The Current Realities Of Poverty And Homeliness

The author explained how the government established policies and initiatives that created ghettos and suburbs. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is a program that helped citizens become homeowners by lending loans. However, only certain neighborhoods qualified for those loans. Research and data were used to prove that certain areas were considered a loss of investment. The

The book “The Other America”, written by Michael Harrington, describes poverty in America in the 1950s and 1960s, when America became one of the most affluent and advanced nations in the world. The book was written in 1962, and Harrington states that there were about 50,000,000 (about 25% of the total population) poor in America at that time. The author did extensive research with respect to the family income levels to derive the poverty numbers, and used his own observations and experiences to write this book. This book addresses the reasons for poverty, the nature of poverty, the culture of poverty, the blindness of Middle Class America with respect to poverty, and the responsibility of all Americans in addressing the issue of poverty in America.

In other words, America has a widening gap between its wealthy and poor. As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, there is a problem emerging: the disappearance of the middle class. Low-wage workers continue to fall behind those who make higher wages, and this only widens the gap between the two. There has been an economic boom in the United States, which has made the country more prosperous than it has ever been. That prosperity does not reach all people; it seems to only favor the rich. Rising economic segregation has taken away many opportunities for the poor to rise in America today. The poor may find that the economic boom has increased their income; however, as their income increase so does the prices they must for their living expenses (Dreier, Mollenkopf, & Swanstrom 19).

The stereotypes that surround the poor and the homeless construct a false sense of self- deprivation onto the individuals who struggle financially within the United States of America. While constructing a budget that was within the financial limitation of the exercise, I grasped a better understanding of the true cost of financial liberties that most people who do not fall into the poverty category take for granted. The most difficult area was finding a living space that could house the theoretical family. Ultimately, I selected a rental property with two bedrooms because it was simply not a financial possibility to find a three-bedroom property within the budget. Even with the cheapest apartment I could possibly find, the cost of the rent was over half of the monthly income, and

Everyday in the United States there are families who struggle to make ends meet and struggle to fully provide for their families. Since the 1960s, poverty in the United States has only increased dramatically. It is said that one in six Americans today is living in poverty (What is poverty?). In this book, we learn about different families and their struggles. The information in this book describe instances about welfare, different areas of the population where there are more occurrences of poverty, and a few different families experiences of how they make it day by day to survive. Some of these common organizations that help families that live in poverty may include, food stamps, certain food programs (if

Poverty effected many individual families around the world for many years, and it wasn’t until 1935, The Social Security Act was passed, therefore assisting many families in need. The effects of poverty is an extraordinarily obscure social experience, and the finding those causes is very similar. As a result, sociologists considered other theories of poverty, such as the journey of the middle class, employers, from the cities into the suburbs. The government has taken many steps over the years to put an end to or decrease welfare assistance. Although, the welfare system is extremely important to millions of people, it has been an underlying problem for many others causing idleness and laziness. There are many pros and cons to

Traditional homes were founded on the premise that there were two married parents in home owning, mortgage paying with a car in the driveway cookie cutter advertisement. Life in today’s world is not as pretty or as a slick advertising copy from the 50’s and 70’s would have you believe. Social class can be the difference in livelihood based off of economic status and also varies greatly by zip code, even within the same state over a period time. Today this disparity in wealth and economic fluidity is something still vitally affected by social class; often traditionally associated with a lack or abundance of money or privilege of a higher social standing by one’s peers or society in general.

“The home is the wellspring of personhood. It is where our identity takes root and blossoms, whereas children, we imagine, play, and question, and as adolescents, we retreat and try. As we grow older, we hope to settle into a place to raise a family or pursue work. When we try to understand ourselves, we often begin by considering the kind of home in which we were raised” (Desmond 2016, 293). Evictions! The root of poverty? Matthew Desmond’s novel “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in America City, portrays the lives of tenants, landlords, and house marketing on the poorest neighborhoods of Milwaukee. Desmond gives the reader overwhelming evidence and revealing testimony illustrating the major impact of inadequate housing on individuals, local, and national level. Desmond’s analysis and observation of his case study enables him to portray the reality of poverty, and to persuade the readers that evictions are a major consequence, and primary contributors in the relentless cycle of poverty. Desmond build his argument using two Aristotelian rhetorical appeals, ethos, logos and inductive reasoning to illustrates the importance of ending the cycle of poverty.

California’s housing situation is severe compared to the rest of the United States. California is included in the top three states with the most “housing cost burdened individuals” (Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, 2015). In a list of 20 cities where rents were highest compared to income, 10 of the 20 cities were in California with Los Angeles, CA topping the list (Dewan, 2014). Opponents might say that households in poverty could never afford housing due to their impoverished state but poverty measures of California show that the abnormally high cost of housing in California makes matters more severe and causes the amount of households that are severely cost afflicted to increase. Furthermore, when poverty measures take into account California’s uniquely expensive and insufficient housing supply, the results show that housing costs contribute significantly to poverty. For example, when housing costs were included in the California Poverty Measure as well as federal Supplemental Poverty Measure, the poverty rates rose substantially (Wimer, Mattingly, & Levin, 2013) (Short, 2015). And when high housing costs were artificially substituted with low housing costs, poverty rates significantly dropped (Bohn, Danielson, & Levin, 2013). And it’s not just the poor who are affected! Even those who are moderate income earners are becoming financially burdened by high housing costs. Those who are moderately well off compared to low income earners are financially burdened by rent costs in expensive cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles, CA (Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University,

Overall, this paper is about how poverty is very prominent in our society, and we need to learn more about it. We need to increase aid to low- income families because they cannot support

The commercial and industrial growth of the United States greatly elevated the average income of the American people, but this increasing wealth was being distributed unequally. The urban poor were mostly widows, orphans, immigrants, or free blacks and almost entirely without resources, often homeless, and dependent on charity or crime for survival. Yet, a large number of workers managed to move at least one notch up the social ladder, even if they did not go from poverty to riches. More importantly, geographical mobility meant that some workers saved money, bought land, and moved west to farm it, but few urban workers could afford to make the move. Much more common was the movement of laborers from one industrial town to another after layoffs, looking for better opportunities.

Typically, us Americans categorize neighborhoods we see into two categories, which are wealthy and poor neighborhoods. After observing families’ income in wealthy neighborhoods compared to poor neighborhoods, they are drastically distinctive. Most families who have great amounts of money generally live in a large house, while those who are classified as “poor” will be found in some unsafe areas. These homes have different builds, exteriors may be maintained or may be filled with clutter, and the families inside these homes may express different wants than the opposite class. Unfortunately, wealthy and poor people both fall under a stereotype. The rich are looked upon as snobby and prude, while the poor are seen as lacking intelligence or they could abuse drugs and alcohol. However, I observed a “wealthy” and a “poor” neighborhood in the city of

I believed Lincoln Heights was poor because of the high crime rates in the areas and the obvious law income. A study by the Christian Association for Prison Aftercare suggests that there is direct correlation poverty and crime (Williams, 2007). People who are poor are more likely to commit crimes of theft, and burglary (Williams, 2007). “Research suggests that people who commit crimes will only commit them if the consequences are outweighed by the benefit of the gain (Schmalleger, 2011).” When someone is poor, they may feel that the potential gain will outweigh the consequences such as getting food on the table, and paying rent. I also believed it to be poor because of the appearance. Through my experiences, I have noticed then when people have low income, they can’t afford most resources to keep area appearance up such as lawn mowers and weed eaters. They also can’t afford to maintain safe conditions and good appearance of their homes.

This review is formulated with scholarly sources and references based off of poverty in America. This disclosure is approached with a value free sociological approach, and it will give insight on the social causes of poverty and the effects it has on America. Poverty is a very controversial topic. Many will assume that people living in poverty are lazy, made bad life decisions, or that they are solely the reason for their predicament however, people living in poverty would argue that their are deeper issues for it. Poverty will be deeply explained and researched from both perspectives

With inventions such as quicker and more effective ways of transit, the Utopian suburbia was born and alleviated overcrowding problems cities faced. However, many members of the poorer class were not able to remedy their living conditions that places outside of the city offered. The many helpful factors suggested by the aiding systems of the 19th century may have given a more acceptable living standard to the poor. But if you were born into the poor class you were stuck in the poor class unless you worked your life out of debt if you were able survive as long. Today, there are many reform programs and policies to help the lower classes; are few are namely unemployment agencies, welfare, shelters and educational practices. Despite years of reform, a lack in abundance of shelter or food stamps exemplifies the modern hardship that was comparable to the difficulties the people of the 19th century faced.(p1 para3, Newfield)