DCentric

More and more people are turning to hospital emergency rooms for routine dental care. That’s according to a new report by the Pew Center on the States, which found that it’s difficult for low-income patients to regularly access preventative dental care. The researchers also found a shortage of dentists who treat Medicaid patients, which is a problem that some low-income D.C. residents have noted, as well.

FRONTLINE reports that in down economic times, going to the dentist “may take a back seat to other economic needs.”

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• Source: Pbs

Between 2006 and 2009, the number of ER visits for dental problems rose by 16 percent, a trend the study suggests is continuing. And because ERs are often not staffed by dentists, nearly 20 percent of all ER dental trips are return patients whose problems persisted.

“If people are showing up in the ER for dental care, then we’ve got big holes in the delivery of care,” Shelly Gehshan, the director of Pew’s children’s dental campaign, told the Associated Press. “It’s the wrong service, in the wrong setting, at the wrong time.”

It is also expensive: A routine teeth cleaning that could prevent future dental problems can cost up to $100, as compared to $1,000 for ER treatment for untreated cavities and infections.

Read more at: www.pbs.org

The cover of TIME magazine this week includes 20 portraits of Latino voters for the story “Yo Decido,” about the role of Latinos in the upcoming presidential race. But one of the “Latinos” on the cover is Michael Schennum, who is half-Chinese, half-white and not Latino at all. Schennum has said that when photographed for the story, TIME “never told me what it was for or [asked] me if I was Latino.”

This episode, writes Marcia Dawkins at the Huffington Post, presents an opportunity to discuss the challenges of racial identification. It’s a particularly unique situation for Latinos, since they actually constitute an ethnicity, not a racial group.

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• Source: Huffingtonpost

Although the press often talks about Latinos as if they are only a race, we must understand that in the US they constitute an ethnicity that also identifies in racial terms. And we must note that each individual Latino may identify differently from everyone else in the ethnic group, including members of his or her own family. This suggests that, as with multiracials, what’s most important about Latinos is that they call into question the Black and White racial categories we tend to think of as obvious and stable. So, when a case of mistaken identity like Schennum’s comes up we are able to see how unreliable appearance is as a form of identification. And we also see how all the groups we now think of in racial or multiracial terms were once ethnicities as well.

Read more at: www.huffingtonpost.com

Fewer children in D.C. live in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty than did in 2000. That’s according to a new report by the Anne E. Casey Foundation, which found that about 33,000 children live in neighborhoods where at least one-third of their neighbors live below the poverty line. In 2000, the report found, 37,000 children lived in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty.

One of the major reasons behind the decrease is the influx of more affluent residents — gentrification — rather than poor families faring better than before, the Washington Examiner reports. Also, poverty among children is actually increasing. D.C.’s poverty rate breaks down along racial lines; it’s highest among African Americans, at 27 percent, and lowest among whites, at 8.5 percent. The District ranks tenth among cities with the highest concentrated poverty.

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• Source: Washingtonexaminer

Having a housing voucher can be a lifeline for low-income D.C. residents, given the rising market rate rents. But actually getting such a voucher is no easy task; the D.C. Housing Authority waiting list is more than 37,000-people long, and the city is just now getting to people who signed up in 2003.

There are no time limits on how long people can user vouchers. Housing Authority director Adrienne Todman tells Washington City Paper that she’s trying to free up spots by working with families on vouchers to see if they still need the assistance. “There’s a feeling that’s built up. ‘What if I get sick? What if I lose my job?’ If you live in public housing, you’re good,” Todman told the City Paper. “The next frontier is working with people and getting past the generational concept that ‘this is what I do.’”

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• Source: Washingtoncitypaper

It’s not just a constant reality for families. The list is also full of single people like John (he declined to give his last name), who started a five-year jail term for drugs in 1999, got out in 2003, went through a halfway house before offending again, did another five years, and has been living in a men’s shelter since summer of 2010. He’s now about to get off probation, but is still on the housing list after eight years. With his kind of record, in this kind of job market, his chances of making enough money to pay for his own apartment are slim.

“People told me to get on the list, so that’s what I did,” says John. “I knew it was going to be a wait, but I didn’t know it was going to be this long.”

Read more at: www.washingtoncitypaper.com

D.C.’s income gap between the rich and poor is one of the largest in the nation, and it’s growing. The Washington Examiner breaks down the District’s income gap by neighborhoods. Georgetown is on one end of the spectrum, where the average household brings in $155,532 a year. On the other end: Bellevue/South Capitol, where the average household earns $29,695 yearly.

The District’s income gap also breaks down along racial lines; on average, African Americans earn $1 for every $3.06 whites earn.

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• Source: Washingtonexaminer