Today, more than 35.9 million Americans (12.1% of the U.S. population), including 12.1 million children, are considered to live in poverty, and the number grows at an average rate of nearly 1 million per year (ôWar on Povertyö).
The question for many is ôHow successful is public assistance at reducing poverty?ö Is the War on Poverty being won, or is money just being thrown at a problem that cannot be fixed by money? This paper will examine the issues on both sides of the controversy and elucidate the real problems at the heart of poverty to determine whether public assistance is working and how to make it work best.
The best example of the success of public assistance programs is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which had nearly 77,000 poor residents, both white and black, comprising 13% of the cityÆs population when Community Action Program (CAP) funds were first distributed as part of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 (Heineman 867, ôCAP Servicesö). With the motto ôGiving a hand, not a handout,ö a network of local Community Action Agencies began providing public assistance to the poorest Americans (ôCAP Servicesö). The first of ten cities to receive CAP funds, Pittsburgh gained the attention of Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) director Sargent Shriver, who praised the cityÆs ôpolitical, labor, and religious leadership for creating the best CAP in Americaö and hailed Pittsburg as a national model for promoting ôthe maximum feasible participationö of its citizens in fighting poverty (Heineman 867).
An analysis of PittsburghÆs situation shows that its success was in part due to the cooperation and interworkings of a variety of agencies and groupsùacademics, blacks, labor leaders, civil liberties attorneys, and Roman Catholic clergyùwhose efforts supported those of the OEO in improving housing, job training, and education for the poor (Heineman 867). This was the first signal to interested parties that...