Op-ed: Poverty in plain sight

By John Kennedy, Director, Community Action Council, former Portage County Treasurer

Talking about poverty is not easy. Not because it is unimportant — not when tens of millions of Americans live in poverty’s vice grip. Talking about it makes us uncomfortable because it forces us to confront hard questions about fairness, responsibility, and whether the systems we have built are working.  

One of my favorite national leaders is Rev. William J. Barber because of the moral clarity he  brings to the topic of poverty.  As he often reminds us, one of this nation’s great moral failures is our refusal to tell the truth about poverty — who it affects and why.

So let’s tell the truth.

One of the most damaging myths in America is that poverty belongs to a single race, or a certain group of people, living in certain urban areas. We have been conditioned to imagine it as something that happens somewhere else — in other neighborhoods, to other families.  Not in my township. Not in my community.

But the reality is very different.

Poverty crosses race, geography, and political identity. It exists in rural communities and urban neighborhoods. It affects children, seniors, veterans, people with disabilities, and millions of adults who work full-time but still cannot make ends meet.

Another myth is that poverty results primarily from bad choices or lack of effort. Yet overwhelming evidence shows structural factors — wages, housing costs, health care expenses, child care, transportation — play a far greater role.

When wages stagnate and costs rise, poverty grows. When rent outpaces income, poverty grows. When health care becomes unaffordable, poverty grows.

The truth is that poverty is not random. It is the predictable outcome of policy decisions.

Poverty is not inevitable

If poverty were inevitable, we would not be able to reduce it quickly. But in 2021, the United States did just that.

Under the American Rescue Plan Act, Congress expanded the Child Tax Credit. The credit increased. It was made fully refundable. And for the first time, families received monthly payments instead of waiting for tax season.

And the results were historic.

Child poverty fell from 9.7 percent in 2020 to 5.2 percent in 2021 — a 46 percent reduction in a single year. More than 5 million people were lifted out of poverty, including nearly 3 million children.

That did not happen because parents suddenly worked harder. It happened because policy met reality.

Families used those monthly payments for groceries, rent, utilities, transportation, and child care. For one year, the United States made a deliberate choice to reduce child poverty — and it worked.

Then the policy expired.  Payments stopped. And child poverty rose again. Poverty did not return because families failed – it returned because policy changed. 

Poverty responds to policy.

Geography determines access

Poverty is not only about income. It is about access.

Across Ohio, most counties contain areas classified as food deserts or pharmacy deserts — places where residents lack reasonable access to affordable groceries or essential medications. Here in Portage County, we have several large food deserts – Windham, Charlestown, Ravenna and Kent.

That is not about personal responsibility – it is about infrastructure. Disinvestment, transportation gaps, zoning decisions, and market forces shape opportunity and access long before individuals make choices.

When families must travel miles without reliable transportation just to buy groceries, healthy food becomes expensive and harder to get. Health outcomes suffer and household costs rise. 

Access and geography determines opportunity and health.  And both play a key role in determining poverty.

Poverty is poorly measured

The way we measure poverty is out of date and flawed. 

The federal poverty line was developed decades ago based largely on food costs. It does not adequately reflect modern expenses like housing, health care, child care, or regional cost differences.

Today, a family of four at 100 percent of the federal poverty level earns roughly $26,000 per year.  But can anyone seriously argue an annual income of $26,000 is enough to provide for a family of four?

That is why many researchers and community organizations (like Community Action Council) use 200 percent of the federal poverty level as a more accurate benchmark for economic insecurity.

Using that measure does not exaggerate poverty; It reveals it.

Portage County

Here in Portage County, poverty often hides in plain sight.

Nearly 30 percent of residents live at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Forty-four percent of school-age children are classified as low income. In Ravenna and Windham, every student qualifies as low income. But even in Aurora – the wealthiest community in Portage County – the number of children qualifying for the free lunch program has risen in recent years.  

And here is a fact that challenges common assumptions: approximately 88 percent of people living in poverty in Portage County are white.  They look like me.  

Poverty here does not fit stereotypes. It looks like working families. It looks like seniors on fixed incomes, struggling to pay their property taxes, medical bills and groceries. It looks like parents doing everything they can to hold things together.

I witnessed this reality firsthand at a local food pantry.

Car after car pulled into the parking lot. Volunteers loaded boxes of food into trunks. Families quietly thanked them.

Then one car stopped me cold.

Inside was an entire family — parents and children — living out of that vehicle. Everything they owned was packed around them. The back seat wasn’t just transportation; it was a makeshift bedroom.

The parents were polite. The children were quiet, but smiled when I acknowledged them.

And that moment changed how I understand poverty.  It did not look like laziness or failure.  It looked like people surviving the best way they knew how. 

Poverty is not a number. Poverty is people in need.

Budgets reveal our values

As Reverend Barber often says, budgets are moral documents.

Each year, federal spending choices reveal what we prioritize. The question is not whether we have the resources to reduce poverty. The question is whether we are willing to make it a priority.

Poverty is not inevitable. It is not invisible. And it is not someone else’s problem.

And if poverty is in plain sight, then so is our responsibility.

A responsibility to demand wages that reflect the cost of living.
A responsibility to invest in children, families and public schools.
A responsibility to ensure access to food, housing, and health care.

As Robert F. Kennedy said in 1966, each of us can create a small ripple of hope that becomes a current of change.

Thousands of families like the one I met at that food pantry are still out there.  The question is not whether poverty exists.

The question is what we are willing to do about it.