On a tangent, a kind of crazy aspect of the "new" poverty is that finally poverty has gotten a little bit "cool." One friend of mine bemoans, righteously, that poverty is never "the flavor of the month", well for some it almost is, as another friend of mine wrote me:
"That old/new poverty thing is right on the mark. I've been starting to meet some of these 'new poverty' people and some of them are flat out delusional. I actually got, "We're on a budget, I'm laid off. Hahaha!"
Then she got in her Lexus.
People are starting to be proud of their thrift store finds, their clothing swap parties, and finding it cool to talk about...and they are still people who need to recognize the truly horrendous situations some live with.
There are 50,000 homeless in Detroit, for instance, 50,000 in a city with many, many foreclosed and boarded up houses, many falling down from years of neglect. This is wrong. As a fellow poverty advocate said so succinctly to me when mentioning that Detroit lost 51% of its population between 1950 and 2007: "It's the final outrage perpetrated on the homeless in Detroit that they can't get housing in that sad ruin of a city."
The main problem in regards to the housing situation is that many see the people evicted and foreclosed upon as victims of a greedy system. They most certainly are. What many continually forget however, is that the true housing crisis is the one that started years ago, and that the "old poor" have had to contend with it for years, including such indignities as waiting lists, unacceptable demands made on their liberties, (room checks, piss drug tests in front of witnesses et al), and just plain not enough units.
The problem really started when housing units started to be destroyed without being replaced or when they changed status from Section 8 housing to private housing. Nearly two decades ago HUD started financing the renovation of schools, warehouses, etc., into housing. The basic loan/grant program had a stipulation that the builder would provide income-based housing for so many years. Guess what folks, those years have come to pass, and fewer and fewer subsidized housing units can be found. And more are being destroyed...and there are 50,000 homeless in Detroit, and millions more in the rest of the country. Some have been homeless for a long time, some are new to this horrible state, all need help.
Quick action, call your representatives and ask them to address homelessness in your area...Remind them of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights article 25(1) that "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."
As I come to a close, I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention how welfare and welfare reform have played a hand in the ranks of poverty, both old and new. Here are two articles sent to me by a good friend:
"Myth: Welfare increases poverty.
Fact: The more welfare, the less poverty -- both historically and internationally.Summary
The historical evidence is clear: welfare reduces poverty, and the lack of it increases it. In the 1920s, fully half of all Americans could not make ends meet. Roosevelt's New Deal programs had reduced poverty to about 20 percent in the 50s. Johnson's Great Society reduced this to 11.1 percent by 1973. Since the rise of the corporate special interest system in 1975, individual welfare benefits have been shrinking, and poverty has been steadily rising... " article here.
Quote:
"Ten years after welfare reform recipients decline while poverty rate increases. Safety net of services and support that once protected the poor lies in tatters." article here.
Finally, as I complete the writing of this on Martin Luther King Jr.'s actual birthday, it is fitting to quote him on poverty:
"Let us be dissatisfied until rat-infested, vermin-filled slums will be a thing of a dark past and every family will have a decent sanitary house in which to live. Let us be dissatisfied until the empty stomachs of Mississippi are filled and the idle industries of Appalachia are revitalized “
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