Dealing with poverty

By: Josh Leach

            Poverty rates across America have been rising drastically since the Great Recession hit.  The unemployment rate reached 10.2 percent in October of 2013.  Many families have been ruined financially.  Homelessness has increased.  Crime has skyrocketed.  People are no longer patiently waiting out this economic downturn.

            Unlike in the past, the hardest blow has not been to the cities, but to the suburbs.  In Confronting Suburban Poverty in America, Elizabeth Kneebone and Alan Berube write, “Today, the overwhelming majority of America’s poor live not in cities—but in the suburbs of its major metropolitan areas.”  Suburban poverty has brought crime from cities to neighborhoods; everything from racial conflicts to petty theft has migrated out to the suburbs.  When addressing the riots in Ferguson, the writers Toluse Olorunnipa and Elizabeth Campbell wrote, “In predominantly black Ferguson, residents protesting the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown also complain about the lack of jobs and a city government that doesn’t reflect the community’s diversity.”  Other than hunger and disease, poverty also intensifies social issues.

            Meanwhile, in St. Louis, the amount of homeless people living in the city has become staggering and unemployment has hit hard.  According to Elizabeth Kneebone, a researcher of poverty, “The city’s unemployment rate rose from roughly 7 percent in 2000 to over 13 percent in 2010-12. For those residents who were employed, inflation-adjusted average earnings fell by one-third.”  People were left without jobs, then eventually homes, and even without food.  When asked about the financial situation, Josh Kurosz, a senior at Seckman High School, said, “The country is not doing very well at all.  A lot of people are getting hurt.”

             However, the homeless have begun to group together in communities in order to restore the stability they once possessed.  Tent societies are now all over the city.  In fact, the Hopeville community even has its own website, which describes its history: “The community known as Hopeville is relatively new.  The site was established in May 2010, when a group of homeless men and women were evicted from a railroad tunnel near the St. Louis Post-Dispatch building on Tucker to make way for a new construction project.”  The growing number of tent villages reflects the critical situation which exists all over America.

            The great question is: How do we deal with poverty?  The tent villages set up in park and other public places prevent them from being used for their intended purpose(s).  People are often deterred from participating in community events in the city, because they want to avoid confronting beggars.   For this reason, the police have frequently intervened.  Newschannel Five’s website, Ksdk.com, informs its readers, “St. Louis city officials have shut down several encampments this year.  So one group tried to set up a new tent city in north St. Louis County Saturday, but it was shutdown over code violations.  However, the leader of the effort, Rev. Larry Rice, says county officials did offer some solutions in return.  The homeless who were supposed to be staying in Integrity Village Saturday night stayed at area hotels and shelters instead, and the county is paying the bill.”  Many people complained about their tax dollars going to put up the homeless in hotels.  People want a more long term solution.

            Countless debates over economics are raging in Washington D.C.  Part of the population desires more structure and control over the economy, while the other part believes free enterprise and low regulation is best.  Brian McTigue, a senior, says, “Less government is always best.”  Here at home, people argue over how to deal with the homeless and whether a long-term solution can be devised.  Meanwhile, thousands of people grow desperate as the search for an answer to America’s financial crisis continues.  The majority of the population is busy trying to hold onto their own jobs, so the nation’s faith is left up to a small group of economists and politicians.  A solution must be found soon, because most of us have too little time to discuss economic theory.