How Does Income Poverty Relate to Material Hardship? Evidence from a New Household Survey

Irwin Garfinkel, Columbia University
Jane Waldfogel, Columbia University
Christopher T. Wimer, Columbia University

Beginning in fall of 2012, Columbia University began conducting a biennial survey of 2,000 New York City residents based on random digit dialing of a phone sample of all residents, which oversampled poor neighborhoods (city population sample) and an in-person respondent driven sample of 250 beneficiaries of Robin Hood Foundation philanthropic services and their acquaintances (agency sample). The surveys provide assessments of income poverty (including virtually all measures necessary to calculate a Supplemental Poverty Measure), material hardship, and child and family well-being together in one survey. This paper presents results comparing official and SPM “poor” families along multiple dimensions of material hardship. We will compare these associations for families with children and families without children, as well as look at demographic differences in these associations. Results will shed light on what the SPM tells us about the contours of material hardship in a high-cost city relative to alternative existing measures.