The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Needy \Need"y\, a. [Compar. Needier; superl. Neediest.]
   1. Distressed by want of the means of living; very poor;
      indigent; necessitous.
      [1913 Webster]

            Thou shalt open thy hand wide unto thy brother, to
            thy poor, and to thy needy in thy land. --Deut. xv.
                                                  11.
      [1913 Webster]

            Spare the blushes of needy merit.     --Dr. T.
                                                  Dwight.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Necessary; requisite. [Obs.]
      [1913 Webster]

            Corn to make your needy bread.        --Shak.
      [1913 Webster] Neeld

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

needy
    adj 1: poor enough to need help from others [syn: destitute,
           impoverished, indigent, necessitous, needy,
           poverty-stricken]
    2: demanding or needing attention, affection, or reassurance to
       an excessive degree
    n 1: needy people collectively; "they try to help the needy"

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

53 Moby Thesaurus words for "needy":
   beggared, beggarly, bereaved, bereft, chronic poverty area, dead,
   depressed population, deprived, destitute, disadvantaged,
   down-and-out, flat, fleeced, ghetto-dwellers, ghettoized, hard up,
   impecunious, impoverished, in need, in rags,
   in reduced circumstances, in want, indigent, insolvent, mendicant,
   necessitous, on relief, on welfare, out at elbows, pauperized,
   penniless, penurious, pinched, poor, poverty-stricken, starveling,
   strapped, stripped, the disadvantaged, the distressed,
   the down-and-out, the forgotten man, the have-nots, the needy,
   the other America, the poor, the underprivileged, the urban poor,
   underdeveloped nation, underprivileged, unprosperous,
   up against it, welfare rolls