Poverty Truths: Rate of Poverty in the US

Poverty Truths

Rate of Poverty in the US

Dear Friends,

There is a lot to be learned from the Covid-19 pandemic about social policies and poverty reduction. As a member of the ATD Fourth World community in the United States, I can think of three major learning points that were established during this period:

  • Social policies and programs that increase investment in individuals, families and communities can work in reducing poverty. One month after the Child Tax Credit checks stopped, childhood poverty jumped from 12% to 17% overall, with Latino and Black children experiencing the largest percentage-point increases [1].

  • Social programs are potentially beneficial for everyone and should be evaluated by their real impact on the individuals, families and communities most affected by the problems they aim to fix. “Numbers lie,” a former CEO of a top US company told me recently. Hard data should be looked at through the lens of comprehensive qualitative evaluation, which includes knowledge from people experiencing poverty.

  • The implementation of ambitious social policies and innovative ways to monitor and evaluate them does not happen without political will. Political will does not emerge if everyday constituents do not care about people who are struggling. We all cared during the pandemic, and that pushed policies that were transformative for families who needed them.

Political will is fading. Priority is not given to poverty eradication even though we see policies and programs that are effective. After two years of this pandemic, can we pretend to stay blind to the challenges people in poverty face? The data is here and draws a clear picture. The stories of the people themselves tell the truth. We see by the experiences inside this newsletter that individual will cannot afford to fade.

These three points show that policy solutions to poverty can work. Poverty can be ended! #PovertyTruths is about bringing together data and experience to see what is possible, that we have solutions that are working, and the knowledge to implement others. The emergency of the pandemic pushed us forward. The knowledge that we have from people’s lived experience can do the same.

We know what we need to do, let’s do it.

In solidarity,

Guillaume Charvon
National Director

What has changed since we published the Poverty Myths report in 2018? We’ll share updates with you throughout the year in #PovertyTruths.

How has the "rate of poverty" in the United States changed since 2018? The Covid-19 pandemic and reactions to it made almost everyone’s lives harder. Did poverty increase in the United States? In this newsletter you’ll find data about poverty rates and links to resources to find out more.

For those whose lives were already the hardest, what has the pandemic changed? In this newsletter you’ll also find some answers to that question from ATD Fourth World members in New York City, Gallup (New Mexico) and Las Vegas.

What does data about income tell us about how the “poverty rate” in the United States changed over the last years?

As you can see, numbers can be both measured and interpreted differently. When looking at data, we have to look very closely at what is actually being measured and who is giving us an understanding of those numbers and why. Feel free to send other data about poverty our way.

Poverty is not adequately measured with numbers and income, either. See the Multidimensional Aspects of Poverty report for a much fuller understanding of poverty.

The most useful knowledge about poverty comes from #LivedExperience. Here is some of that expertise:

Katelryn Cheon