One obstacle she saw was inadequate welfare benefits for the poor, which, she said, made it " very difficult to provide adequate counseling to families and their children" who lacked "the basic needs of food, shelter, good health care".
The bottom line for the students is that all workers should be paid a wage that covers the basic needs of food, shelter and clothing for themselves and their families.
But the bare bones of Roberto's story, a man who has fallen through the cracks in social care, and who – despite having an obvious mental health problem – has been forced to turn to charities for help with the most basic needs of food and shelter, is depressingly familiar to workers here.
The "fungible value" of Medicaid coverage is calculated as the smaller of (1) what it costs taxpayers to provide the coverage or (2) the difference between the household's money income and the amount it needs to cover its basic needs of food and housing.
"It's becoming very evident that just below filling basic needs of food, water and shelter is this connectivity issue, and connectivity can help fulfill other needs," said Jessica Lawrence, the managing director of the New York Tech Meetup, a nonprofit group that has been helping to coordinate volunteer efforts on the local technology scene.
But times have changed and even in quiet, leafy suburbs families now struggle with the basic needs of food and shelter.
