POVERTY

Poverty means a person lacks the resources to provide themselves with the necessities needed to live and thrive, like food, water, shelter and clothing. Each of the issues United Way tackles are a symptom of poverty in one way or another. When a person is impoverished, it’s not just because they lack a pay check or income. It begins to affect their social and mental well-being, overreaching into all facets of their life. An individual often struggles to find their way back out of hardship as the issues surrounding poverty begin to compound onto each other.

What we’re seeing currently with the hikes to cost of living and inflation taking its toll at more than just the gas pumps, people who were making it work twelve months ago are now struggling and live on the poverty line. Wages are not adequately increasing to accommodate for this inflation and the cost of housing remains unmanageable for most. Many individuals unfortunately do not realize that with so much of their income going to support basic needs, all it could take is one missed pay check to force them into debt and instability.