So...if I'm reading this right, NYC takes into account all the income from programs designed to help the poor (food stamps, Medicaid, etc.) to determine who is poor. Seems a bit recursive, especially if applied statistically. Just because a household qualifies for those programs doesn't mean they're enrolled in them--poverty isn't strictly a lack of material goods, it's also a lack of information about how to get those goods.

Don't get me wrong: I'm all for a reevaluation of how we define poverty, and I'm not surprised that more people are "poor" than previously thought. I just want to have a better understanding of the methodology before we start rolling this out across the country.