Sequester Hits Social Services as Poverty Rate Rises

As the federal sequester cuts take effect, the Associated Press reports on the potential impact of the mandated spending reductions on housing, education, and other services for low-income people in Baltimore, where about a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line.

William McCarthy, executive director of Catholic Charities, said the national belt-tightening “will deepen and increase poverty,” which, according to census figures, is at its highest nationally since the Lyndon Johnson administration. The federal early-education program Head Start, which Catholic Charities helps administer in Baltimore, will be hit especially hard, he said.

Paul T. Graziano, the city’s housing commissioner, said that with the sequester his agency faces a $25-million shortfall in money to assist poor people with housing, clean up blighted neighborhoods, and demolish vacant buildings.