Facts About Poverty in America

Across America, 37 million people lived in poverty in 2004, an increase of 1.1 million over a one-year period, according to a recent U.S. Census report.

Almost 1.3 million children are homeless each year in the US, with 40% under age six. (Burt & Aron: America’s Homeless II: Populations and Services, 2000)

The list of occupations whose average wage cannot afford a two bedroom apartment includes: ambulance driver, cashier, home health aide, medical records technician, school bus driver, and teacher aide.

11,400 families were displaced by Hurricane Katrina

More than 1,000 people were displaced by recent flash flooding in the Midwest (August 2007)

Children who experience homelessness are more likely to have poor physical and emotional health, developmental delays, and low school performance

33 percent of homeless adults (and 45 percent of women) reported that they had stayed in an abusive relationship because they had nowhere else to live. (Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless)http://www.mnhomelesscoalition.org/homelessness/facts/

The typical American estimates that it takes about $40,000 to support a family of four in a metropolitan area such as the Twin Cities. A family living on welfare (MFIP, TANF) will earn as little as $5,000-$6,000 a year and be expected to effectively transition from poverty within the 5 year cut off period.

Facts About Poverty in Minnesota:

In Minnesota, 8,900 people are homeless on any given night, with about three-quarters concentrated in the Twin Cities area.

“CDF Minnesota’s 2007 Kids Count Data Book found that Minnesota children living in poverty (income below $20,650 for a family of four) increased by 35 percent from 2000 to 2005. The number of children living in extreme poverty Ð at half the poverty level Ð increased by 67 percent in that same time period. These escalations far exceed national increases of 12% and 14%, indicating Minnesota’s children are growing poorer faster than the nation’s children overall.” Children’s Defense Fund Minnesota. http://www.cdf-mn.org/

Each night, 7,000 individuals seek shelter from a variety of homeless service providers, due to inadequate resources about 1,000 individuals are turned away each night.
“Children, youth, and young adults age 21 and younger made up 47 percent of all people experiencing homelessness in Minnesota the night of the survey. A total of 2,726 children age 17 and younger experienced homelessness with their parents on the night of the survey.” Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless. http://www.mnhomelesscoalition.org/homelessness/facts/

The hourly wage required to afford fair market rents in Minnesota is $15.16 per hour.

“More apartments are available now. We all see the rental property signs advertising available units. But, they aren’t affordable. According to the 2006 Market Survey through the Dakota County Community Development Agency, which covered 20,533 rental units. An average one bedroom rent was $735 per month, a two-bedroom $900 and a three-bedroom $1,188. It takes an annual income of approx. $36,000 to afford an average two-bedroom unit in Dakota County. This is an hourly rate of approx. $17.30 which is a significantly higher wage than many Dakota County residents and workers earn. A minimum wage earner would need to work more than 115 hours a week to afford Dakota County’s fair market rent for a two- bedroom apt ($900). The cost of rent in Minnesota has outpaced incomes for most Minnesotans. The average rent costs are up 34% in the past ten years, while the average rental income has increased only 9%.” Problem of Homelessness, Dakota Woodlands, http://www.dakotawoodlands.org/abouthomelessness.html

Quotes on Poverty:

“I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.” –James Baldwin

“One major factor protecting children from the negative effects of poverty, according to (Byron) Egeland, is a good early foundation built on a secure relationship between parent and child. ‘Resilience is not a ‘magical’ trait in a child, it is not something a child is born with,’ he says. “Instead, resilience develops over time and, even with a bad beginning, later support can bring change. Knowing this and being able to support it with highly reliable data has great significance for public policy at so many different levels.’” The effect of poverty on children’s psychological development (Research Works). http://www.education.umn.edu/Pubs/ResearchWorks/Parent-Child.html

“As a boy, I vowed someday to escape poverty. I also vowed never to forget where I had come from and that I must somehow find some way to help those left behind.That sense of obligation was a moral one that was as much a result of my own agony as a child, which nurtured in me a deep-seeded belief that no child, no person, ought to have to live in poverty. That those of us with means — those who dwell in the life-issuing waters of the American mainstream instead of America’s drained streams — ought, as the Bible says, to bear the infirmities of the weak.” — John Wesley Fountain, professor of journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. http://illinoisissues.uis.edu/features/2007may/poor.html

“There are two types of poverty in the world, financial poverty and the poverty of love; the second is more important.” — Mata Amritanandamayi, the “Hugging Guru” of India. Grew up in poverty and was known to give what little food she had and share it with others; she now gives to charity and runs several homeless shelters (38 in the US).

“Having leveled my palace, don’t erect a hovel and complacently admire your own charity in giving me that for a home.” — Emily Bronte

“I thank fate for having made me born poor. Poverty taught me the true value of the gifts useful to life.” France Anatole Nobel Prize Winner (1844-1924)


Famous People Who Have Experienced Poverty:

Joseph Bologne/Chevalier de Saint-Georges, (1745-1799) Born in Guadeloupe, the son of a wealthy French planter and a slave, and raised among nobility in Paris. Saint George was an expert fencer, composer and muscian, athelite (he excelled in swimming, skating, and shooting with pistols and is said “He could often be seen swimming across the Seine with only one arm”), soldier and fought for freedom and civil rights for Africans. The Africans of Guadeloupe, where Saint George was born, won their freedom after years of war. In 1804, Guadeloupe become the first Black republic in the world. Saint George died in poverty despite his life of stunning accomplishments, he is known as the “Black Mozart” and the “Voltaire of Music”.

Abraham Lincoln, (1809-1865) 16th president of the United States from 1861-1865

Michael Faraday, (1791-1867), famous physicist and chemist. Discovered the principle of the electric motor, formulated the laws of electrolysis, produced the first stainless steel, and discovered benzene and butylene, among many other brilliant accomplishments.

Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), Author, Nurse, Activist for Abolition and Women’s Suffrage

Annie Oakley (1860-1926), Legendary Cowgirl, Entertainer, Philanthropist

Louis Armstrong, (1901-1971) Jazz musician, composer and singer (grew up in the slums)

Josephine Baker, (1906-1975) Singer/Dance, WWII French resistance fighter, Civil rights activist, Single mother of 12 children called the “Rainbow Tribe” because they are from different nationalities

James Baldwin (1924-1987) Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Preacher, Civil Rights Activist

Fantasia Barrino, American idol contestant, singer, Broadway performer

Dr. Ben Carson, Prominent children’s neurosurgeon (specializes in separation of conjoined twins and radical hemispherectomies — the removal of half the brain to help seizure patients), Motivational speaker, Named to the President’s Council on Bioethics in 2004 by George W. Bush

Erin Brockovitch-Ellis, legal clerk who constructed a billion dollar case against a company without a formal law degree, president of Brockovich Research & Consulting (a consulting firm)

James Cotton, Blues musician

Farrah Gray, entrepeneur, author, self made millionaire by age twenty and the youngest African-American to earn a million dollars (grew up in the projects of South Chicago)

Sofia Loren, Actress (she grew up in the slums of Naples)

JK Rowling, children’s author

LaShell Griffin, Gospel singer, wife and mother of five children (grew up in the projects of Detroit)

Cheri Peters, Host of Christian talk show “Celebrating Life in Recovery”, Founder of True Step Ministries

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Poet/Author/Storyteller, Psychoanalyst, Trauma Specialist
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