Assessing Poverty Through the Man on the Street

Sometimes when I am walking down the street and encounter a person that is homeless or poor, I find myself with an uncomfortable feeling. If there are a group of homeless people gathered, I may even cross to the other side of the street. This is not something I am proud of or consciously decide in advance. It just happens. The other day, I was walking downtown near dusk and I encountered such a person. His clothes were dirty; he was unshaven and unkempt. He was pushing a shopping cart and talking to himself. Actually, he was yelling. His cart was full with contents of soiled clothes, boxes, soda cans, plastic bags, magazines and newspapers. I quickly realized that he was oblivious to me and his shouting was intended for any and all to hear. As I uncomfortably walked by him, I thought about his life. He was in a totally different world than me. He is in a world where he measures his future hour by hour or day to day. He had no real concept of how his words or actions impact others. Moving passed him, I wondered how he had arrived at this juncture in life. Was it drugs or alcohol, sickness, mental illness, unemployment or other afflictions that render him a statistic or consequence of poverty?

Then I questioned if his circumstances run deeper and longer than those of situational poverty. I wondered if he was born into poverty, grew up in foster care or an institution, and has been a product of poverty his entire life.  Did he receive an inadequate education? Was he ever truly loved or embraced by a parent, or knew and had the support of a family unit? I wondered if he was an example of the many root causes of poverty that exist, and he is just living the next stage of his life, a stage that leaves him with few choices.

I continued thinking. How many children are on the same journey as this man? Have we done all that we can do to insure that our next generation of poor children won’t end up pushing a shopping cart and living on the street? This may be an extreme example, but my point is that most people don’t just wake up one morning and find themselves living in poverty. There is a reason they have ended up there and quite often their failures may be out of their personal control.

Poverty is systemic and it is pervasive and it starts at birth for many. Those of us interested in eradicating poverty must start early and intervene often. It is too late to make the impact needed, if we wait to intervene at the homeless shelters, food banks or free medical clinics. We can help deal with problems at those places but we won’t prevent them from happening. A lot of our energy and emphasis needs to be with children. They need to start learning earlier. They need adequate food. They need consistent and ongoing health care. They need caring teachers to help shepherd them through school and not give up on them no matter how limited the resources are or how far behind they get. They need the support of families, communities, churches and civic organizations. They need to know that just because they live in a deprived neighborhood or poor school district, they will have opportunities to be taught by talented and committed educators and, yes, if they work hard, they will have a chance to further their education. It is called hope. Hope breeds self-esteem. Self-esteem breeds talent and talent is what we need in this world.

So the man on the street may or may not have had a real chance. But there are plenty of people that do have a chance and have potential if we can help them find it. But it really needs to begin when a child opens his or her eyes at birth. Then each hour and each day is built from a foundation that provides for opportunity and success. If we commit to these goals for all children then fewer of them will be pushing shopping carts on the streets and looking for a place to sleep at night.

Tom Keith is the president of the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina