Poverty in the City of Camden, 2007

This second report of the Poverty Benchmarks Project highlights poverty in the City of Camden, New Jersey. The report presents both an overview the city’s poverty and an examination of specific poverty-related challenges in order to understand the positive and transformative impact that state-wide policy changes such as an expansion of the state EITC and an increase in TANF grant levels could have on one of the state’s most distressed cities. The report profiles the city; analyzes the health data, work and employment issues, housing situation, welfare reliance, food and nutrition information, and education statistics; as well as providing concrete policy recommendations. As the Fiscal 2008 State budget is drawn up this report is an attempt to bring attention to its potential impact on the city of Camden.