Yesterday, LAANE's research director Carolina Briones was a guest on the Patt Morrison Show, which airs on KPCC, a local NPR station. The subject was poverty, and LAANE had just released analysis of the new census data showing the extent of poverty at the local level.
One guest described the tragedy of living in a car with his wife and daughter as the recession took its toll on the construction industry. A caller then phoned in and described how he lived in a Winnebago for years in order to save money while working poverty-level jobs.
I was touched by these stories of people, not far from my neighborhood, making whatever choice necessary to survive when good jobs are not available. But then the caller went on to suggest that the answer to poverty was for everyone struggling today to follow his example and hunker down.
Beyond creating an initial picture in my mind of L.A's already-notorious freeways suddenly inundated with hundreds of thousands of Winnebagos, it did bring up an important thought as we grapple with the highest poverty rates in decades. There is a critical role for a social safety net to keep people stable and families intact amidst chronic unemployment and underemployment. And on the individual level, I never fail to be blown away by the ingenuity of people trying to make it for their families on far too little, especially in cities as expensive as L.A.
However, to truly reduce poverty, we need to address it as a community. The Winnebago example illustrates how unworkable it is to adjust the rest of our world down to the level of the poverty jobs that are actually available. What we need to do instead is raise the bar for jobs. We need policies and initiatives that help create good jobs and make them accessible for those who need them.
LAANE has put together a Poverty Resource Center on our website, with local economic analysis as well as some blueprints and examples of our vision to create new economy that works for everyone. Please visit www.laane.org/poverty and make use of these models as we seek to reduce poverty and create good jobs in communities across the nation.