Poverty And Culture

The Society and Culture of Poverty

Poverty has been an ongoing societal pandemic in America ever since people were unable to make enough money to survive. Poverty, the condition of being very poor, affects Americans of varying races and genders. The two main types of poverty are relative poverty, the state in which someone lacks the minimum amount of revenue needed to sustain the average standard of living in the community they live in, and absolute poverty, the state of lacking one or more basic human needs such as food, water, or shelter because of their income level. Since suffering from relative poverty causes someone to suffer from absolute poverty because of their economic state, absolute poverty is a form of relative poverty. Poverty

can affect many aspects of a person’s life, but two major ones are lacking a sufficient place to live and access to food. Minority groups, such as African Americans and children, tend to suffer more from poverty than others in poverty. Poverty puts people in a difficult situation to provide for themselves as they have little to no money to purchase necessities. This creates bigger problems for them to handle on top of being poor. As poverty continues and it’s experienced by more and different kinds of people, methods are needed to terminate it. Fortunately, American citizens have been working to create solutions, like organizations to reduce the impacts of poverty, to these problems caused by poverty.
High rates of poverty in rural areas can lead to a need for housing.

Rural areas are “often isolated geographically, lack resources and economic opportunities, and suffer from decades of disinvestment and double- digit poverty rates” according to the Housing Assistance Council (HAC). HAC is a nonprofit organization that assists local organizations in funding and building affordable homes in rural America. It helps develop single and multi-family houses to buy or rent for low-income rural families. HAC makes short term loans under the market interest rate for organizations to use on a variety of reasons for the houses. The reasons include buying land and the pre-development of it, paying architectural and environmental fees, paying other costs before the construction loans for the building of the house are available, and the construction itself. The future family or individual in the home must contribute sweat equity into the construction of the house if they participate in the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program, which HAC loans to. Sweat equity entails the participant(s) in the program helping to construct the house. The loan may be forgiven if the participant(s) in the program meet the production goals and other requirements. After the houses are built, HAC set a rule stating that at least 51% of the new units must be affordable to low or very-low income people since their purpose is to serve the economically challenged. The organization also has a Technical Assistance team, the leaders of other organizations that HAC works with, that improves the housing conditions for the poor in rural areas, especially those deeply living in poverty. Many rural housing units lack adequate plumbing and/or are crowded due to financial challenges of fixing them. These are problems the Technical Assistance team can work to improve, although the specific improvements they make are not stated on the organization’s website

(Housing Assistance Council).
Housing needs caused by poverty is also prevalent in urban areas. The organization, Habitat for Humanity, is a global nonprofit organization that builds and improves houses for low-income families in need of sufficient, affordable housing that’s suited for urban communities. The houses are “large enough for the homeowner family’s needs, but small enough to keep construction and maintenance costs affordable.” Because a Habitat affiliate pays a down payment for construction for the family due to their economic status, the families are obligated to give sweat equity similarly to HAC users. Forms of equity include constructing their own or someone else’s house, cleaning up the construction site, or helping with administrative tasks (Habitat for Humanity). Having to put in sweat equity may infringe on the time the future homeowner has to look for work or work. This could hinder their ability to get out of poverty. Therefore, the amount of sweat equity contributed should be unique to each homeowner so they can find time to work. Through Habitat’s Neighborhood Revitalization program, volunteers help alongside the homeowners to build and repair houses which lowers the overall cost of the house making it more affordable for its family (Habitat for Humanity).
A minority status can affect someone who is in poverty’s access to housing. A solution to this problem is the Final Rule on the Fair Housing Act. The purpose of the act is to prevent discrimination from landlord or seller to buyer or renter of a house. The Final Rule is “intended to make program participants better able to evaluate their present environment to assess fair housing issues such as segregation...in access to housing and opportunity...and establish fair housing priorities and goals”(Housing and Urban Development Department). This allows people in poverty, especially African Americans, to obtain houses that better meet their needs. The Fair Housing Act still has some flaws laced through it. When claims are made about discrimination complaints, an investigation agency from HUD examines the situation. This is supposed to be done 100 days within the complaint being filed. Many instances have taken longer than this with the average case taking 497 days (The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights). This could cause the complainer to suffer more from discrimination making their situation worse. After the situation is examined, the investigation agency decides on if there is enough probable cause to conclude that discrimination has occurred. If there is, the respondent of the housing unit is charged for violating the law. Fair housing enforcement agencies and HUD offices are now making it more difficult to charge respondents because the evidence requirements are going beyond the "preponderance of evidence standard” so more or better evidence is needed. This may be hard or impossible for the violated if they shared everything they thought was relevant (The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights).
Poverty influences the food security of the people who live in it. One organization that works to prevent this is Feeding America, a national network of food banks and pantries and meal programs that administer food and services to those that need it. Feeding America receives food donations from American food manufacturers and sellers, that is about to be wasted, which is then given to food banks that work with this large organization. Food banks are nonprofit organizations that collect and give out food to hunger relief charities like food pantries. A food pantry is somewhere the impoverished can access the food. The organization uses produce programs to rescue produce that would usually be wasted (Feeding America). For someone to be eligible for a food pantry, they must show proof of being on a food program like SNAPS. If they aren't a part of a program, they must show proof of the income level through a social worker or unemployment. In emergency situations, there are soup kitchens where there are no requirements to use it (Hudson Community Food Pantry). Through food programs and pantries, impoverished people are able to access food to survive without paying for it that may usually be an issue for them financially. Although they try not to, food banks, like the San Diego Food Bank, still waste the food they receive. Banks throw away expired or damaged food that is unable to be distributed (McColl). They lose money from this that could have gone towards buying more food or expanding the organization to create more solutions to poverty.
Poverty is decreasing in America due to organizations that focus on issues like housing and food security that provide for those who need it. The current solutions help impoverished people survive by having access to a shelter and food. There is still room for these organizations to improve which will help make their solutions to poverty more effective. Having solutions to poverty now could potentially wipe it out completely in the U.S.