Advocates to Ask SLC Mayor for Poverty Task Force

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) This week, low-income advocates plan to ask Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson to take a page from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's playbook. Advocate Bill Tibbitts explains.

"Bloomberg has put together a task force to end working poverty. What they're looking at doing is increasing the employability of low income people: helping them to get more training, helping them to get more work supports like food stamps. Helping people basically to increase their earning capacity," says Tibbitts.

Mayor Bloomberg's panel consists of top leaders from New York's nonprofit, business, academic and social service sectors. Utah advocates hope Anderson will do similarly, in light of what Tibbitts sees as a lack of interest from state lawmakers in tackling the problem of poverty:

"It doesn't seem like our state officials are interested in doing anything about hunger," says Tibbitts. "Utah has one of the lowest participation levels in the food stamp program. Our state officials are actually cutting people off the program at a time they should be doing outreach."

"What can we do at the local level to address the issues of poverty in Salt Lake City?"

Tibbitts says the Crossroads Urban Center will formally ask Anderson for the working group on poverty this week. The idea stemmed from a brainstorming session at the annual People's Summit on Poverty held over the weekend.

To hear more with Bill Tibbitts as interviewed on KCPW's Midday Metro, click here.

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