Oklahoma Watch (https://oklahomawatch.org/category/poverty/)
Food intake doubled at Oklahoma’s food banks over the past year – the result of a federal program designed to buy up products from farmers affected by responses to U.S. tariffs. The flows of fresh goods are welcome, but the downside is many local pantries can’t accept the surplus and their food choices have narrowed.
For Oklahomans who fall on hard times, the consequence is often eviction. They fail to pay rent on their houses or apartments, are forced out and find themselves in a cyclical housing crisis.
A new federal tax incentive to encourage long-term investments in low-income areas includes most of downtown Oklahoma City and Tulsa and other pockets of prosperity in the state, but excludes many areas that are impoverished.
Fewer people in Oklahoma City are homeless, according to the latest counts. But more are unsheltered at night, even in the dead of winter. So Oklahoma Watch asked those on the streets, “Where do you sleep?”
Mapping poverty can be deceiving. This interactive map showing poverty rates by census tract across Oklahoma helps pinpoint the smaller areas with extreme levels of deprivation.
When school’s out, in summer or afternoon, many parents face a struggle. Research shows that children without access to summer and after-school learning programs can suffer academically, but finding good, affordable ones is an arduous task. Oklahoma provides no state funding, and a federal program could be eliminated.
Hunger in Oklahoma was the focus of an “Oklahoma Watch-Out” public forum, featuring Hunger Free Oklahoma Executive Director Chris Bernard; Katie Fitzgerald, CEO of the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, and Leon Hill, Oklahoma City Public Schools executive director of operations services.
Of 10 payday lending bills identified in seven states this year, Oklahoma’s legislation appears to have had one of the higher potential interest rates — 204 percent annually. The bill likely represented a payday lending industry push nationwide.
Even as the heat takes a toll on Oklahoma’s homeless population, another potential hardship has developed related to efforts to get the homeless off the streets: a stop on the growing waiting list for housing assistance.
Oklahoma lawmakers have voted to pare back the state’s earned income tax credit. The incentive provides an annual income boost to about 200,000 low-income households with working parents.
As advocacy groups and volunteers prepare to count the homeless this winter, walk in the footsteps of Danny, a Norman man who became temporarily homeless.
