23 of 26

Write now Article Tools

I am poor and I am in poverty. Why does it seem as though the world has no regard for me or my children? I know that there are genuinely concerned people in the world but there is really nothing more or less they can do about my issue. The law was passed that my children and I couldn't receive welfare benefits over five years. Now, what? If you don't receive welfare then you can't participate in job finding programs from our local community. You have to be a welfare recipient to participate in Promise Jobs (job assistant and college assistance program). We are the lost parents that the government so-called reformed off of ADHD, now call FIP. We are homeless and without money to provide for our children. You have to be either mentally disabled or physically hardshipped to receive extra benefits beyond the five year plan. I stretched my five year plan out to a total of 8 years. The five year welfare plan passed the very same year my first son was born. This is a son whose father was a crack head and I left him to give him a better life.

Poverty, what is poverty to you? Is poverty living in the streets, being homeless, living with your mother, dealing with the school district and county attorney because you don't have insurance to take your kids to the doctor? What is poverty to you? Is it living paycheck to paycheck and having three times the amount of debt than your annual income? I had a pretty good job and I owned a home and finally thought I had taken my children out of poverty. Then the worst thing in the world happened to us. My boyfriend's father died and I lost my job. My children and I was back in poverty in less than a month's time. I had no money and the financial stress broke up my newfound happy home. Do you think that I could have called my local news and interviewed with them about me and my family having next to nothing? NO, we are not top news and neither are the rest of the poverty stricken families in America.
The housing crisis is going on and the media and the government say that the mortgage companies are helping out homeowners. They lied to them because they don't help you if you are poverty stricken. I showed financial hardship in the letter I wrote my mortgage company outlining the death in the family that we spent thousands on. My ex's father was in Egypt when he died and we had to transport his body to Sudan for proper burial. We were denied twice for a loan modification.
Now, I am living in poverty and I want to tell you. Until people stop and see me and other people long enough to stop saying that we put ourselves in this predicament, there will be no way that the media will be able to change anything. We are the underdogs, the lower class people, and the forgotten. I am still fighting to get out of poverty, I was raised in poverty, and I am determined not to have my three boys be raised in it. I am fortunate enough to have a mother and sister who will allow me to stay with them, unlike many other mothers. You want to know how to change poverty, change the laws.

Learn more about this author, Coy Bundy.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about What does it take to make poverty an important news story??
We want to hear your view. Write now!