Alumna Lili Holzer-Glier (BFA 2010) has documented the experiences of New Yorkers struggling to make ends meet in "Too Rich to Be Poor, Too Poor to Get By," a project recently featured on The Wilson Quarterly. Holzer-Glier sets the scene with income and public benefit stats within New York City:
For a family of three to qualify for food stamps, their gross monthly income must be at or below 130% of the poverty line. In 2016, in order to qualify a three-person family must make less than $2,177 a month, or about $26,100 a year.
The heart of the project is New Yorkers telling their own stories of scraping by. Holzer-Glier's portraits and photos accompany some heart-wrenching accounts:
Doniece: I was driving school buses full-time and I asked my boss if I could come into work 10 minutes late because my mom was in the hospital having seizures. He fired me on the spot.
My girlfriend lives with us and helps out – she works with kids at an afterschool program. And my little brother he’s living here too – we’ve only got a two-bedroom so he sleeps in the living room. He’s still in high school but he does landscaping during the summer. We can’t afford a car so he skateboards between landscaping jobs but, man, every penny helps.
Food was starting to get real tight. I’ve been applying for food stamps and we finally just got approved – we start getting them in August. Thank you, God.
About the Artist: Lili Holzer-Glier is a photographer and journalist based in New York City. Her work has been published in Vogue, The New York Times and The New Yorker, among other publications. She lives and works in New York City. For more information about the artist, go here.