January represents a time for change, with the end of holiday celebrations ushering in a wave of resolutions. January is also National Poverty Awareness Month. This year, the Community Action Agency of Somerville (CAAS) is shining a light on this critical issue and calling for more action against the root causes of poverty and understanding for those experiencing it. We ask you to join us to think more critically about poverty and use this start to the year to reflect on how we understand the issue in our community.

The US Census estimated that about 10.4% of Somerville’s population was living in poverty in 2021. A 2022, The Somerville Housing and Community Development conducted a Housing Needs Assessment and found that 23% of residents were living with poverty-level wages. In the plainest terms, this means that thousands of people in Somerville were unable to afford basic necessities, including food, shelter, clothing, utilities, and transportation, among other things.

An often misunderstood issue, many continue to incorrectly blame individual behavior and choices for poverty. In reality, the true cause of poverty isn’t personal shortcomings or failures. Instead, it is the result of political and structural injustices that not only lead to poverty, but make it next to impossible for individuals and families to escape. And for those not already in poverty, financial insecurity is a looming threat. Almost a third of Americans were unable to afford an unexpected expense of $400 in 2021. For many, poverty is one car problem, hospital visit, or natural disaster away.

As an anti-poverty organization, we see clients every day at CAAS who are struggling within this system. Let’s think about housing, since that’s one of the largest concerns not just for our clients, but across the state. Imagine a situation where you’re struggling to find stable housing: the stress of not knowing where you’ll be living on a monthly, or even daily basis, takes an indescribable toll on you, mentally and physically. Imagine not just trying to hold down a job, but perform well, when you’re also constantly asking yourself if you and your children will be able to continue living in your current home.

For thousands of people in our city, this is a daily reality. Eviction is another terrifying reality for many families living in poverty, one that makes it drastically more difficult to escape poverty. Ironically, eviction can lead to people losing access to affordable housing assistance, and has been linked with job loss, lower credit scores, and worsening health outcomes for parents and children, with the impacts being felt years after an eviction. Students in families with unstable living situations struggle more in school, making academic success and, later, higher-paying jobs more difficult to attain. Keep in mind, the average age of a homeless person in the U.S. is 9.

We all know that Somerville is rapidly undergoing widespread change. At least once a week, you can easily find a headline in the Boston news cycle that another lab space is opening here, or that new luxury condos are slated for development. With the growth of new jobs in tech and life sciences, plus the expansion of the Green Line into Somerville drastically hiking up housing costs, the city is undergoing rapid transformation. However, when economic growth on this scale takes place, not everyone benefits equally. In Somerville, our neighbors who ring up your groceries at Market Basket, who wait at you at the new restaurants cropping up around the city, and who stock the shelves at your favorite stores are being pushed out.

For those who are still here, staying in the city is becoming even more difficult as workers are forced to stretch their paychecks even further. Sometimes they’re artists, musicians, and performers. These are the neighbors who have been here for years, sometimes for generations, who have helped create the vibrant community of Somerville as we know it. Growth and change doesn’t need to come at the expense of our low-income families – it can be a collaborative effort between the people who have been here and the people who are being welcomed to the community. It’s a matter of having supportive structures in place and making sure everyone’s voices and needs are heard.

The question is not if or why we should care about poverty, but how we should work together to address both the impacts and the causes of poverty in our city.

One way to help alleviate poverty is to support programs that work with people in poverty to help provide necessary resources and aid. The Community Action Agency of Somerville (CAAS) has been the city’s designated anti-poverty agency since 1981. Community Action Agencies were first established in the 1960’s, when the federal government first began to measure poverty and created programs to help people facing it.

CAAS provides free early education to over 200 children a year through our Head Start program, which helps to break generational cycles of poverty. In fact, a 2020 study from the University of Michigan found that Head Start students were 39% more likely to graduate from college and 12% less likely to live in poverty compared to low-income children who did not enroll in the program. We also provide families with case management service, rental assistance, and aid with affordable housing searches, as well as tenant leadership development, helping to make the political process more accessible for low-income residents.

If you have the capacity, get involved in local government and advocate for changes to our city that help people in poverty. Massachusetts has a current statewide ban on rent control. We believe that overturning this ban would allow cities like Somerville to be more responsive to the needs of their residents, and would also quell the displacement of our neighbors in light of the recent Green Line Extension. Advocate for affordable housing that is truly affordable for low-income residents. Many affordable housing opportunities require applicants to have a salary that’s 50% or 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI), leaving many of our lowest-income neighbors out of range for affordable housing.

And above all, we encourage you to once again use kindness and compassion when you think about the issue of poverty. While Poverty Awareness Month is a good time to start, poverty doesn’t end with this month. This is a complex issue that no one person, group, or organization can solve on their own–this is an issue that takes a community of people coming together to listen to those in poverty, and work together to find solutions.

— Community Action Agency of Somerville (CAAS)