Gans acknowledges that one of the functions of poverty is to create jobs for the better-off prison guards, shelter workers, researchers, fundraisers. But another is to project the stigma of the poor onto those organizations that form to help the poor, making sure that those organizations and programs never have the resources necessary to do their jobs well. The rest of us rely on the poor as scapegoats for a myriad of problems and conflicts that we are unable to uncover, examine, confront, manage, and overcome. A big one is racism. Seriously reducing poverty in the United States would facilitate a greater degree of racial integration in housing, schools, and social relations than most white people can psychically tolerate.
White privilege is a powerful motivator to maintain the status quo.
Homelessness, the housing crisis, poverty, and even racism are solvable problems, requiring resources, skilled practitioners, and imagination. But first we need a new kind of public discourse among politicians, journalists, social scientists, and civic and religious leaders that refutes stereotypes and demands better of us all. Back to top . This when worst case housing needs are at an all time high, at 12.5 million people, and the stock of affordable housing is shrinking. The cuts underfund job creation efforts.