I organized the tenants, to start bringing in the health department and various other regulatory agencies including small claims court. I personally wrote the briefs and motions after painstaking hours of research in the law library, but the people were too scared to come forward. That is also what poverty does to you. You learn not to stand up for yourself because of the possible retaliation. The face of poverty in this country is along several socio-economic lines.
Women are poorer than men, and whites are better off than non-whites.
That is the truth that cannot be disputed. As simple as it sounds, if males, and white males in particular, would suffer this type of poverty more often, then I think that things would change. At some point, we will never get out.