advocating to change right now is the child tax credit. Some families are missing out on this, because their earnings are too low to qualify.

President Joe Biden’s stimulus proposal would fix this by expanding the credit for one year and making it fully refundable.

Robin Hood is also pushing for the credit to be permanent.

CINCINNATI — Last month, Kimberly Thomas forced her landlord to restore hot water to a 25-unit apartment building in Avondale.

This week, the landlord forced her out.

And that has led to a review of eviction procedures by the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts.

"Every eviction is tragic,” said Liza Brackman, chief of compliance for the clerk’s office. “This instance, however, shows that we have more work to do to protect residents from eviction. We are reviewing our policies and will improve our processes to make them fair and equitable."

The eviction capped a turbulent two months for the mother of two teenage sons, whose struggles against her out-of-town landlord were documented by the WCPO 9 I-Team in a Feb. 18 report that detailed building-code violations against an apartment building at 810 N. Fred Shuttlesworth Circle. The property is owned by a limited liability company that shares a mailing address with Elijah Rashaed, a West Palm Beach, Florida-based real estate investor who operates under the corporate name, BWB Properties.

Rashaed declined to comment on his ownership of the building, but said he obtained Thomas' eviction legally.

"I don't know the judge," he said. "I don't know anyone there. So, apparently they saw the merits of that."

Court records show BWB Properties sued Thomas for eviction in early January, claiming she overstayed her month-to-month tenancy. Thomas claimed Rashaed reneged on a promise to sign a lease after she made repairs to her unit, an allegation Rashaed disputed in a March 4 interview.

"We never promised to sign a lease with her or anyone" Rashaed said. "She was doing more damage than she was helping (with her repairs) and we told her to stop it."

By the time the company won a writ of eviction against Thomas on Feb. 1, she was shining a light on code violations in her building, including leaks that damaged walls, ceilings and floors, along with a lack of heat and hot water.

That led to fines against BWB Properties, which restored hot water on Feb. 12 but has yet to resolve many of the 15 other violations written by city inspectors, according to city records. Rashaed said all repairs will be completed by the end of March.

Appealing her case without an attorney, Thomas won a brief stay of execution on Feb. 5. That gave her some time to connect with local nonprofits and search for a new place to live. But that reprieve ended Feb. 17 when her appeal was denied. The writ of eviction was re-issued Feb. 26.

Thomas said a court employee told her the eviction was scheduled for March 16. But when she was away from the building on March 2, her neighbor called to let her know Hamilton County bailiffs were clearing out her unit. She returned to find her furniture and clothing on the building’s front lawn.

“I panicked, I’m crying,” Thomas said. “They put my whole life out here. My whole life. Everything that I own. Everything that I worked for.”

Kimberly Thomas

Brackman said Thomas’ eviction date changed when a previously scheduled eviction was canceled, allowing later evictions to replace it in the schedule. She said Thomas was notified by mail, as required by state law. The notice was mailed March 1, a day before the actual eviction. Thomas said she never received the notice.

“I don’t wish this on my enemy,” Thomas said. “This is not right.”

The city’s office of human relations is looking into the circumstances surrounding Thomas’ eviction, said Division Manager Paul Booth, who helped Thomas move her belongings into storage.

Brackman offered no timeline on her review of eviction procedures. She said her office also has “an eviction help center, which provides free legal help for tenants who can't afford an attorney.”

In the meantime, Thomas and her two sons are staying with her mother in a senior apartment that Thomas says is not even 500 square feet.

"I know she don't mind us being here. But at the same time it puts a toll on her," Thomas said. "It's not just me going through this. It's my whole family."