The Concentration Of Poverty And Poverty

Post the economic crisis in America and the recession during the years of 2008 and 2009, the country saw a great increase in poverty and worsening of living conditions of Americans. Currently, almost 50 million of fellow Americans are living in extremely bad conditions under the poverty line which means earning less than $11490 for a single person or $23550 for a family of four people. That’s about 1 in every 6 people in this country are living under poverty. A person living in this country on minimum wage which is $7.25 an hour also cannot pull himself out of poverty even after working 40 hours a week.

As a main theme in Hunger and Shame, child malnutrition is a serious problem that has affected many different societies. Child malnutrition is a complicated concept that often has many causes; each society is different and must be studied closely to fully understand the reason for such a horrific epidemic. Focusing on the Chagga population, many factors catalyzed the epidemic including environmental, cultural, and global.

Social science has proven that where you live can influence your health and well-being in either a positive or negative way. Living in poverty and growing up in a deprived neighbourhood has a direct link to various social problems such as a lack of employment opportunities, poor housing conditions, educational problems, lack of amenities, and not feeling safe in your neighbourhood. These disparities are especially prevalent amongst minority communities due to their lower socioeconomic status (CDC), and are happening in our own community. Therefore, I propose that we as a group volunteer our time to raise awareness, combat the negative effects of poverty with the use of outreach and advocacy schemes, and be aware of the possible opposition

According to Elizabeth Kneebone, author of “Confronting Suburban Poverty in America”, the growth of suburban poverty is partly due to the dark economic situations that forced people beneath “the line” and by migration. She added that most low-wage jobs in America are in the suburbs, and that people mistakenly believe that more services are offered in the suburbs than in the cities. Looking at the fast-growing poor population in the suburbs, this phenomenon has become a community situation where anyone is susceptible of. Furthermore, it indicates that there needs to be a synergistic, universal change to better the situation (the government and organizations should change as well).

The new study found that the poor families of the program that chose to move to better low poverty areas inadvertently give their children extremely better odds of escaping poverty. While families that chose to stay in high poverty areas like the city of Baltimore, for example have a very low chance of escaping poverty. The families who continue to live in high poverty areas become victims of income inequality and become frustrated that they are stuck in a rat race of life, they are also anxious about getting ahead and working hard to make a change in their family’s life. Poor families living in wealthier jurisdictions endure the loss of upward mobility in the form of earnings. Ethnicity also plays a large factor in upward mobility.

Homelessness is an epidemic problem that faces many American’s and families across the United States, especially in Detroit. You may see homeless people sleeping in the underpasses of freeways or walking and sitting on street corners or holding up a sign asking for some support for their next meal. We all have seen homeless individuals and thought it was not our problem for their circumstances or maybe had a belief he/she was lying about their situation. Many of us make a choice to give money or buy food, but there are others who make a choice to ignore or overlook the homeless population. Society has placed a stigma and label the homeless population labeling them destitute by choice, but for many homelessness has become a way of life.

Although less segregated than a decade ago, many communities are still mainly comprised of households that contain only one ethnicity or racial group (Carr, 2008). According to Orfield & Lee, children in impoverished communities experience a loss of successful role models; most being unemployed or under-employed. Their parents also lose access to networks in order to obtain better paying jobs and often experience a severe loss of resources to support high-quality schools (2005). In fact, more

Poverty within neighborhoods throughout the United States has increased immensely throughout the past 50 years. In 2011, nearly 46.2 million Americans were living in poverty compared to the 353,000 Americans who lived in poverty in 1959. (Dosomething 1) Poverty is hardly just defined as a lack of financial resources, it is defined as a condition that results in an absence of the freedom to choose arising from a lack of the capability to function effectively in society. (Poverty and Education 1)  For a person to be impoverished or to be living in a state of poverty is to live where they do not have the economic means to provide a healthy lifestyle for themselves and their family.  A majority of public school students across the country are considered “low-income”, according to a new study by the Southern Education Foundation.  Areas of concentrated impoverishment are often characterised by crime, unemployment, and lack of resources.  Children represent 24 percent of the population, but they comprise 34 percent of all people in poverty.  The shift to a majority-poor student population implies that a growing range of students who attend public schools are less likely to possess support at home, are less often exposed to enriching activities outside of school, and are more likely to drop out and never attend higher education.  Children living in poverty have a higher number of absenteeism or leave school altogether because they are likely to have to work or care for family

Economically disadvantaged families are beginning to live outside cities as the suburban poor are the fastest growing low-income population in the United States. Within a ten-year span, suburban poverty has risen by 50%, growing at twice the rate of small and large urban areas and rural poverty (Kneebone, 2014). These suburbs are close to the urban centers, and those currently living in them have been introduced into the same cycles of poverty that previously trapped those living in urban neighborhoods. Additionally, it has been found that children growing up in poor suburban areas have a more difficult path to success than those living in poor small and large urban areas (Kneebone, 2014). Most of the previous research conducted on low-income families have not only shown negative effects on the academic development of their children, but it also shows that there are significant negative physical health concerns associated with certain lower socioeconomic

Initially, location of people’s homes are important in deciding safety, what school their children will attend, financial benefits, and employment availability. Those and other factors are significant in deciding where people want to live but “there is a strong correlation among location, weak economic opportunity, and race.” Powell utilizes that the majority of people who are in poverty are white, but those who are black live in concentrated poverty. Where majority of minorities live “those places tend to be underfunded and with weak institutions,” given the fact that there are black. Schools are poor, crime rate is increased, and the job market is weak, making the living conditions difficult. He explains that the families’ living in such underfunded

Children who live in poverty have limited access to safe neighborhoods. Farthing (2016) cited Daly and Leonard (2016) as saying, the poverty living conditions affected mental health and the quality of life in the children. They also suggested safety concerns due to higher rates of crime (2016). Many things hinder impoverished children from playing and being healthy such as, not living in suitable housing where the neighborhoods are plagued with crime. Therefore, this keeps the children from playing outside and prevents them from getting adequate exercise to sustain a healthy lifestyle. Rather than children from higher income homes that can go outdoors and get plenty of exercise. Farthing (2016) interpreted Rice (2006) and Ridge (2008) as stating “Poor quality housing was described by children and young people as a cause of ill-health, anxiety and a general sense of unhappiness” (p.3). Being sick and dejected from the inadequate housing is just another battle these children face on a daily basis.

In addition, housing areas have been historically segregated by race and income. The United States has as history of health disparities that is highest in minorities (LaVeist 2005). Income segregation occurs when high-income populations refuse to live in neighborhoods where assisted housing units are available (Owens 2015). This action keeps high income areas segregated because only those who can afford to live in those places tend to do so. It was found that deconcentrated neighborhoods (neighborhoods that contain a mix of high-income housing and public housing units) reduce the segregation mentioned above. In the United States, the rise in economic segregation corresponded with a rise in neighborhood segregation which has caused areas of town to be marked by affluence or poverty (Owens 2015). Housing segregation has not caused as a dramatic shift in neighborhood quality at the local level. Furthermore, Owens noted that race caused neighborhood segregation (2015); minorities often times made less than their white counterparts make and thereby could not afford to live in the same areas. The strong association between race and income can be seen in Bexar County where the concentration of high-income people corresponds to living in areas with a lower Hispanic population, lower obesity rate, and higher health

Poverty for centuries has been a very severe issue that has troubled many nations while impeding economic developments and progress. Poverty stricken countries are majorly concentrated in the continents of Africa and Asia. Continents like the Americas and Europe have globally been recognized as been wealthier yet still many parts of these ostensible countries face massive cases of poverty. Most at times, countries with high populations owing to high birth rates face the most cases of poverty. The definition of poverty can be boundless in the sense that poverty entails so many subsections as it sometimes gets complicated to group everything under one umbrella. Society tends to focus more on the tangible aspects of poverty because many people associate poverty with lacking money and it makes sense because poverty in terms of lacking money is a major problem affecting almost every country in the world. Even though it is debatable that poverty can be physical, intellectual, spiritual and even emotional, it is best to talk about the lack of money and economic developments in this essay. With reference to the oxford English Dictionary, poverty is state of being extremely poor and the state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount. Reflecting on this definition given, I deduced that malnutrition and hunger can define poverty. In the light of this, I think poverty is lacking a comfortable place of shelter, being ill and not having access to a better

Poverty can lead to serious effects. Children who grow up in poverty are likely to have frequent health problems than the children who grow in better financial circumstances. For example, infants who are born into poverty have a low birth weight, and they grow up with mental or physical disabilities. Not only are they sick, but they are most likely to die before their first birthday. Children who are raised in poverty might miss school often because of their illnesses, and they have a much higher accident rate than the other children. Nearly a billion of the world’s population can’t read nor write. Poor families experience stress much more than a normal family does. They are more likely to be exposed to negative events such as illness, job loss, death of a family member, and depression. Homelessness is another effect of poverty. Homeless children are less likely to receive proper nutrition, protection and they experience more health problems. Around 1.4 million children die each year from lack of access to safe and clean water and proper nutrition. Homeless women experience a high rate of low birth weight infants as well as miscarriages. Families who do not have homes receive much more stress than other families. They also have disruption in school, work, friendships, and family relationships. There are other effects of poverty such as drug abuse and addiction, child and woman abuse, debts pressure, and increase in crimes.

About one in five children in the United States has the misfortune of living in a family whose income is below the official poverty threshold (Borman and Reimers 454). Poverty has harmful effects on a child’s academic outcomes, general health, development, and school readiness. The impact of poverty has on a child depends on many factors for instance community features ( crime rate in neighborhood and school characteristics) and the individuals present in the child’s life like their parents, neighbors, or relatives. It is clear that schools and outside environmental factors contribute to whether a child is successful or not in their academic life. A child’s family, neighborhood, and type of school effects that are related with poverty