The stories included in Poverty In Focus are accounts of actual low-income people living in New Jersey, based on individual interviews across the state. Not every person interviewed is a client of Legal Services. Nearly all, however, are financially eligible for representation, which means that their income is less than 200% of the Federal Poverty Level. What this amounts to in real spending power would shock most middle-class Americans.
Poverty In Focus supplements the educational efforts of LSNJ’s Poverty Research Institute, which analyzes and publishes data about the extent and effects of poverty in the state. It is intended to put a face to the statistical information and policy recommendations that PRI has been publishing since 1996.
LSNJ is committed to gathering additional stories going forward. It is our hope that you will visit often to read stories as they are posted, and consider steps that can be taken to address the situations that these personal testimonies describe.
