The Poor Children of a Wealthy Nation
By Karen Free

"The time to repair the hole in the roof is when the sun is shining, and it's high noon on the economic clock," declared U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo in a recent speech to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. His point is well taken: If America is the "home," then the "repair" needed is to bring along the one in seven families who still live in poverty while the rest of the nation enjoys the strongest economy ever.

Admittedly, crime is down, as is the number of families on welfare; 18 million new jobs have been created since 1992; and two out of three American families are homeowners.

But while those numbers offer good news, other haunting statistics reveal the catch: The young-child poverty rate is higher than it was 20 years ago; 14 million children between the ages of 7 and 17 live in poverty; and this country has the highest rate of child poverty among western industrialized nations. Why?

The National Center for Children in Poverty says that a young child's risk of experiencing poverty largely depends on three factors: single parenthood, low parental educational attainment; and part-time or no parental employment. In fact, the center reports that in 1997, children under age 6 living with single mothers were five times as likely to be poor as were those living with both parents; young children living with single fathers were two-and-one-half times as likely to be poor as those living with two parents; and one-third of all poor young children live with both parents.

Further, conventional wisdom has assumed that most poor children reside in chronically depressed areas such as inner cities, the Appalachian Mountain or the Mississippi Delta regions, and that poverty's victims are primarily minorities.

Wrong.

While poverty rates among urban and minority children are three times as high, the poverty rate of white and non-white suburban children has grown much faster in the last 20 years, and white children are the largest racial or ethnic group of young children in poverty.

What does "growing up poor" in today's society mean? Living in households with "low incomes" (less than $31,822 in 1996 for a family with two parents and two children); living with one parent; a one-in-four likelihood of experiencing a hardship in finding affordable housing; an increased risk of going hungry; and an increased risk of lacking adequate health insurance, says the Urban Institute's 1997 National Survey of American Families.

The correlation between childhood poverty and low earning power is obvious; likewise, a lack of resources as a means to help lift both parents and children out of poverty is clear.

Annually, the Children's Defense Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization, publishes "The State of America's Children Yearbook." Its 1998 facts and figures present troubling findings about American children: Every 30 minutes in America, 200 children drop out of school; 45 are born into poverty; 16 are born with a low birth weight (under 5 pounds, 8 ounces); five children are arrested for violent crime; and one child is wounded by gunfire.

"Poverty makes parenting harder, makes providing basic resources harder and puts a real stress on parents," says Dr. Jane Knitzer, deputy director of the National Center for Children in Poverty. "Families need to create a system to support each other."

Besides physical poverty, there is growing evidence that suggests mental and emotional poverty as areas of concern in children today. Dr. Richard Weissbourd, a professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge, Mass., says that while American society has been "very focused on loud problems, there are quieter problems," that ought not be overlooked.

For example, Weissbourd, in his book "The Vulnerable Child", states that 50-70 percent of parents today suffer from parental depression, making them emotionally unavailable for their children. And because these parents often talk less and interact less with them, the children tend to be "less skill ready" when they enter the school system.

"Poor children are more likely to have discipline problems and poor children who ricochet from school to school (because parents relocate often) have a difficult time establishing relationships, as each move reduces their ability to make and keep friends," he says. Additionally, poor children have higher incidences of asthma, hearing and vision problems, and an "astounding" number have caretaking responsibilities for an adult in the home, according to Weissbourd.

Few would argue that it is time to be "fair" to America's 14.1 million poor children. The Rev. Jesse Jackson puts it bluntly: "We are too blessed and too wealthy [as a nation] to be so 'adjusted' [to children and poverty]," he says. "We must challenge and check that tendency."

Secretary Cuomo calls it the "dual reality of the time we live in."

"The poverty, the despair and the sense of hopelessness is just as bad in some places as it has ever been," he says. "For all the progress we've made, Lord knows we have longer to go."

"I had come to accept that the best God wanted me to have was a broken down trailer. But, he introduced me to Beaches Habitat and now I have this beautiful home in which to raise my son. This is the most beautiful house in the world."

—Habitat homeowner,
Jacksonville Beach, Fla.

"I felt like a new and good person when I found out that I was moving into my new Habitat home."

—Katie Cade, 14
Homestead, Fla.

"Let the children come to me and do not hinder them for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."

—Luke 18:16

Karen Free is associate editor of Habitat World.


Reprinted from Habitat World Magazine, October/November 1999.
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©1999 Habitat for Humanity International