• Residents struggle for food in Camden, N.J.

    A 21-year-old heroin addict looks for food among garbage in Camden, N.J., Oct. 11, 2012.

    Spencer Platt / Getty Images — Camden, New Jersey is now the most impoverished city in the U.S. with nearly 32,000 of Camden's residents living below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Camden has a chronic crime problem with 48 recorded homicides this year alone. A lack of jobs has been a feature of life in Camden since the city lost most of its manufacturing base in the late 1960s and 70s. While the state unemployment rate is about 9.9 percent, Camden's is estimated at 19 percent.

    A youth volunteer serves food to the needy at Cathedral Hall in Camden, N.J., Oct. 11. Cathedral Hall serves lunch five days a week to thousands of Camden residents having trouble affording food.

    A homeless man panhandles on a street in Camden, N.J., Oct. 11.

    Workers in a culinary arts training program prepare meals at the Cathedral Kitchen soup kitchen that serves 300 to 600 meals a day, six days a week, to the needy and hungry in Camden, N.J., Oct. 11. Cathedral Kitchen was founded in 1976 and offers a variety of programs and life services to Camden's poor and disadvantaged.

    Homes sit vacant in Camden, N.J., Oct. 11.

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  • Struggling N.J. city lays off cops, firefighters

    By Carissa Ray

    I can't imagine how hard it would be to make the final walk that the firefighters in the images below are being asked to take.

    AP reports: In a solemn display, laid-off firefighters and police officers lined up Tuesday to turn in their helmets and badges — symbols of deep budget cuts that were destined to further erode the quality of life in one of the nation's most impoverished and crime-ridden cities.

    Mel Evans / AP

    Firefighters hug outside a firehouse on Jan. 18, in Camden, N.J., after being laid off. The layoffs affect close to one-fourth of the city government workforce in one of the nation's most impoverished places.

    Mel Evans / AP

    Firefighters applaud Andy Delgado, back to camera, a five-year-veteran of the Camden Fire Department, as he tells them to keep their hopes up on Jan. 18, in Camden, N.J., as they prepare to turn in their gear after being laid off. About 335 workers, representing one-sixth of the local government work force, lost their jobs, according to Mayor Dana Redd. It was worst in the public safety departments, where nearly half the police force and close to one-third of the city's firefighters were laid off.

    Read the full story here.