The American Dream is not set up for the poor to succeed
In the United States, the holidays — that often snowy stretch between Halloween and New Year’s — are a time to come together, surrounded by the warmth of family and friends, to celebrate the blessings of the year past. Food is a traditional component, as are gifts, around this season. But for many — about forty one million Americans, by current estimates — will not be blanketed by the comfort of home, hearth, and holiday cheer this December. Instead, they will have to focus on finding food, rent, and perhaps an extra job to supplement the hard months ahead. If they have children, the stress they feel is doubled.
The disparity between rich and poor in the United States has grown such that the UN has appointed special rapporteur Philip Alston to investigate the gap. A recent report indicates that the three wealthiest Americans (Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffett), “own as much wealth as the bottom half of the U.S. population, or 160 million people.” Alston is determined to analyze the relationship between poverty and its negative effects the civil rights of individual Americans. Poverty is a silent killer in the U.S., one that goes unexamined and buried under the weight of generalizations and oversimplifications. Shame prompts those above the poverty line to look down on the poor, and to label them as lazy and greedy for government handouts.
However, welfare is incredibly difficult to attain. An article from the Washington Post shows that applicants in Clayton County, GA, were turned away if they had a job; received Social Security for any member of their household; received child support; or belonged to a two-parent home. Of the sixty-four thousand people living in poverty in Clayton County, only 137 adults have received welfare.
Another government aid initiative is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. However, SNAP benefits come with restrictions that ban ‘junk food’ or hot food — i.e. something made at a supermarket deli. Therefore, meals become an intensive process that cuts into time which could be spent caring for other family members, looking for a job, or even taking a minute to destress. Dead ends like these contribute to chronic stress, which in turn aggravates mental and physical health and worsens performance at work or school.
Of the holidays, Andrea Fuller writes: “Despite working as a specialty baker, personal chef, pet sitter, and fitness instructor — including on nights and weekends — I fell about $600 short […] of what I needed to make December’s rent. Thinking through how I could close that gap felt like watching the back and forth of a ping pong ball in my head, with one question ricocheting to another and another: If I cannot pay rent, where will we go? Should I consider a shelter? How many personal items do I need to sell and what do I have that’s of any value? Which utility bills do I need to postpone paying? When our food assistance (SNAP) runs out at the end of the month, how will we afford food?”
Fuller’s ping-pong ball represents the thought process many face over the holidays, when the extra stress of traditional family meals and gifts compound the struggle to find work and shelter. Over twenty-one million children are guaranteed at least one full meal on weekdays thanks to the National School Lunch Program; winter break, then, becomes an opportunity for malnutrition. Americans with disabilities — who are at least twice as likely to live in poverty and be unemployed — face challenges such as inclement weather and holiday breaks in services they rely on, such as transportation.
Philip Alston’s findings for the UN will likely only confirm the facts that are already available — the American Dream is not set up for the poor to succeed. However, measures are in place that can and do help. For every instance of endless bureaucracy like SNAP, there are a handful of agencies — like the SNAP hotline — to help citizens understand and apply for benefits.
But how can these programs be made better for everyone? Poverty is not a problem that can be solved overnight. The best way to effect change is to encourage people to help themselves, and there is a tool for precisely that: the Poverty Stoplight. The Poverty Stoplight is an online survey that allows individuals to indicate which aspects of their lives they want to change. They are presented with a variety of indicators for them to rate as red (representing extreme poverty), yellow (moderate poverty), and green (no poverty at all). One participant might rate hygiene as red if their tap water is contaminated by lead and runs brown; another might rate transportation as green if they own a car and have enough money to put gas in it. Red indicators show where people need help; it’s the duty of aid organizations not just to connect them to existing resources but to motivate people to feel like change is something that they are capable of and that is worth it.
156 organizations in more than 20 countries have implemented the Poverty Stoplight methodology.
Since its creation in 2011, the Stoplight has developed and tested pilots in a variety of scenarios for over 100 organizations worldwide. Efforts on three continents have demonstrated the Stoplight’s unique adaptability. The Stoplight is useful to any program: from food and clothing banks to financial literacy classes; from agriculture and food insecurity measures to disaster preparedness workshops; from social development to entrepreneurship training, and so forth. The program has expanded globally, and continues to encourage change and growth in the private and public sector.
The United States already has a variety of assistance initiatives in place: SNAP; TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families); CHIP (Child’s Health Insurance Program); public housing; supplemental security for the elderly; and Medicaid. Those who apply for this aid might not have the time and bureaucratic know-how to puzzle through the application process, which is where programs like the SNAP hotline come in. This hotline is available on a state-by-state basis for people interested in — but perhaps confused by the process to achieve — SNAP benefits. Applicants should have somewhere they can go when they have questions. They should be able to determine what parts of the assistance programs work and what parts don’t. They should have a voice in the process of the American Dream — a voice that the Poverty Stoplight can give them.
In the U.S., the Stoplight is already working with Roots of Renewal, a reintegration program in New Orleans that helps young men who’ve been incarcerated. Earlier this month, Chemung County in New York received a grant through the Appalachian Regional Commission to implement the Poverty Stoplight among its citizens. This initiative will go towards “helping the greater community identify what resources are working and what could be improved.”
Working to empower participants, bring invisible manifestations of poverty to light, and to evaluate the programs currently in place, the Poverty Stoplight’s focus on offering an “actionable” evaluation tool, empowers each individual to make decisions about the way they live. With recent reports noting that the U.S. has virtually no safety net for its poorest families, the Poverty Stoplight has the power to strengthen that net.
Since this article was written, Philip Alston’s incriminating report was released, available here.
Written by Aly Rodriguez, intern on Poverty Stoplight’s Internacional Replicas team at Fundación Paraguaya.
