A Primer on Poverty in America

The aim of this blog is deceptively simple: to show how poverty works in the United States; that is, to bring to life the social systems that cause, service, perpetuate and alleviate poverty. What we've called, in our snarkier days, the poverty-industrial complex. It's particularly striking that poor Americans move through an institutional system that runs parallel to the rest of the country: welfare offices, prisons, inner-city public schools, non-profit social service agencies, the projects, the bowels of high-rise buildings, kitchens and the back doors of private homes, often riding for long periods on buses from one site to the next. In order to better understand how poverty works, and what we can do, we must keep in mind some important information on the domestic contours of poverty.

Measurement and definitions

Poverty in the U.S. is calculated based on an individual or family's pre-tax money income; the measure has been around since 1964, when it was first designed at the Department of Agriculture based on food costs. A person earning less than $10,400 in 2008 is considered to be living in poverty; an additional $3,600 is added per person to determine if an American family is living in poverty.

Anti-poverty advocates cite two problems with U.S. poverty measures: a) the outdated emphasis on food costs, which leads to a dramatic underestimation of poor Americans, and b) the focus on income deprivation, which fails to illustrate the degree of socio-economic inequality in the U.S. Alternative measurements and definitions include redefining poverty based on a bundle of after-tax household expenses, and adopting the British concept of "social exclusion," which measures not only material hardship, but to what extent that hardship blocks full participation in society.

Because official poverty measurements are considered dated and inadequate, anti-poverty advocates often develop their own benchmarks – a household's earnings compared to area median income, for instance, or as a multiple of the federal poverty level – to gauge economic hardship and relative deprivation. In the affordable housing circles that I frequent, people earning less than 60% of area median income are considered very-low income; less than 30% of area median income is categorized as extremely low-income. We'll be relying on these relative guidelines here.

Demographics

Family demographics, workforce and educational status, residential location, and circumstances (e.g., divorce) all factor into whether or not and for how long a person in the U.S. is likely to be poor. Since the 1960s, roughly 10 to 15% of Americans have lived in poverty each year – about 37 million people in 2008. These individuals are more likely to be foreign-born, non-white, elderly, physically and/or mentally disabled, children, single mothers, city dwellers, high school dropouts, ex-offenders, and living in the U.S. South. Growing up in poverty leads to worse employment, educational and health outcomes, and greater risk of run-ins with the criminal justice system. Four in ten Americans will experience poverty at some point in their lives.

The majority of poor Americans work; only about 4 million Americans, the majority of them children, were on public assistance in 2007. To offer some perspective, in 2005 the federal government spent about $17 billion on welfare payments to poor families and almost $73 billion on mortgage interest deductions for homeowners. During the Bush Administration, the poverty rate reversed course and began rising again, real wages declined, we are facing record foreclosures, and economic inequality is at its worst since the Gilded Age.

Housing, Transportation & Employment

There is no county in the U.S. where a person working full-time at minimum wage can afford the rent on a one-bedroom market-rate apartment, yet housing subsidies go to fewer than 7 million low-income households (one million or so are in public housing).

Social exclusion results in part from our residential sequestering of low-income individuals – whether in high-rise public housing projects, in overcrowded houses in the 'burbs, or in scattered apartments across far-flung regions. Often, if this housing offers access to public transportation, it is also in a high-crime city neighborhood, or residents are dependent on long bus rides to jobs in city centers or spread out around metro areas. Some advocates make a legitimate case that equipping poor families with cars reduces poverty.

When we talk about poverty in America, the most pressing issue is perhaps the families and groups chronically living in poverty – in substandard housing and toiling in low-wage, no-benefit, punitive jobs and sectors that offer little to no chance for economic advancement or security. Consider America's "working poor": Wal-Mart employees, day laborers, hotel and restaurant workers, most janitors, nannies and housekeepers, and poultry workers. If you lack a high school diploma or a green card or social security or the ability to speak English or a father living at home, or if you have a record or have young children at home or a mental illness or a chronic disease, it is highly likely that if you are employed, you have been shunted into a job that requires neither certification nor English fluency, but also doesn't offer benefits, living wages or collective bargaining.

Actual unemployment rates are typically 50% to 100% higher than official unemployment rates. Unemployment rates for African-Americans range from over 11% (official) to 42%.

What You Can Do

Legislative advocacy: push your Congressional representatives to pass legislation for living wages, an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), regional efforts to create good jobs in low-income areas, and other proposals that will combat poverty in the U.S. You'll learn more here about how to get involved with local and state legislative efforts as well.

Volunteer: Check out Shannon's blog on homelessness to learn more about volunteer opportunities with local service organizations that work with poor communities. Check out community development corporations, after-school programs, community health centers, prison tutoring programs, and other front-line initiatives that provide services and resources for low-income families and individuals.

Organize: for voting rights restoration for ex-offenders, for low-income voter registration, for tenants' rights, workers' rights, immigrants' rights, reproductive justice, and healthcare access, to name just a few key issues that disproportionately affect low-income Americans.

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