Poverty report shows high percentage in Bridgeport

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (WTNH) -- A new report sheds a grim light on the economic situation some kids in Connecticut face.

Out of the nearly 28,000 residents in the state living below the poverty line last year, a large number of them are children, many of them in Bridgeport.

In Bridgeport the percentage of children living in poverty jumped to 40 percent last year, that means about one in three kids in the city is living in poverty.

"I wasn't surprised by the amount of poverty," said Kristin duBay Horton, Director of Health and Social Services for Bridgeport. "What I was surprised by was sort of the number of children being born into it."

• 2010/2011 Poverty Report

To put it in perspective, 39.9 percent of children in Bridgeport are living in poverty, while in Danbury that number is 17.9 percent and in Stamford 17.5 percent. News 8 asked Horton what she thought was responsible for making the number so high in the city.

"I think we have a lot of kids having kids, a lot of folks who can only afford to raise their families here because they can't afford to live anywhere else," she said. "And I think largely the kids who are coming into the system don't have the supportive services or necessarily the family structure that they need to break the cycle."

Horton and the city's goal is stopping the cycle. She sites programs like the Bridgeport Alliance for Young Children and a new home visiting program as examples of what the city is doing to provide kids living in poverty with the services and support they need. She says it's all about making sure the kids' needs are being met right from the time they're born so they have the best chance of starting a new life.

"Thinking about how we over the long term," Horton said, "because it's not going to be over in 2012, but in 15 or 16 years I hope that my legacy as the health director here is that those kids have other opportunities and other choices."

Learn more at the Bridgeport Alliance for Young Children or United Way of Coastal Fairfield County websites.