For some years I have worked in areas which are, in the language of welfare are ‘financially disadvantaged.’ I don’t like euphemisms so let’s restate that.
For some years I have worked in areas where people are poor.
Areas where many people face long term unemployment, rising housing costs, rising living costs and generational disadvantage. Areas where people move when there is nowhere else to go, ‘houso’ areas, areas where private rental is cheaper, although still crippling, Areas where women who have left domestic violence, men out of prison, new arrivals to our country, the unexpectedly unemployed, the long term unemployed, the elderly and the disabled tend to end up by default rather than choice.

I do realise that poverty in some other countries is much worse, I do realise that what the very least of us have looks damn good from a refugee camp, a war torn village, a drought destroyed continent.

But pain and suffering are not that simple. And in a country which has frequently referred to itself as ‘lucky’ we have real and pervasive poverty.

This is what poverty looks like in Australia, in the year 2014.

A 7 year old at the door at 8.30 with 2 pieces of somewhat stale bread. Do I have some butter or vegemite because there is none left at home and it’s two days to payday?
A nine year old asking to borrow a glue stick because she has a school assignment due and her glue stick ran out and there is no money for a new one.
A woman crying because we had some towels donated and she will finally have a towel for each person in the house instead of having to share the three she has between six people.
A woman with 3 children paying private rental and working part time who has $60 a week to feed them all after she has paid half her income in rent, instalments to keep the electricity on and fares to get to her part time job.
An elderly woman in a Departmental bedsit who needs specialist visits because of a health problem and after paying for the Medicare gap, the fares into the City, the scripts she needs and her gas bill has $10 to last her a fortnight.
A woman caring for her mentally unwell daughter who had to choose between paying the gas bill or the electricity bill, chose the electricity bill, and has not had hot water or a working stove for twelve months.

Poverty is a small departmental house that is so hot in summer no-one can sleep and so cold in winter that everyone goes to bed at dark. Poverty is being cold, and not having enough clothes or blankets or heaters or insulation or money to fix the broken window the wind comes in.

Poverty is private rental where the landlord won’t fix anything and only one burner on the stove works and the door doesn’t lock properly and the rising damp is playing hell with your kid’s asthma but the rent is all you can afford and you don’t want to piss the landlord off.

Poverty is knowing that it isn’t healthy but buying $5 worth of chips and a loaf of bread for dinner because it fills three hungry bellies and costs less than getting the bus to the shops and trying to work out what you can buy and cook and somehow satisfy the kids with when you have $10 in your purse and two days to payday.

Poverty is saying no all the time – ‘no you can’t have $2 for school, an ice cream, a drink, money for the school disco, school excursion, new clothes, movies, bus fare, more dinner, a sandwich,’

Poverty is keeping your little kids home from school because there is nothing for their lunch except the potatoes you will boil and mash and they can’t take that to school and sending your big kids without lunch knowing they will probably bludge something off their friends and feel bad because of it.

Poverty is shame – asking for help from agencies, begging for time to pay your bills, explaining to the school why your kids don’t have the right uniform, not going to events at school because your shoes are falling apart and you can’t replace them, bumming money from friends, family, pawning anything of value. putting things back at the supermarket.
Poverty is fear – fear of an unexpected bill, a debt collector’s call, a breaking down washing machine or fridge, car registration, an increase in rent, illness.
Poverty is doing laundry for four children in the bath because the washing machine DID break down and you can’t afford the repairs and doing that not just for a day, or a week or a month but for over a year.
Poverty is no food in the cupboard and screaming at your six year old because he spilt the milk that had to last two more days and at your hungry teenager because he came home and made a sandwich and now there is nothing for school lunches.
Poverty is a constant and pervasive sense of failure as your kids do without.
Poverty is losing it and sobbing because your little girl just asked for the tenth time if she can have something to eat and it is a day before payday and you have managed to scrape together dinner but there is absolutely nothing left in the house.
Poverty is NOT ‘doing it hard’ for a while until you finish uni, save for a house, pay off your car.
Poverty is when this is now and then and probably always.

Poverty is not the result of laziness, stupidity, alcohol, drugs or can’t be bothered or ‘if they just budgeted they would be ok ‘ and ‘our grandmothers managed on a lot less’ etc. etc. ad nauseum. Poverty is not having enough money to provide the basics – food, a roof, clothing. Poverty is the result of less jobs, over inflated rents, lack of public housing, benefits which push people below the poverty line, part time, casual and uncertain employment, economic policies, punitive attitudes and a capitalist economy rapidly replacing a just society. Poverty is NOT HAVING ENOUGH.
Our wonderful , fair minded media continually hypes this picture of THOSE OTHERS – you know, the ones who don’t want to work, can’t be bothered, spend foolishly, don’t save and so on and so on.
And yes, some people do drink and they do do drugs and they do smoke cigarettes and they do spend money on takeaway food and ‘unnecessary’ things. Don’t all of us at some time do one or all of these things? And do any of us know what despair and lack of hope and constant struggle might do to us?
One of the most depressing realisations I had when I worked in this area was that it really didn’t seem to make a difference. Joan smokes (it kills hunger she says and she eats less) and buys a bottle of wine every payday. Mary doesn’t drink or smoke, she tries to pay a bit of her bills each week, she tries to stock her cupboards up and cook cheap meals. An unexpected bill, a rise in rent, less shifts in a fortnight, the need to replace or buy something – and they both end up with nothing.
Poverty is seeing nothing ahead of you except struggle so if there is a small amount of money you spend it – on something for the kids, or a night out, or a phone or SOMETHING because just for that brief time it is so bluddy good to NOT feel poor.
Poverty is the cheapest shoes, clothes, household goods you can afford so they fall apart quickly, break down, don’t work and poverty is not replacing things when they do break or wear out so gradually you have less and less.

Poverty is being told to look for work, to get a job, to get off your butt and you will make it if you try and you have only yourself to blame when you have been trying for years and a Year 6 education, no car, no skills, crippling depression, alcoholism, illness, age, small children, anxiety, and/or hopelessness make it impossible. And even if you can overcome all these things there are frequently NO JOBS that you are qualified to do or can get.
Poverty is getting a job and paying fares and child care and increased rent and one set of halfway decent clothes and still having nothing.
Poverty is getting a low paid casual job and hanging out each fortnight to find out if you have any shifts and not having sick or holiday pay or any safety net and having to catch public transport late at night to work and feeling scared and anxious and afraid.
Poverty is working and getting by OK but not having enough for the dental work you desperately need or the glasses you have to replace or the car that you have to have to get to work but that is rapidly falling apart.
Poverty is exploitation – pay day loans, and shoddy lenders and women working cleaning for $10 a day because it is cash in hand.
Poverty is anger and resentment and feeling ‘less than’ and facing your kids anger when they take it out on you and the contempt of those who judge you for not ‘making it’
Poverty is shopping and having to decide between soap and toothpaste, between toilet paper and fruit, between living on baked beans and canned spaghetti or buying sausages and knowing you will not make it through the fortnight
Poverty is supermarkets where the vegetables are past their use by date, and charity stores with stained and too small clothes, and no shop in your area except a greasy takeaway and not enough public transport and a long walk to the shops.
Poverty is going to bed hungry
Poverty grinds you down, you lose hope and you can’t give your kids hope. Poverty exhausts you and you reach a point of not caring, of not seeing any way that things can change, of not dreaming or planning or even imagining anything different. Poverty means not looking any further forward than the next day. It is basic survival living, and sometimes not even that.
And it is about to get worse.