Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Weight of The Poor: Strategy To End Poverty
The Weight of The Poor: Strategy To End Poverty
and FRANCES FOX PIVEN alleviating the abject poverty which it perpetrates. Wide-
Mr. Cloward is professor of socral work, and MrsPiven I S a spread campa~gnsto register the eligible poor for welfare
research associate, both at the ColumbiaUniversity School of aid, and to help existing recipients obtain their full benefits,
Social Work.
would produce bureaucratic disruption in welfare agencies
and fiscal disruption in local and state governments. These I
How can the poor be organized to press for relief from pov- disruptions would generate severe political strains, and
erty? How can a broad-based movement be developed and deepenexistingdivisionsamongelements inthebigcity
the current dlsarray of activist forces be halted? These ques- Democratic coalition: the remaining white middle class, the
tions confront, and confound, activists today. It is our pur- white working-class ethnic groups and the growing minority
pose to advance a strategywhich affords the basis for a poor. To avoid a further weakening of that historic coali-
convergence ofcivil rights organizations, militant anti-pov- tion, a national Democratic administration would be con- (
erty groups and the poor. If this strategy were implemented, strained to advance a federal solution to poverty that would
a politicalcrisiswouldresult that couldlead to legislation override localwelfare failures, local class and racial con-
for a guaranteed annual income and thus an end to poverty. flicts and localrevenuedilemmas. By the internal disrup-
The strategy is based on the fact that a vast discrepancy tion of local bureaucratic practices, by the furor over public
exists between the benefits to which people are entitled un- welfare poverty, and by the collapse of current financing
der public welfare programs and the sums which they actu- arrangements, powerful forces can be
generated for major 4
ally receive. This gulf is not recognized in a society that is economic reforms at the national level.
wholly and self-righteously oriented toward getting people
off the welfare rolls. It is widely known, for example, that The ultimate objective of this strategy-to wipe out
nearly 8 million persons (half of them white) now subsist on poverty by establlshlng a guaranteed annual income-will
welfare, but it is not generally known that for every person bequestioned by some.Because the ideal of individual
on the rolls at least one more probably meets existing cri- social and economic mobility has deep roots, even activists
teria of eligibillty but is not obtaining assistance. seem reluctant to call for national programs to eliminate
The discrepancy is not an accident stemming from bureau- poverty by the outright redlstribution of income. Instead,
cratic inefficiency; rather,it is an integral feature of the programs are demanded to enable people to becomeeco-
welfare systemwhich, if challenged, would precipitate a nomically competitive. But such programs are of no use to
profound financial and politicalcrisis. The force for that millions of today's poor. For example, one-third of the 35
challenge, and the strategy we propose,is a massive drive million poor Americans are in families headed by females;
to recruit the poor onto the welfare rolls. theseheads of family cannot be aided appreciably by job
The distribution of public assistance has been a local and retraining, higher minimum wages, accelerated rates of eco-
4
state responsibility, and that accounts in large part for the nomic growth, or employment in public works projects. Nor
abysmal character of welfare practices. Despite the growing can the 5 million aged who are poor, nor those whose pov-
involvement of federal agencies in supervisory and reim- erty results from the ill health of the wage earner. Programs
bursement arrangements, state andlocal community forces to enhance individual mobility will chiefly benefit the very
are still deciswe. The poor are mostvisible and proximate young, if not the asyet unborn. Individual mobility is no
in the local community; antagonismtowardthem (and to- answer to the question ofhow to abolish the massive prob-
4
ward the agencieswhich are implicatedwith them) has lem of poverty now.
always, therefore, been more intense locally than at the It has never been the full answer. If many people in the
federal level. In recent years, local communitles have in- past have found their way up from poverty by the path of
creasingly felt class and ethnic friction generated by com- indlvidual mobdity, many others have taken a different
petition for neighborhoods, schools, jobs and political power. route. Organized labor stands out as a major example. Al-
Public welfare systems are under the constant stress of con- though many American workers never yielded their dreams
flict and opposition, made only sharper by the rising costs of individual achievement, they accepted and practiced the 4
to localities of publicaid. And, to accommodate thispres- principle that each can benefit only as the status of work-
sure, welfare practice everywhere has become more restric- ers as a whole is elevated. They bargained for collective
tive than welfare statute; much of the time it verges on mobility, not for indlvidual mobility; to promote their for-
lawlessness. Thus, public welfaresystems try to keep their tunes in the aggregate, not to promote the prospects of one
budgets down and their rolls lowby failing to inform peo- worker over another. And if each finally found himselfin
ple of the rights available to them; by intimidating and the same relative economlc relationship to his fellows as
shaming them to the degree that they are reluctant either when he began, it was nevertheless clear that all were infi-
to apply or to press claims, and by arbitrarily denying bene- nitely better off. That fact has sustained the labor movement
fits to those who are eligible. in the face of a counter pull from the ideal of individual
A series of welfare drives in large cities would, we be- achievement.
lieve.impel action on a new federal program to distribute Butmany of the contemporary poor will not rise from
510 THE NATION 1 M a y 2, 1966
poverty by organizing to bargain collectively. Theyeither Baric arsistance for food and rent: The most striking
are not in the labor force or are In such marginal and dis- characteristic of public welfare practice is that a great many
persed occupations (e.g., domestic servants) that it is ex- people who appear to be eligible for assistance are not on
tremely dlfficulttoorganizethem.Compared with other thewelfare rolls. The average monthlytotal of New York
groups, then,many of today’s poorcannotsecurea redis- City residents receiving assistance in 1959 was 325,771, but
tribution of income by organizing within the institution of according tothe 1960 census. 716,000 persons (unrelated
private enterprise. A federal program of income redistribu- or in families) appeared to be subsisting on incomes at or
tion hasbecome necessary toelevatethepooren masse below the prevailingwelfare eligibility levels (e.& $2,070
from poverty. forafamily of four). In thatsame year, 539,000 people
Several ways have been proposed for redistributing in- subsisted on incomes less than 80 per cent of the welfare
t
come through the federal government. I t is not our purpose minimums, and 200,000 lived alone or in families on in-
hereto assess the relative merits of these plans, which are comes reported to be less than half of eligibility levels. Thus
still undergoing debateand clarification. Whatever mech- it appears that for every person on welfare in 1959, at least
anism is eventually adopted, however, it mustincludecer- one more was eligible.
tain features if it is not merely to perpetuatein a new The results of two surveys of selected areas in Manhattan
guise the present evils of the public welfare system. support the contention that many people subsist on incomes
First, adequate levels of income must be assured. (Public below welfare eligibillty levels. One of these, conducted by
welfare levels are astonishingly low; indeed, states typically Greenleigh Associates in 1964 in an urban-renewal area on
define a “minimum” standard of living and then grant only New York’s upper West Side, found 9 per cent of those no2
a percentage of it, so that families are held well below what on the rolls were in such acute need that they appeared to
the government itself officially defines as the poverty level.) qualifyfor emergency assistance. The studyshowed, fur-
Furthermore,income should be distributedwithoutrequir- ther,thatasubstantialnumber of families that were not
ing that reclpients first divest themselves of their assets, as in a “critical” condition would probably have qualified for
public welfare now does, thereby pauperizing families as a supplemental assistance.
condition of sustenance. The other survey, conducted in 1961 by Mobilization for
Second, the right to Income mustbeguaranteed,or the Youth, had similar findings. The area from which its sam-
oppression of the welfare poor will not be eliminated. Be- ple was drawn, 67 square blocks on the lower East Side, is
cause benefits are conditional under the present public wel- a poor one, but by no means the poorest in New York City.
fare system, submission to arbitrary governmental power is Yet 13 per cent of thetotalsample who werenot on the
regularly madetheprice of sustenance.Peoplehave been welfare rolls reported incomes falling below the prevailing
coerced intoattending literacy classes or participating in welfare schedules for foodandrent.
medical or vocational rehabilitation regimes, on pain of hav- There is no reason to suppose thatthe discrepancy be-
ing their benefits terminated. Men are forced into labor on tween those eliglble forandthose receiving assistance has
virtually anyterms lest they forfeit their welfare aid. One narrowedmuch inthe past few years. The welfare rolls
can prize literacy,healthandwork, while still vigorously have gone up, to be sure, but so have eligibility levels. Since
opposing theright of government to compelcompliance the economic circumstances of impoverished groups in New
with these values. York have not improved appreciably in the past few years,
Condltional beneflts thus result in violations of civil lib- each such rise increases the number of people who are poten-
erties throughout the nation, and in a pervasive oppression tially eligible for some degree of assistance.
of the poor. And these violations are not less real because Even if one allows for the possibilit that family-income
the impulse leadingto them is altruistic and the agency is h
figures are grossly underestimated by t e census, the finan-
professional. If new systems of income distribution con- cia1 implications of the proposed strategy are still very
tinue to permit the professional bureaucracies to choose when great. In 1965, the monthlyaverage of personsreceiving
to give and when to withhold financial relief, the poor will cash assistance in NewYork was 490,000, atatotalcost
once again be surrendered to an arrangement in which their of $440 mdlion;the rolls have now risen above 500,000,
rights are diminished in the name of overcoming their vices. so that costs will exceed $500 million in 1966. An increase
Those who lead an attack on the welfare system must there- in the rolls of amere 20 per cent would cost an already
fore be alert to the pitfalls of inadequate but placating re- overburdened municipalitysome $100 million.
forms which give theappearance of victory to what is in Special grants: Public assistance recipients in New York
truth defeat. are also entitled to receive “nonrecurring” grants for cloth-
ing, household equipment and furniture-including washing
How much economic force can be mobilized by this machines, refrigerators, beds and bedding, tables and chairs.
strategy? This question is not easy to answer because few It hardly needs to be noted that most impoverished families
studies have been conducted of people who are not recelv- have grossly inadequate clothing and household furnishings.
ing public assistance even though they may be eligible. For The Greenleigh study, for example, found that 52 per cent
the purposes of this presentation,a few factsaboutNew of the families on public assistance lacked anythingap-
York City may be suggestive. Since practices elsewhere are proaching adequate furniture. This condition results because
generally acknowledged tobe even more restrictive, the almost nothing is spent on special grants in New York. I n
estimates of unused benefits which follow probably yield a October, 1965, a typical month, the Department of Welfare
conservative estimate of the potential force of thestrategy spent only $2.50 per recipient for heavy clothing and $1.30
set forth in this article. for household furnishings. Taken together,grants of this
THE NATION 1 MUY 2, 2966 51 1
kind amounted in 1965 to a mere $40 per person, or a total But informationalone will not suffice.Organizers will
of $20 milhon fortheentire year. Considering the real have to become advocates in order to deal effectively with
needs of families, the successful demandfor full entitle- improper rejections andterminations. The advocate’s task
ments could multiply these expenditures tenfold or more- is toappraise the circumstances of eachcase, to argueits
and that would involve the disbursement of many millions merits before welfare, to threaten legal action if satisfaction
of dollars indeed. is not given. In some cases, it will be necessary to contest
One must be cautiousin making generalizations about decisions by requestinga“fair hearing” beforetheappro-
the prospects for this strategy in any jurisdiction unless the priate state supervisory agency; it may occasionally be nec-
structure of welfare practices has been examined in some essary to sue for redress in the courts. Hearings and court
detail. Wecan, however, citeother studies conductedin actions will require lawyers, many of whom,in cities like
other places to show that New York practices are not atyp- New York, can be recruited on a voluntary basis, especially
4
ical. In Detroit, for example, Greenleigh Associates studied underthebanner of a movement to endpoverty by a
alargesample of households in a low-income district in strategy of asserting legal rights. However,most cases will
1965. Twenty per cent were already receiving assistance, but notrequireanexpert knowledge of law,but only of wel-
35 per cent more were judged to need it. Although the au- fare regulations; the rules canbelearned by laymen, in-
thors made no strict determination of the eligibility of these cluding welfare reclpients themselves (who can help to man
families underthe laws of Michigan, they believed that “information and advocacy” centers). To aid workers in 4
“largernumbers of persons were eligible than receiving.” these centers, handbooks should beprepared describing
A good many of these families didnot know that public welfare rights andthe tactics to employ in claiming them.
assistance was available; othersthoughtthey would be Advocacy must be supplemented by organized demon-
deemed ineligible; nota few were ashamed or afraid to strations to create a cllmate of militancy that wlll overcome
ask. the invidious and immobillzing attitudes which many poten-
Similardeprivationshave been shown in nation-wide tial recipients hold toward being “on welfare.” In such a (
studies. In 1963, thefederalgovernmentcarriedouta climate, many more poor people are likely to become their
survey based on a national sample of 5,500 families whose own advocates and will not need to rely on aid from organ-
benefitsunder Aid toDependentChildrenhad been ter- izers.
minated. Thirty-four per cent of these cases were officially
in need of income at the point of closing: this was true of 30 As the crisis develops, it will be important to use the
per cent of the white and 44 per cent of the Negro cases. mass mediatoinform the broader llberal communityabout 4
The chiefbasis for termination givenin local department the inefflciencies and injustices of welfare. For example, the
records was “other reasons” (i.e., otherthanimprovement system will not be able to process many new applicants
infinancialcondition, which would makedependence on because of cumbersomeandoftenunconstitutional investi-
welfare unnecessary). Upon closer examination, these “other gatory procedures (which cost 20c for everydollar dis-
reasons” turned out to be “unsuitable home” (i.e., the pres- bursed). As delays mount, so should the public demand that
ence of illegitimate children), “failure to comply with de- a simplified affidavit supplant these procedures, so that the
partmental regulations’’ or “refusal totake legal action poor may certify to their condition. If the system reacts by
against a putative father.” (Negroes were especially singled making the proof of eligibility d r e difficult, the demand I
outfor punitive action on the ground thatchildren were should be made that the Department of Health, Education
not being maintained in “suitable homes.”) The amounts of andWelfare dispatch “eligibility registrars” toenforcefed-
moneythatpeople are deprived of by these injustices are eral statutes governing local programs. And throughout the
very great. crisis, the mass media should be used to advance arguments
for a new federal income distribution program.*
In order to generate a crisis, thepoormustobtain Although new resources in organizersandfunds would
benefits which they haveforfeited.Untilnow, they have have to be developed to mount this campaign, a variety of
been inhibited from asserting claims by self-protective de- conventlonal agencies in the large cities could also be drawn
vices within the welfare system: its capacityto limit infor- uponfor help. The idea of “welfarerights”has begun to
mation,to intimidateapplicants, to demoralize recipients, attractattentlon inmany liberal circles. Anumber of or-
and arbitrarily to deny lawful claims. ganizations, partly under the aegis of the “war against pov-
Ignorance of welfare rights can be attacked through a erty,” are developing information and advocacy services for
massive educationalcampaign Brochures describing bene- low-income people [see “Poverty,Injustice andthe Wel-
fits in simple, clear language, and urging people to seek their fare State” by Richard A. Cloward and Richard M.Elman,
full entitlements, should be distributed door to door in tene- The Nation, issues of February 28 and March 71. It is not
ments and public housing projects, and deposited in stores, llkely that these organizations will directly participate in the
schools, churches and civic centers. Advertisements should presentstrategy, for obvious political reasons. But whether
be placed in newspapers; spotannouncements should be they participateor not, they constitute a growing network
madeon radio.Leaders of social, religious, fraternaland of resources to which people can be referredfor help in
political groups in the slums should also be enlisted tore-
cruit the eligible to the rolls. The fact that the campaign is *In public statements, it would be important to distinguish be-
intended to inform people of their legal rights under a gov- tweentheIncomedistributmgfunction of publicwelfare,which
ernyent program,thatit is a civic educationdrive, will should be replaced by new federalmeasures,andmanyother
welfare functlons, such as fostercareandadoptionservices for
lend it legitimacy. children, which are not at issuein this strategy.
512 THE NATION / M a y 2, 1966
establishing and maintaining entitlements. In the final the difference between programs to redress individual griev-
analysis, it does not matter who helps people to get on the ancesand a large-scale social-action campaign for national
rolls or to get additional entitlements, so long as the job is policy reform.
done.
Since this plan deals withproblems of great immediacy Movements that depend on involving masses of poor
In the lives of the poor, it should motivate some of them to peoplehavegenerally failed in America. Whywould the
involve themselves in regular organizational activities. Wel- proposed strategy to engage the poor succeed?
fare recipients, chiefly ADC mothers, are already forming First, this plan promises immediate economic benefits.
federations, committees and councils in cities across the na- This is a point of some importance because, whereas Amer-
tion; in Boston,New York, Newark, Cleveland, Chicago, ica’s poor have not been moved in any number by radical
Detroit and Los Angeles, to mention a few. Such groups politicalideologies,they have sometimesbeenmovedby
typically focus on obtaining full entitlements for existing their economic interests. Since radical movements in Amer-
recipients rather than on recruiting new recipients, and they ica have rarely been able to provide visible economic in-
do not yet comprise a national movement. But their very centives, they have usually failed to secure mass participa-
existence attests to a growing readiness among ghetto resi- tion of any kind. The conservative ”business unionism” of
dents to act against public welfare. organized labor is explained by this fact, for membership
To generate an expresslypolitical movement, cadres of enlarged only as unionism paidoff in material benefits.
aggressive organizers would have to come fromthe civil Union leaders have understood that their strength derives
rights movement and the churches, from militant low- almost entirely from their capacity to provide economic
income organizations like those formed by the Industrial rewards to members. Although leaders have increasingly
Areas Foundation (that IS, by Saul Alinsky), and from other acted in political spheres, their influence has been directed
groups on the Left. These activists should be quick to see chiefly to matters of governmental policy affecting the well-
MOSCOW CONGRESS