Congressional Super Committee Needs to Hear from You

The latest poverty numbers were released by the US Census Bureau this week, and they don’t look good. Comparing 2007 (the year the recession began) to 2010, we see that poverty in San Francisco has increased from 10.4% in to 12.5%. Poverty among San Franciscans aged 65 and over has increased from 10.5% in 2007 to 14.6% in 2010.  Unemployment in San Francisco has risen from 4.8% in 2007 to 9.0% in 2010.

For us at St. Anthony’s, these numbers reflect what we’ve been seeing across our programs (dining room, free medical clinic, tenderloin tech lab, social work center, free clothing program) since the beginning of the recession.  Because we have seen an increase in poverty, hunger, and homelessness among the people we serve, we are very concerned about the deliberations of the Congressional “Super Committee”, who are currently meeting to figure out a plan to reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next ten years.

Congress needs to hear that It is important that we achieve deficit reduction without sacrificing jobs,  deepening poverty, and increasing homelessness and hunger. Congress needs to hear from us now.

Our friends at the Coalition on Human Needs have an easy online form that you can use to email your congressional representatives and let them know about your priorities.  Click here to use their form. You’ll be asked to enter your zip code first so that your message can be sent to the correct Congressional Representatives.