Video- US poverty rate continues to rise

It may be technically the end of the greatest recession since the Great Depression in the United States, but that doesn’t mean the poverty rate has improved.

According to recent findings, the ranks of the poor rose in almost all U.S. states and cities in 2010. Austin Nichols is an expert in US poverty studies.

Poverty levels increased in 2010, with nearly 7 percent of people having incomes that were no more than half of the federal government’s official poverty threshold.That was up from 6.3 percent in 2009.

Poverty ran deepest in Washington, D.C., where one in 10 people had incomes less than 50 percent of the threshold.

Occupy protest communities have become safe havens for the poor in recent times. Demonstration sites pointing out the disparities between the poor and rich are also acting as support groups for the poverty-stricken.

Some who have gone homeless are able to have access to food, water and basic medical supplies.

The future for the nation’s poverty rate isn’t likely to improve any time soon. As Nichols points out, that is often the last factor to turn around.

And the numbers of poverty-stricken threaten to grow. People currently receiving unemployment benefits could lose them by February next year if an extension isn’t enacted by Congress by the end of the year.