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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — The poverty rate in Ohio stayed steady from last year, but the number of children living in poverty is concerning the state’s community action agencies, which work with low-income people.

The 2024 State of Poverty in Ohio report shows 13.4% of Ohioans live in poverty. That’s the same poverty rate cited in the previous year’s report. That includes nearly 18% of kids, nearly a third more than the overall rate. The food insecurity rate for children in Ohio is more than 22% higher than the overall rate.

Phil Cole with the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies said there are ways to combat poverty, but he fears they’re not being pursued by supermajority Republican lawmakers.”

The answer is not the continuation of cuts to income taxes. Making the well-off better off is not a solution,” Cole said. “We encourage the 136th General Assembly, which will convene in January, to take on these problems in the form of solutions.”

Cole says dealing with this is critical because it’s hard for people born into poverty to get out.“In too many cases of poor families, the life you will live is determined at birth,” Cole said. “While we know that poverty has many causes, your economic station at birth is a major one and it has nothing to do with personal choices.”

Thirteen counties are maternity care deserts, most where more than half of the women are low income.

Cole suggests the state can help by paying contractors to build affordable housing, increase the allowance for SNAP benefits, and pay medical students’ costs if they commit to working in low-income areas. A refundable tax credit for low-income families was proposed earlier this month by Democrats.