About two million more children live in poverty today than at the beginning of the recession in 2007, according to a new study by the bipartisan children's advocacy group First Focus.
In 2013, 14.7 million children lived in poverty, compared to 12.8 million in poverty before the recession, the study revealed.
After examining four areas affecting the well-being of children - health, hunger, housing and abuse and neglect - the report suggests that children are often worse off than they were in 2007.
For example, in 2013, 15.7 million children (21.4 percent of all children) were food insecure - 3.3 million more than at the beginning of the recession.
The federal government's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helped ease the problem, with the number of beneficiaries rising 21 million between 2007 and 2013, but it's hard to tell if these programs are satisfying the needs of poorer families.
"Perhaps the most significant challenge for federal, state and local government policymakers is that economic recovery from the Great Recession is slow and uneven," the report said. "Many more individuals and families than before the recession, including millions of children, are struggling. As the economy continues to recover, many safety net programs are facing budget cuts. In a context of limited resources, policymakers and other stakeholders will be challenged to work collaboratively to identify ways to maintain or bolster programs that successfully assisted families during the Great Recession."
Looking at the housing situation, the report found that more than 1.6 million children were homeless each year of the recession, with 40 percent under six years old. It added that the current supply of affordable housing is not enough to meet demands.
"Children experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity are 2.5 times more likely to have health problems and 3 times more likely to have severe health problems than children with homes," the report said.
Foreclosures alone caused more than 2 million children to lose their homes, and as many as 6 million are still at risk of losing them, according to Pew Charitable Trusts.
More than one in three children still live in households that are considering "cost burdened," meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing.
As for maltreatment, while federal data suggests that child abuse rates decreased during the recession, rates of reported neglect increased 21.6 percent between 2007 and 2009, from 436,944 cases to 543,035. Hospitals also reported an increase in injuries indicative of abuse.
Between 2008 and 2011, as efforts were made to close budget gaps, states spent $349 less per child, while federal spending on child abuse prevention programs remained stable.
Since millions of jobs were lost during the recession, millions of children also lost their health insurance plans that were covered by their parents' employer, the report said.
"While there has been some modest recovery in well-being for our nation's families and children, poverty, food insecurity, and housing instability remain higher than pre-recession levels. The numbers are striking: since the start of the Great Recession, 1.9 million more children are in poverty, the number of Americans receiving SNAP benefits has increased from 26.3 million to 46.5 million with nearly half the beneficiaries being children, and almost half of U.S. households with children face challenges of housing affordability, physically inadequate housing, and/or crowded housing," the report concluded.
"We are in a period of great uncertainty when it comes to the well-being of our children and their families ... If we are to be prepared in the vent of another economic downtown, we need to ensure the viability and strength of key safety net programs. Simultaneously, we should continue with efforts like education, vocational training, and apprenticeships, which seek to reduce poverty long-term by improving opportunities for children and young people."
