[RealJustme]

U.S. sees highest poverty spike since the 1960s, leaving 50 million Americans poor. The number of Americans living in poverty has spiked to levels not seen since the mid 1960s, classing 20 per cent of the country’s children as poor.

The U.S. Census Bureau puts the number of Americans in poverty at levels not seen since the mid-1960s when President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the federal government's so-called War on Poverty.


As President Barack Obama began his second term in January, nearly 50 million Americans — one in six — were living below the income line that defines poverty, according to the bureau. A family of four that earns less than $23,021 a year is listed as living in poverty.

Mary Anne O'Donnell, director of community services at Catholic Charities of Baltimore, said increases in the number of hungry she is seeing is dramatic, many who have lost their jobs, unemployment has run out and they've just given up looking for jobs because there are none.

"In the last three years, there's been a great change in the kinds of people we are serving. There are increasing numbers of people who owned a home, lost their jobs, end up living in their car and are coming with children to our soup kitchen," she said. Her Church spent $126 million in the last fiscal year feeding the poor, helping them find jobs and housing, running nursing homes and putting people back on their feet.


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