From Next City: Philadelphia assesses something called a probate fee — $580 — the Henrys would learn they needed to pay City Hall just to process their inheritance. It may not sound like much, but to Ora Henry, who makes $12-an-hour as a social worker, and her mother, who was recently reduced to part-time hours at her job, it meant a lot. (Read more.)
Taylor Allen joins Wake Up With WURD to talk about her recent WHYY article, The high cost of being broke: Diapers. (Read more.)
Broke in Philly editor Jean Friedman-Rudovsky appeared over the weekend on CBSN, CBS News’ streaming video channel, to discuss the #HighCost of Being Broke series — which launched earlier this month.
The first installment covered banking, transportation, cell phone access, food staples and more, also highlighting solutions, policies or programs or options that help alleviate some of the cost born by those who can least afford to take them on.
From WHYY: Approximately 72 million Americans rely on Medicaid and CHIP for dental coverage, yet two-thirds of dentists do not accept either kind of coverage, according to the Pew Dental Campaign. (Read more.)
From NBC10/Telemundo62: One problem that’s a bigger issue in Philadelphia than the rest of the country is food insecurity. That means a person or family can’t always afford the food they need. (Read more.)
From Next City: In a typical year, between 40 and 60 families take advantage of the PHA’s homeownership program, according to online records from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. But that’s a tiny percentage of the PHA’s 13,000 families in public housing and 18,600 families with Section 8 vouchers — not to mention the tens of thousands of people languishing on waiting lists for public housing or Section 8 vouchers. (Read more.)
From NBC10/Telemundo62: Food insecurity plagues more than 20 percent of people in Philadelphia and more than 1.6 million people across Pennsylvania, according to a 2017 report by Feeding America. The hardest-hit local neighborhoods include West Philly, Southwest Philly, North Philly and portions of the Northeast, where the food insecurity rate is more than 30 percent, according to the report. (Read more.)
From Philadelphia Media Network: These bankless consumers not only incur high transaction costs to cash checks and pay bills through third parties, but they also miss out on future opportunities for traditional loans by not establishing a financial history, experts and advocates say. (Read more.)
From Billy Penn: Americans use their phones to access information about their health, conduct online banking, look up government services, enroll in educational programs and search for jobs and housing. (Read more.)
From WHYY: “When you’re already struggling to make ends meet and you’ve already sacrificed it’s another, ‘oh crap, I can’t do anything now’ because I gotta give SEPTA my money,’” said Franks. (Read more.)
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