In 2005, Hurricane Katrina heightened public awareness of poverty in the United States.
For several days, the riveting story unfolding on the news was about poor people literally left behind. Left to drown—or wade in toxic water. Left on rooftops—or in the squalor inside the Superdome. The Lower Ninth ward of New Orleans was a place few Americans had ever heard of, and yet everyone seemed to recognize it as the place where the United States hit rock bottom.
Katrina also drew attention to the shameful failures of government; a veneer was stripped off by the storm. The bungled response was seen as a reflection of the government’s failed response to poverty writ large. After all, poor people in the Gulf area had been left to fend for themselves long before the hurricane.
Poverty was not invisible before Katrina, but there was more complacency about it. It was easier to be complicit by ignoring the problem, and it was often expedient to do so. The conditions exposed by Katrina exist elsewhere in the country: on Indian reservations in the Dakotas and Southwest, on the back roads of the Mississippi Delta, in colonias along the Texas-Mexico border, and in other densely packed cities like New Orleans. But New Orleans, if not the center of the storm, was the center of attention.
Organizations already working to raise awareness of poverty might have hoped that the hurricane, tragic as it was, would shake up the status quo. But more than three years have passed since Hurricane Katrina, and little has been done at the federal level to step up efforts to fight poverty in the Gulf or elsewhere around the country.
On the other hand, momentum has been building quietly at the state and local levels, even if there has not been a seismic shift. People of faith and goodwill are forming a growing chorus of government officials and policymakers to focus more attention and resources on poverty reduction. Forward-looking leaders like Mayor Bloomberg of New York City and a handful of governors and state legislatures have refused to ignore the plight of poor people and have launched smaller-scale efforts locally, spurred on by faith-based groups like Bread for the World, Catholic Charities USA, Sojourners, and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. Setting a national goal to reduce poverty would undergird these efforts, rally additional support, and spawn fresh initiatives.
We can learn something about fighting poverty from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Poverty is a complex problem. It cannot be overcome without also redressing inequities in education and access to health care, gender discrimination, and practices that harm the environment. The U.S. needs a set of goals similar in ambition to the MDGs but which make sense given our starting conditions.
It’s important to be clear that such a commitment does not mean a huge, one-shot government program. No government program by itself can lift people out of poverty if they are not prepared to do some hard work themselves. But there are millions of people who are struggling despite their own efforts to do what’s right by their families and communities. Because of circumstances beyond their control, they cannot get out of poverty without some help. Whether our society is willing to reach out to offer a hand up speaks volumes about our core values and aspirations as a people.
