What Does it Mean to be Poor?

It is hard for those of us with sufficient funds to meet our basic (and not so basic) needs to appreciate what it is like to live in poverty.  "Being poor is a heater in only one room of the house." "Being poor is picking the 10 cent ramen instead of the 12 cent reman because that's two extra packages for every dollar."  "Being poor is people surprised to discover you're not actually lazy."  "Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so."

These are quotes taken from the flyer for the 2007 Poverty Challenge currently underway in Buffalo, NY, sponsored by the Homeless Alliance of Greater Buffalo.  The challenge is to live for several days on a poverty line budget.  For as single person, that means $9.25/day after factoring in housing (based on the cost of housing in Buffalo) and the cost of clothing, before reductions for costs such as transportation.  Even without such deductions, living on $9.25/day is no easy task.  The challenge also invites people to think about the perceptions they have heard about those who are poor and to reconsider those perceptions based on their experience.

This is not an exercise in "playing poor," but rather is an effort to help people understand "how poverty affects the day-to-day life” of so many people.  The hope is that if people "learn what it means [they will] demand that it ends."

The website for the Homeless Alliance contains both the flyer and the guide to the challenge. A news article talking about the challenge can be found here.

UPDATE: Prompted by the Homeless Alliance challenge literature, this morning I posted some further reflections on how we see the poor here.