By Christina Leslie | Correspondent

A workshop attracting concerned citizens and advocates for the poor offered sobering statistics, poignant testimony and concrete legislative action items to address the problems of hunger, housing and inadequate employment among this state’s residents.

The Anti-Poverty Network of New Jersey presented its annual Poverty Summit in the ballroom of the Trenton War Memorial May 21. Entitled “A Call to Invest in the People of New Jersey,” it offered concrete steps to ameliorate the urgent issues of hunger, housing and inadequate employment.

Formed in 1999, APN’s goal is to promote systematic use of public funds and strategic alliances amongst diverse state organizations towards the goal of preventing, reducing and eliminating poverty. APN draws members from a variety of New Jersey communities and organizations such as advocacy groups, labor unions, businesses, faith-based organizations and other agencies and networks. Co-conveners of the workshop included members from the NJ Foundation for Aging, NJ SHARES, Legal Services, and Catholic Charities.

The workshop began with sobering statistics proving the nationwide recession had hit the Garden State particularly hard. A study by the Poverty Research Institute showed that 24% of New Jersey residents, or about 2.4 million people, lived below the federal poverty level in 2010. “The real cost of living is about three times the federal poverty level,” declared Allan Lichtenstein of the Legal Services of New Jersey, issuer of the study. “The cost of living in New Jersey is far higher than many other states.”

Lichtenstein and fellow presenter Shivi Prasad presented data which showed the job market has not improved since the purported end of the recession. “Over half of the unemployed have been so for more than six months,” he continued. “It’s the young people that are taking a beating. The fact that they are not working now will affect them the rest of their lives.”

The APN Position paper, which proposes legislation for the fiscal year 2013 state budget currently under consideration, was presented to the attendees at the workshop. The group’s proposals to solve the triune challenges of inadequate housing, pervasive hunger, and rampant unemployment and underemployment were addressed by APN sub-agencies and concrete action items were presented to the attendees.

Marlene Lao-Collins, diocesan executive director of Catholic Charities and a workshop co-convener, urged the nearly 200 attendees to consider the legislation proposed by APN and take steps towards its passage. “We have to do more, we have to be bold, we have to go deep,” she said. “We need to come up with big ideas.”

Arnold Cohen of the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey recommended attendees urge passage of S.1566/A.2618, the New Jesey Residential Transformation Act. This bill will create a fund to buy foreclosed properties in bulk from banks to create affordable housing for the most needy. Current plans by Gov. Christie to appropriate $300 million in municipal housing trust funds to attempt to balance his budget should be derailed, Cohen advocated.

Adele La Tourette of the NJ Anti-Hunger Coalition reminded the group that hunger, especially in school-age children, is an ongoing problem. The group’s position paper asserts legislators increase budget allocation for the State Food Purchase program to assist food banks; encourage participation of eligible needy in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) formerly known as the Food Stamp Program; and support new and innovative ways to process applications and streamline divergent services across agencies, La Tourette declared.

Ray Castro of the NJ Policy Perspective informed the attendees of his group’s advocacy to raise the state minimum wage and restore the Earned Income Tax Credit. Current plans to undertake both topics in the legislature are in danger of being postponed to fiscal year 2014, Castro said, which would further increase the disparity between the working poor and their limited financial resources.

Rev. Bruce H. Davidson, director of the Lutheran office of governmental ministry in NJ and an APN co-convener, invited the attendees to list their own ideas on advocating for the poor, homeless and under-employed for consideration by the APN. Citing the recent page-one treatment on poverty by the Newark Star-Ledger, Rev. Davidson said, “This issue should be lifted up and taken seriously… if you heard 10% of what was reported today, you have more information than most of the people in New Jersey. There are close to 200 of us here today, and we can make front page news in the workplace, with families, in newspapers. We have a story to tell and we can tell it.”