43 million people in the United States now live below the poverty line, twice as many as it was fifty years ago. 1.5 million children are homeless, three times more than during the Great Depression the 1930s. Entire families are tossed from one place to another to work unstable jobs that barely allow them to survive. In the historically poor Appalachian mining region, people rely on food stamps for food. In Los Angeles, the number of homeless people has increased dramatically. In the poorest neighborhoods, community organizations offer small wooden huts to those who no longer have a roof.
