A Focus on Poverty, Hunger & Homelessness
Cultural Training
Who are the Poor, Hungry and Homeless?
Can you imagine your child crying from hunger, yet you are not able to provide him with food? Can you imagine being so cold in bed or sleeping on the street that blankets can not provide warmth? Can you imagine being elderly and not taking your life-sustaining prescription medicine because you can not afford to buy it?
There are many people right here in our own community experiencing these very situations. They know the very real pangs of hunger and the absolute despair that a lifetime of poverty can bring.
In examining poverty in our community, see how you fare:
In 2007 the poverty level for a family of 4 was $20,650. That means having less than $14 a day per family member to spend
In 2006, 36.5 million people or 12.3% of the US population lived in poverty
In Georgia – 13.3% of the state’s population lived in poverty
In Norcross – 17.9% of the city’s population lived in poverty
In Duluth – 4.4 % of the city’s population lived in poverty
More local poverty data: / Duluth / NorcrossResidents with income below 50% of the poverty level / 2.1% / 8.8%
Estimated median household income in 2005 / $60,900 / $45,300
% Renters and median rent / 42% - $877 / 51% - $842
% residents speak English at home / 74.9% / 56.3%
% speak Spanish at home / 8.3% / 33.4%
Foreign born population / 20.2% / 41.5%
Racial mix /
- White Non-Hispanic (64.2%)
- Black (11.9%)
- Hispanic (9.0%)
- Asian Indian (3.9%)
- Other race (3.8%)
- Korean (3.4%)
- Chinese (3.1%)
- Hispanic (40.9%)
- White Non-Hispanic (32.3%)
- Black (20.8%)
- Other race (15.4%)
Most common industries for males /
- Computer specialists (9%)
- Other mgmnt occupations (7%)
- Other sales and related workers including supervisors (6%)
- Construction (30%)
- Administrative and support and waste management services (14%)
- Accommodation and food services (9%)
For population 25 years +, < High school education / 7.2% / 32.5%
The numbers are shocking, but look past the numbers. Imagine the individuals those numbers represent. What are their lives like? How did they get into this desperate situation, and how can they make the changes necessary to get out?
For those in poverty, their pressing concerns are crime, lack of affordable housing, inadequate transportation, unemployment, drug abuse, they cannot pay their utility bill or rent, they can’t afford transportation and their health is suffering. The economic downturn we are experiencing is adding to the pressure.
For those already homeless, their situation is even more desperate. Homelessness factors range from unemployment, mental illness, substance abuse, domestic violence, poverty and personal disabilities. The largest group is situational from a home that burned, a job lay off, an eviction. Homeless can also be recurring for seasonal workers, disability only providing a room for a couple weeks a month, or only being allowed home when not drinking or using. These two groups have the greatest potential for intervention. The smallest group of the homeless are the chronically homeless living on the street ongoing. Their housing can be outside, a friend’s temporary couch, a night shelter, an abandon building or a car
To escape poverty in 2008, a family of four must now be make more than $21,200 in income, or have more than $14.50 a day per family member to spend.
Among the major price increases in the past 12 months are:
- A gallon of milk now costs about 80 cents more.
- A dozen eggs now costs about 46 cents more.
- And a gallon of unleaded gasoline now costs nearly $1.10 more than a year ago.
"A dollar from 2007 is now worth about 97 cents," Fullerton said.
The rising costs and poverty are effecting homeless, families and elderly looking for free or reduced food cost programs. More people are needing help to pay their utility bills.
Families that wouldn’t have needed assistance five or six years ago are now needing temporary help because they one of the two income earners lost his or her job and they can’t maintain their standard of living.
With every bit of extra cash swallowed by the gas tank, our working poor are making difficult, sometimes humiliating choices: They're shutting off utilities, pawning keepsakes, lining up at food pantries and turning to county welfare offices by the thousands to apply for gasoline, transportationand food vouchers and cards.
With a huge strain already on government funding, if the growing numbers of low-wage earners feel they cannot afford to work, more will resort to the cash-assistance programs, food stamps and Medicaid coverage.
The dilemma with which we are faced as a community is how to resolve these very critical immediate needs while also resolving the long-term problems of poverty by offering more education, planning and job skills, decent paying jobs, adequate health care, housing and child care, affordable mental-health opportunities, and retirement planning.
We must also focus on self-sufficiency. Too many people have lost control of their lives by putting themselves in the hands of social service agencies. We must help those people to see that they can do more than exist; they can learn to live up to their full potential.”
Working Poor
The working poor comprise one- and two-wage-earner households that are still at or below the poverty level. Studies have shown that minimum wage is not a living wage.
The government-defined poverty line for a family of four / Is $8.70 an hour, or $18,100 per year
Yet studies have determined / That $9.50 an hour, or $19,760 per year, is the lowest possible wage that could sustain a family with the basics.
More realistically a family of four needs / from $27,612 to $33,192 a year to cover shelter, food, transportation, clothing, miscellaneous items, medical and child-care costs
Millions of Americans make wages so low they have to choose between eating or heating, health care or child care. They are the health-care aides who can’t afford health insurance. They work in the food industry but depend on food banks to help feed their children. They are child-care teachers who don’t make enough to save for their own children’s education. They care for the elderly, but they have no pensions. Families need more than double the official poverty level to make ends meet. A couple with two children would have to work a combined 3.3 full-time jobs (132 hours a week) to make ends meet.”
The numbers of working poor are growing as our economy worsens and each month more businesses close, businesses whose employees once made a living wage and now are reduced to jobs paying much less. These families can no longer afford to pay for their home, their car, their insurance, their children’s education or new clothes, much less any luxuries. These once-productive members of society have now joined the ranks of those who have lived for generations in poverty.
The Most Vulnerable: Children and Elderly
Poverty results in very serious negative outcomes, particularly for children and the elderly. Often these groups have little control over their lives without outside help. Children living in poverty are 1.5 to 3 times more likely to die in childhood, 2 times more likely to have serious physical or mental disabilities, 2 times more likely to drop out of school and test an average of 9 points lower on an IQ test at age 5.
On the other end of the spectrum, the elderly also suffer. Poverty affects the elderly in several ways:
● One in seven elderly households with incomes below $10,000 have maintenance and upkeep problems with their housing situation and inadequate income to make repairs.
●There is insufficient funding to spend on in-home health services.
● Seniors in poverty cannot afford supplemental insurance to cover prescription costs.
● Seniors in poverty find themselves even more hindered by lack of transportation than others in poverty.
● Seniors once may have had adequate income to meet their needs, but now they live on insufficient fixed incomes.
Hunger And Poverty
Arguably the most pressing need to resolve for those in poverty is the problem of hunger. Without adequate nourishment, a family cannot resolve the problems of poor health, education, employment and housing.
Families may be receiving food stamps but they don’t last the whole month.
Of equal concern to the amount of food that people need to sustain life is that the food they eat be nutritious. Nutritional deficiencies in children lead to impaired cognitive development, growth failure, physical weakness and anemia, among other health problems. The quality of life of the elderly is also greatly impaired when they lack the nutrients to maintain good health.
Requests for free and reduced lunch for school-aged children and mobile meals for seniors grow every year. When thinking of the poor and hungry, we need to take off the negative labels. People who need food are in a variety of difficult situations, from those living with disabilities to the terminally ill, the mentally ill, the worker whose factory has closed and the widow with children who have lost not only a father but also the family wage-earner. Many of these people struggle alone in the world.
III. On the Streets – How to get involved
Affecting Change in our Society
“The poor are always with us.” Jesus spoke these words nearly 2,000 years ago and, unfortunately, they still ring true. America, the greatest country in the world, has not resolved the problems of poverty.
It may make us uncomfortable to think too deeply about the poor and hungry. However, our faith forces us to do so. We must begin to take steps towards change and find the means to assist every family to obtain. Ways out of Poverty come down to improving the support system and improving personal responsibility using love and grace. By helping we show our compassion, and by loving them we teach them how to help themselves. Jesus said, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
- Adequate and nutritious food.
- Stocking food pantries can feed the hungry children in the summer months because they are not receiving the free and reduced breakfasts and lunches provided at school. We must have compassion for those in poverty, but we must raise the bar.
- North Fulton Community Charities,
- Hands of Christ Duluth
- Norcross Cooperative Ministries
- Consider picking up extras for our Co-ops who rely on us to provide for the families they are ministering to.
- Sponsor a neighborhood food drive. Community Outreach will provide you with fliers and signs for your food drives.
- Providing a meal at a homeless shelter
- Don’t give money to a homeless person, buy them a meal instead or refer them to a local shelter or pantry
- Safe and affordable housing.
- Soften the one strike policy on public housing
Movers and Shakers furniture donations
- Quality and affordable child care.
- Offer adequate and affordable health care.
- Treat homeless personnel for their mental illnesses rather than housing them in jail.
Hi HopeCenter
Ivy hall Assisted Living
- Encouraging education. When a person gets educated and is able to secure a better paying job, the whole family moves up.”
/ Public Schools
Apartment Ministries
GwinnettYouthDetentionCenter
- Teaching job skills
- Encouraging full time work. (On average poor families with children perform about 800 hours of paid work per year, or roughly 16 hours a week)
- Eliminate self-inflicted, self-destructive behaviors such as out-of-wedlock birth, substance abuse and low levels of employment, by encouraging marriage, and changing behaviors. Give them eyes to see and ears to see.
RainbowVillage Transitional Housing
Wellspring Living
GwinnettYouthDetentionCenter
City of Refuge
- Recognizing that people who are starting from the bottom have far more barriers to achieving the American dream
Mentoring
GwinnettYouthDetentionCenter
- Providing transportation opportunities
- Finding a support system of family and friends is to help them out of poverty. Helping the poor and low-wage workers to organize and support each other.
ABOHPregnancyResourceCenter
Bethany Christian Services
Wellspring Living
- Providing motivation to the individual poor, their children and the other people surrounding them that need to be encouraged as well. They need to find the desire, passion, resiliency and perseverance that is already in them to transition from poverty
Wellspring Living
House of Hope Transitional Housing Ministry
GwinnettYouthDetentionCenter
- Leaving domestic violence situations. Coaching and encouraging the women who have been able to leave that they are God’s children and not worthless. Destroy the negativity that has been drilled into them and replace it with God’s light
PADV
Victoria’s Friends
Justice
Wellspring Living
GwinnettYouthDetentionCenter
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