DHHS issues 2009 updated poverty guidelines for Hawaii
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services annually updates the HHS poverty guidelines to adjust for increases in the Consumer Price Index during the calendar year. The new guidelines were included in the Jan. 23 edition of the Federal Register.
The guidelines are used as an eligibility criterion for the Community Services Block Grant program and a number of other federal programs. The poverty guidelines are a simplified version of the poverty thresholds that the Census Bureau uses to prepare its estimates of the number of individuals and families in poverty.
DHHS issues separate poverty figures for Alaska and Hawaii, although the Census Bureau has never used separate figures for the 49th and 50th states.
