authors in action

Invisible poverty

During a conversation with friends over dinner the other night, I was shocked to learn that one of them had at one time lived in his car. While still a low-income earner, he is doing much better than he was several years ago during a crisis time of his life. His stories of life back then were remarkable. He had a job, and at times held down two jobs, but it was not enough to put a deposit on an apartment or a down payment for a house.

He told us that one day, he had got to his first shift too late to have breakfast, so he went hungry. He went right from that job to another so missed a chance to have lunch (not that he had any way to prepare a lunch for himself). Finally, in the early evening, he finished work and went to a Salvation Army facility where supper was being served. But because he arrived too late to sit for the sermon that night, he was refused dinner. That was how life went on the street.

I had been shocked because he wasn’t the first one of my friends to tell me this. In fact, I was alarmed because I have a growing sense of concern over the “invisible poor.” It’s easy to find poor people. We know what neighbourhoods they live in. We know where they hang out. We think we know what goes on in that part of town.

Some friends of mine are on welfare and can only afford to live in areas that contribute to the stigma and struggle with poverty itself. Even some friends who have jobs can only afford these places. When I pick them up at their apartment buildings in these areas, within a few moments of pulling up, my car windows are knocked on by prostitutes and johns wanting my business. Crack houses are open for business across the street. A makeshift cross marks where a bystander was shot by a stray bullet a few weeks ago.

What about the person in your workplace, perhaps in the next cubicle or on the bench across from you? Is he or she struggling to make ends meet? Where do they sleep at the end of the day?

At my kids’ school, there is a Breakfast Program that gives some nutritious food to children who may be rushed off to school without a hearty breakfast in the morning. One scenario suggested when it was set up was that some parents have to leave for work before the kids get up, and so they may not have anyone making breakfast for them. But those who actually dish out the porridge or cut up fruit or fill bowls with Cheerios tell me other things. They tell me of kids whose only meals all day are what they get in the “Breakfast Program.” And some kids who don’t even attend school there, looking to sit in as well.

Even in middle-class neighbourhoods.

Poverty is not just something that is “over there.” It’s right beside us. Hidden. Invisible. Or, perhaps, it’s just invisible to those who don’t want to see it. Even if we can point to poverty somewhere in the distance, far away from the safety of a warm house in the suburbs, we have to recognize that it’s out there.

Maybe as near as our own dinner tables.

© 2008 Defining Canada.