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"Medicare pays for the first 100 days of an elderly person's stay in a nursing home. After that, Medicaid becomes the only source of payment for the low-income elderly. Indiana spends about $1 billion a year on nursing home costs for the elderly through Medicaid."

"They also talked about community-based mental health alternatives to nursing homes for residents who now funnel in from psychiatric wards, jail cells and homeless shelters."

"Around 30 million U.S. households are currently eligible for the WAP, which provides a variety of completely free weatherization improvements to home owners and renters who qualify. To be eligible, your income needs to be at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level."

"An hour later, she and 20 others gathered in a dull carpeted room at a community center. Most were in their 50s, their bodies signposts for hard-lived lives. Many were overweight. Malnutrition had left some severely bowlegged. Most had diabetes -- the disease that stole Rios' vision."

The first case, in 2002, was settled with a confidentiality agreement. The latest suit claims the complex, occupied by low-income elderly residents, 'should have remediated the problems before recruiting people to reside in these units with impaired indoor air quality.'"

"... [A]ccording to a survey of jobless men and women in that age group, nearly half have been job-hunting for a year or more. The study was commissioned by 'Experience Works,' a national nonprofit that provides job training and employment services to older and low-income workers."

"More grandparents are seeking help with utility payments and rent, as well as with securing food, clothing and extra bedding for their new housemates. One in six lives in poverty. In 2007, about 17 percent of grandparent households with children were living in poverty..."

"About 17,000 homes were seriously damaged, and 5,200 of the families in them did not have flood insurance. Most of the homeowners were poor or elderly, said Joe Higgs of Gulf Coast Interfaith, a group helping hurricane victims."

"[In the recession], providing a proper funeral for loved ones can be a daunting task for some families. And with state law regulating the burial or cremation of bodies, the job of providing proper burials for the impoverished often falls on local governments and funeral homes. "

"Since 2007, Medicaid has teamed up with 29 states to finance such programs, enabling the low-income elderly and people with disabilities to receive many services in their own homes."

"Global competition. Low-income workers in other nations have pushed down wages in the USA. Newly hired workers -- generally younger people -- experience the wage decline first, says economist Dean Baker of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning think tank."

"According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau figures, the median household income for seniors hovers near the poverty level, around $28,305. But the allure of what they've acquired -- the median net worth of those between 65 and 74 sits at $190,100 -- is what entices criminals..."