“WhY DoN’t YoU jUsT GeT a JoB?
“You probably did this to yourself… Stop spending your money on drugs… Why don’t you just get a job?” Generally, those phrases come from people in a state of comfort, primed with circumstantial advantages, and they may not even know it. Perhaps they are fortunate enough to be cushioned by modest savings or they might have a financially sound social network to rely on. Maybe these individuals had one person invested in their success when they were growing up. Most people with this viewpoint have experienced some level of privilege that pushes them up the social and monetary ladder – but that is not the case for everyone.
According to the 2022 US Census, the official poverty rate was 11.5%, with 37.9 million people living in poverty. This number is growing due to rising housing and living costs, job insecurity and other factors. In California, 12% of the population is unhoused (2023). This is a 53% increase over the last 9 years. Many Californians have ended up homeless because of job loss. In fact, income loss is listed as the number one cause of homelessness in California, second to rising rent and medical costs.
But many people aren’t forced into poverty by one situation; and many people don’t account for the domino effect of problems that naturally follow a single issue. For instance, an individual can be on track, living paycheck to paycheck. As not all employers offer sick days or vacation time, if a person gets ill, they lose the pay. Two days sick can be the difference between making rent in full or not to those without a resource network or safety net. If a person does not pay their rent in full by the expected date, they accrue late fees, putting them farther in the hole. Meaning they have to make a choice. Do I eat or should I pay rent? Do I pay the electric or the phone bill?
Millions of people in the United States live this way, and many will live this way their entire lives.
Recent trends in tax records suggest that a child’s expected annual income can be determined by where they lived until age 23. An estimated 6.4% of children born in poverty spend all their lives in poverty (ballardbrief.byu.edu). This equates to millions of children going hungry and without other necessities, inevitably creating barriers that ripple throughout their entire lives, much like sick days.
Poverty can touch every part of a person’s life and have long lasting consequences. For instance, a child raised in generational poverty could experience nutritional deficits that impact learning, and brain function, stifling their capacity. Additionally, studies show that living in poverty shrinks parts of the brain essential for memory, planning, and decision-making (brainfacts.org). A child living in poverty also sees the implications of working a low wage job while having the inability to negotiate though hardships. This is how they learn to navigate the world. This is also how they learn to trust or distrust the resources available to them.
As a provider in the homeless system, I can say for sure that the general public does not have a clear understanding of how difficult it is to get out of a hole once you are in it. I would urge everyone to look in the mirror to see how lucky you may be. Have gratitude for the world you live in.
The grass is green where you water it, but sometimes the water gets shut off because you can’t pay the bill.
- Katherine Brown
