Family homelessness rose by 15 percent in Connecticut over the past year, according to a new report from the Partnership for Strong Communities.

Things are increasingly tough for renters and home owners alike, the Partnership says, with Connecticut ranking among the 10 most expensive states for both.

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau and other sources, the Partnership finds that 51 percent of renters pay more that 30 percent of their income on housing and that 27 percent are severely burdened by their housing costs, spending more than half of their income on housing.

And even though the price of a house has plummeted, buying one remains too difficult for many families, since the price remains high in comparison to other states, because family incomes have fallen, and because getting a mortgage has become more difficult, the Partnership says.

'60 Minutes' takes another look at homeless children

"60 Minutes" has updated the piece it first aired in October on children made homeless by the recession. The accompanying article notes that this will be "the largest American generation to be raised in hard times since the Great Depression."

Homeless crisis among gay teens getting Obama administration's attention

Jason Cherkis of the Huffington Post reports that the Obama administration--in the person of Bryan Samuels, commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth and Families at the U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services--has issued a memo encouraging local child welfare agencies to ensure the protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth who find themselves in need of homes.

"This Information Memorandum (IM) confirms and reiterates my fundamental belief that every child and youth who is unable to live with his or her parents is entitled to a safe, loving and affirming foster care placement, irrespective of the young person's sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression," Samuels wrote. "I encourage child welfare agencies, foster and adoptive parents and others who work with young people in foster care to ensure that their physical and emotional well-being are protected."

LGBTQ youth "are often overrepresented in the population of youth served by the child welfare system and the population of youth living on the streets," Samuels noted, pointing to such data as a National Network of Runaway and Youth services finding that while 4 to 10 percent of the general population is estimated to be gay, anywhere between 20 and 40 percent of homeless youth are gay.

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Food stamps increasingly common in Connecticut's suburbs

The Hartford Courant reports that Connecticut's affluent and middle-class towns saw the greatest percentage increase in the number of residents receiving food stamps between 2007 and 2010.

"The increase was partly driven by changes in income eligibility rules in Connecticut," the Courant notes. "As that happened, more stores in more places began to accept food stamps." But it's also true that this recession has reached deep into the middle class. Lucy Nolan, head of End Hunger Connecticut! and a member of the Speaker's Task Force on Children in the Recession, put it this way for the Courant: "We've seen a lot of people who say they never thought they'd be on the program. All of a sudden they're out of business or out of a job."

Also according to the article, the total number of Connecticut residents enrolled in the federal food stamp program has been climbing for 28 consecutive months.

Number of unemployed African-Americans and Hispanics in Connecticut on the rise

Despite a slight drop in the total number of unemployed in Connecticut from a year ago, there's "an alarming increase in the number of unemployed African-Americans and Hispanics," the state African-American Affairs Commission reports in a new issue brief (PDF).

The Commission cites data from "Labor Force Data for Affirmative Action Plans," a quarterly report of the state Labor Department. The latest edition of the report says the total number of minorities (black and Hispanic) who are unemployed rose in the first quarter of 2011 compared to a year ago, from 76,260 to 81,130. That's an increase of 2.9%.

The Commission also notes some disturbing numbers on the unemployment rate for minorities in Connecticut's nine major labor markets, concluding that in all markets "minority unemployment was disproportionate to the population." In the Bridgeport-Stamford market, blacks and Hispanics accounted for more than 60 percent of the 25,330 unemployed.

Most describe college as unaffordable

Three-quarters of the Americans who participated in a Pew Research Center survey described college as too expensive for most people to afford. Still, an overwhelming majority of college graduates (86 percent) said college has been a good investment for them personally.

Speaker's Task Force reconvenes

Last year, the work of the task force led to legislation for protecting Connecticut's most vulnerable families. On May 2, the panel reconvened to get status reports on the legislation and to gather information on the latest crisis for families devastated by the recession: the looming expiration of their unemployment benefits.

Video, documents, and more | Task Force home page

Jobs available for only 1 in 4 teenagers, study finds

Back in 2000, 45 percent of 16- to 19-year-olds nationwide found summer employment.

Those were the good old days.

A new study (PDF) from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston finds that the summer job market for teens has eroded so much in the past decade that only about 25 percent will find work this summer.

Study co-author Andrew Sum warns that this will hurt teens’ future employability. “The less work you do when you’re a teenager, the less likely it is that you work [right] after you graduate, and you’re going to end up getting lower-wage, less employment when you’re in your early- to mid-20s,” he told the Chicago Sun-Times.