Yet another indicator of a recession, the government is reporting a dramatic increase in the number of food stamps used by poor families.

The New York Times is reporting that due to layoffs, rising food and fuel prices the number of Americans receiving food stamps may hit 28 million by this year’s end - the highest level since the food aid program began in the 1960s.

While historically the rate of near-poverty households who qualify for the $100 a month per family member subsidy has fluctuated over the years, this year is looking especially dire. There application’s are up in many states and officials and experts have attributed it to the economic slowdown.

Sayeth The Times:

Citing expected growth in unemployment, the Congressional Budget Office this month projected a continued increase in the monthly number of recipients in the next fiscal year, starting Oct. 1 — to 28 million, up from 27.8 million in 2008, and 26.5 million in 2007.

The percentage of Americans receiving food stamps was higher after a recession in the 1990s, but actual numbers are expected to be higher this year.

Federal benefit costs are projected to rise to $36 billion in the 2009 fiscal year from $34 billion this year.

“People sign up for food stamps when they lose their jobs, or their wages go down because their hours are cut,” said Stacy Dean, director of food stamp policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, who noted that 14 states saw their rolls reach record numbers by last December.

Missouri is one of only a few states to levy tax on food purchased for consumption at home. This week, Representative Jamilah Nasheed (D-St. Louis) introduced a plan to move Missouri closer to eliminating the sales tax on groceries.

House Bill 2190 would phase out the 1% sales tax on food over a period of six years and replace it with a 1% state sales tax on hard liquor and wine. This proposal would bring the sales tax rate from 1.225% per dollar to just under a quarter of a percent — the lowest of the 14 states that currently charge sales tax on food.

“Our working poor are struggling to make ends meet and we should provide them with tax relief where it will matter most,” said Nasheed. “The money Missourians can save from the reduction of this tax will add up with each trip to the grocery store and it will mean a substantial savings to all of us in the long run.”

The state sales tax on food was last lowered from 4.225% during the 1997 legislative session. The monies generated by the sales tax on food currently fund the school district trust fund. This funding would be replaced by the new sales tax on liquor and wine.

Sales taxes are often considered “regressive” taxes because they tax consumers at a fixed rate, disproportionate to their income.

According to a survey paid for by the Downtown St. Louis Partnership and reported today by the Post-Dispatch, “those living [downtown] are younger, richer and better educated than the average St. Louisan.”

Just one problem: the mail survey doesn’t include downtown’s largest population: the poor and the homeless.

“Developers say the number of young adults moving to downtown validates their investments,” reports the Post. Self-validation is a dangerous thing when it involves public money.

The Post’s articles offers a few clues to why the survey’s results differ from what anyone who’s spent any time downtown has surely observed: there are more homeless people than yuppies downtown.

• The survey was sent in late summer to 5,000 downtown residents (that is, people with known addresses)
• Only 14.5% of those people bothered responding
• Of those 727 residents who did respond, 46.3% were between the ages of 25 and 34
• Only about 7% of respondents said they had children (maybe those with children were too busy to respond)
• Of the respondents, 146 had dogs and only 53 had kids

Though it will probably never show up on any Downtown Partnership survey, one of the largest populations downtown, without a doubt, is the homeless.

Any given day, a downtown visitor is more likely to see homeless men and women than they are groups of these mysterious 25-34 year-old hipsters the Post writes so much about.

Despite making up such a large population downtown, very little in comparison has been spent to address this homeless downtown population. In fact, many resources have been spent to sweep them away.

In 2004 more than a dozen homeless persons, many of them veterans, filed a federal lawsuit complaining that the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department has a policy of attempting to drive the homeless from downtown St. Louis and telling them downtown is “off limits” to them.

The suit, filed with the assistance of the ACLU, alleged that St. Louis police officers have routinely arrested the homeless without any suspicion they have committed crimes, have thrown fireworks at them to get them to move from a public park, have taken the homeless to remote areas and dumped them, have taken their food, medication, driver’s licenses and insurance cards, have made them engage in forced labor prior to ever seeing a judge, and have generally attempted to remove the homeless from downtown, particularly before major events.

The word “homeless” does not appear one time in the Post’s story about the face of downtown.

From a report Tuesday by Fox 2 reporter Paul Schankman:

From 2001 to 2006, the average number of households on food stamps in the city of St. Louis went up 35%. In St. Louis County, the number went up by 70%. In St. Charles County, it was an 82%. And in Jefferson County, the average went up 88%.

“People at even higher income levels these days it seems like are finding that they need help to get by,” says Janel Luck, from the Missouri Department of Social Services.

Financial analyst Juli Neimann says the rich are getting richer, but middle class wages are dropping. Combine that with Missouri’s rising unemployment rate and steep increases in the price of gas and basics like eggs and milk and a lot of new faces start showing up at the food pantries.

Still, the Missouri Department of Social Services claims the increase in food stamp usage is largely the result of a statewide initiative to make sure everyone who is eligible is enrolled.

PUB DEF SPECIAL REPORT

There are a lot of people hurting in the City of St. Louis. Not just struggling to make ends meet, but really struggling — to find shelter, to food for their children.

This is a developing story, which seems to be getting more desperate everyday. But you won’t see this story on the front page on the Post-Dispatch. This will not be the top news story on Channels 5, 4 or 2.

There is a horrible disconnect between our community and those that report on it, and those who are supposed to report to it.

Click To Play

The final touches are being put on a new documentary, co-produced by local filmmaker Larry Bastain (brother of State Rep. Talibdin El-Amin), which takes a closer look at the often violent lives of many of our city’s young men and boys.

“Off the Record” features interviews with gang members, local community leaders, and elected officials, including El-Amin, State Rep. Rodney Hubbard and State Senator Jeff Smith.

Last week, Governor Matt Blunt and St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay joined to declare Missouri a State of ONE to help raise awareness about global disease and poverty with the ONE Campaign, a non-partisan national program dedicated to the cause.

Here is the raw video of the announcement: