Report: 1 in 4 U.S. Latinos in ‘Deep Poverty’

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About 26% of Hispanics and 24% of blacks live in “deep poverty,” where people struggle to meet basic needs on very limited incomes, even with aid from government programs, according to a new report.

The report, from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), defines deep poverty as below half the federal poverty level—i.e., less than $6,000 a year for an adult or $7,600 with a child.

Findings include:

• A family in deep poverty spends $3,000-$6,000 more on necessities than its income.
• People in poverty tend to be less healthy than those with higher incomes and therefore need more medical care.
• But people in poverty are often unable to afford even nominal premiums and co-payments, and research shows that they may forgo necessary medical treatment as a result of required cost-sharing.

“This is deep and persistent poverty: a chronic state characterized by multiple, serious challenges—including addiction, homelessness, disabilities, and chronic illness—that can stand in the way of work. It’s a place where families can get stuck, generation after generation, without enough help from the safety net to move up and out,” according to an Urban Institute report.

Addressing poverty “should mean getting it right for kids at the start,” according to the Urban Institute, including reaching out to mothers in the hospital to connect babies to resources at birth.

Childhood poverty numbers, fortunately, seem to be declining.

Overall, the number of U.S. children in poverty declined from 22% in 2010 to 20% in 2013, including declines for Hispanic, white and Asian children and a steady rate among black children, according to the Pew Research Center.

“In terms of total numbers, there were still more Hispanic children living in poverty in 2013 (5.4 million) than any other group, as has been the case since at least 2008,” according to the Pew report. “This is because the Hispanic population is larger (and younger) than any other minority racial or ethnic group, and the Hispanic child poverty rate is relatively high, at about 30%.”