By Erin McClam, Staff Writer, NBC News

Two decades after President Bill Clinton promised to "end welfare as we know it," Americans blame government handouts for persistent poverty in the United States more than any other single factor, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Thursday.

Given a list of eight factors and asked to choose the one most responsible for the continuing problem of poverty, 24 percent of respondents in the poll chose "too much government welfare that prevents initiative."

Whether Americans are too dependent on government was a flashpoint of the presidential campaign last year, and shrinking government has been a focus of the Tea Party movement, which has risen since the election of President Barack Obama.

"Lack of job opportunities" was the second most popular answer, at 18 percent, followed by "lack of good educational opportunities" and "breakdown of families," with 13 percent apiece.

The other four options in the poll, in descending order, were "lack of work ethic," "lack of government funding," "drugs" and "racial discrimination." Eight percent of respondents said that all eight factors were equally responsible.

The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll asked a similar question about poverty in September 1994, during a congressional campaign that focused in part on personal responsibility and the role of welfare.

That poll asked about poverty "in our nation’s inner cities," and did not include welfare as a possible response. The leading answer was "lack of job opportunities," at 31 percent, followed by "breakdown of families," at 23 percent.

Between the two polls, the shape of country’s approach to fighting poverty has changed markedly — particularly after welfare itself was overhauled in 1996 under Clinton.

The number of families receiving cash welfare has dropped by more than half, from about 5 million in the early 1990s to about 2 million in 2011, according to the federal government.

At the same time, the number of Americans receiving food stamps has soared, from about 27 million in 1994 to more than 46 million last year, with a spike in the past few years, after the recession struck.

The recent poll sampled 1,000 adults from May 30 through June 2, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

Related:

Poll: Health care law's unpopularity reaches new highs

Ax hovers over food stamp program as costs grow

Financial strain pushes many veterans to the breaking point

Spencer Platt / Getty Images file

People are handed bread during a food distribution by the Food Bank of the Southern Tier Mobile Food Pantry on June 20, 2012 in Oswego, N.Y.

Across the country, schools are getting out for the summer. And while most students will leave their classrooms happy for the break, some parents will be fretting about how to feed their children without meals provided through schools.

The hot summer months bring a fresh challenge for food banks in the nation’s poorest and hungriest counties: How to make sure millions of children get regular, healthy meals when they aren’t in school.

“The time of year in the United States (that) an American child is most likely to go hungry is the summertime, and the principal reason for that is school is out,” said Kevin Concannon, undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services with the USDA.

That often means summer vacations – not the winter holidays – are the busiest time of year for food banks, because they are struggling to fill the gap for children who are not getting regular meals through federally funded school lunch programs and other services.

“We know hunger, just generally across the board, is a bigger problem in summer,” said Celia Cole, chief executive of the Texas Food Bank Network, which represents regional food banks across the state.

Texas is home to six of the 10 counties in the country that had the highest rate of childhood food insecurity in 2011, according to data to be released next week by Feeding America, a nationwide network of food banks. All told, nearly 1.9 million Texas children, or 27.6 percent of kids in the state, were living in food-insecure households in 2011, according to Feeding America.

Many food banks also see summer as a time to meet their most important need.

“There is just nothing better that we could be doing than feeding a child,” said Eric Cooper, chief executive of the San Antonio Food Bank.

That food bank serves 16 southwest Texas counties including Zavala County, where nearly half of county’s children were food-insecure in 2011, according to Feeding America.

A household is considered to be food-insecure if at times they had difficulty providing enough food for everyone in the family because of a lack of resources.

The San Antonio food bank and its partners will distribute more than 300,000 meals to kids this summer through the government’s summer food program. Cooper said that will serve about 10 percent of the kids who get meals when school is in session.

“It doesn’t scratch the surface of the kids that are fed during the school year,” he said.

True nationally too
That’s true on a national level as well. About 21.4 million children receive free or reduced-price lunches at school on a typical school day, according to the USDA. Some of the nation’s neediest kids also receive breakfast, snacks, dinner and even backpacks of weekend food through school and after-school programs.

But last summer, only about 3 million kids were fed through the federal government’s Summer Food Service Program, which provides meals to kids though school and community organizations, according to the USDA’s Concannon.

Concannon and others say kids have trouble getting to feeding sites when school buses aren’t running, and parents aren’t always even aware that the programs exist.

The groups that host the programs, in turn, are only paid by how many meals they serve. If turnout is low, it’s hard to justify the expense. Also, the program is mainly available only to high-need areas where half the kids were receiving free- or reduced-lunch during the school year.

Experts say that when kids don’t have regular, nutritious meals, they learn more slowly and have more behavioral problems. They also can develop unhealthy habits, such as binge eating, that puts them at risk for obesity and diabetes.

Kids who are hungry may take desperate measures to get through the summer, such as purposely failing classes so they can go to summer school and be assured of a meal, said the San Antonio Food Bank’s Cooper.

“For communities like ours that struggle with graduation rates, I think the power of nourishing the child can just help in so many ways,” he said.

To reach more kids, some food banks and community centers have tried to find innovative ways to bring food closer to kids.

Sonya Morgan-Wallace will not have to go far to get lunch for her four kids this summer. The Oak Meadow Villa community center, located in her San Antonio apartment complex, will serve one hot meal a day on site to her kids, who range in age from 7 to 17 years old. The meals are provided for free through the San Antonio Food Bank, and funded by the USDA’s summer program.

The program has helped sustain her family as they’ve struggled with unemployment and other setbacks.

Six years ago, Morgan-Wallace was making $15 an hour, with health insurance, working in a doctor’s office.

“We were self-sufficient,” she said.

But she said she had to leave that job when her now 9-year-old daughter, who has cerebral palsy, needed extensive surgery and care. Her husband, meanwhile, had been out of work after losing a job doing transport at a hospital and suffering from a cornea disease. He’s received one cornea transplant and is looking for part-time work while he recuperates and awaits another transplant.

The family also suffered a tragedy last year, when their 12-year-old son died after having an asthma attack.

They rely on the community center for the summer meals and other services, including the emergency food pantry.

“I’m so thankful that they have this program,” Morgan-Wallace said.

Food banks innovate
In other parts of Texas, food banks and community groups also are trying more innovative ways to reach kids during the summer.

About six years ago, officials at the Boys and Girls Club of Pharr, Texas, began noticing that many kids were coming to their after-school programs hungry, so they started offering free, hot dinner and a snack. Stephanie Leal, the club’s director of operations, said they noticed a change in behavior, attitude and focus.

“Kids were having a better time because they were fed,” Leal said.

The program will continue through the summer, offering free breakfast and lunch to about 640 kids who participate in summer activities, plus any other children who show up and want a meal.

Summer meal programs will help, but it won’t be enough to meet all the need in Hidalgo County, where Pharr is located.

“That’s certainly an important component, but when it comes right down to it, most of (the kids) are being fed at home,” said Terri Drefke, chief executive of the Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley.

The food bank serves three Texas counties, including Hidalgo, where around four in 10 children were living in food-insecure households in 2011, according to Feeding America.

Drefke said they find that most effective way to keep kids fed is to get food directly to families, in churches and community centers that are within walking distance of people in need.

“Our major focus is reaching the family, and trying to make the families accountable for feeding families,” she said.

Editor's note: This report was produced as part of a collaboration with InPlainSight.nbcnews.com, TheGrio.com, NBCLatino.com, msnbc.com, and NBC's owned television stations.

Jim Seida / NBC News

Nora Gonzalez, right, is unable to work as a caregiver because of criminal justice debt she has been unable to pay since being convicted of passing a bad check in 2005. Here, she assists Cleo Nimietz, her boyfriend's mother, who suffers from sarcoma, in the latter's Federal Way, Wash., home.

By Lisa Riordan Seville and Hannah Rappleye, NBC News 

Cash-strapped cities and states increasingly are trying to tap a previously overlooked pot of money – uncollected fines, fees and other costs imposed by civil and criminal courts – in order to help them balance their books.

And when people don’t pay these court-ordered debts, some local officials have not been shy about tossing them in jail, leading to the creation of modern-day “debtor’s prisons” full of poor offenders, advocates say.

“The system doesn’t really work when the courts, instead of administering justice, are debt collection agencies,” said Roopal Patel, co-author of a 2010 report on the issue by the Brennan Center for Justice. “If a court is preoccupied with fundraising and turning toward the poorest people going through the system to raise money, it really undermines the function of the courts.”

While there is no comprehensive data on how many states jail citizens for court-related debt, several organizations, including the Brennan Center, have raised alarms over what they say is the widespread practice of locking up poor offenders in violation of federal law, citing Supreme Court rulings that someone can only be incarcerated for “willfully” refusing to pay.

James Robert Nason could be a case study for the court-debt-prison cycle.

In 1999, when he was 18, he pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary in Spokane, Wash. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail, community service, and ordered to pay $735 in court costs, attorney fees and restitution. That debt began to accrue 12 percent annual interest from the day of his sentencing.

Nason didn’t finish the community service, and didn’t keep up with the payments. As a result he served more than 120 days behind bars over several years, despite arguing that he couldn’t afford to pay. At one hearing, he said he was both homeless and unemployed.

In 2006, as he faced 120 more days in jail, his court-appointed appellate  lawyer argued that Spokane’s self-described “auto jail,” which put Nason behind bars without a hearing whenever he failed to pay, violated his rights to due process.

In 2010, the Washington State Supreme Court agreed. Before imposing sanctions for failure to pay court debt, “a trial court must inquire into the offender’s ability to pay,” the court wrote in its decision in Nason’s case. Spokane court officials declined to comment, citing pending lawsuits.

Certain counties in Florida, Ohio, Georgia and elsewhere also routinely imprison people who fail to keep up with court debt, according to the American Civil Liberties Union and the Brennan Center. In practice, advocates said, courts often fail to inquire about a defendant’s ability to pay until after they’re incarcerated.

Trying to collect
Even states that do not regularly jail debtors may use the threat of jail to go after fees and fines -- with consequences that can play out for years.

Jim Seida / NBC News

Nora Gonzalez must pay about $3,000 in outstanding fines, fees and interest payments, then wait five years before she can have her record expunged and become re-licensed in her former occupation as a caregiver.

Nora Gonzalez, a 40-year-old Seattle resident, discovered how persistent court-ordered debt can be after she was convicted in 2005 of passing a bad check. She served a few days in jail at the time and was sentenced to make payments to the court.

“What I paid back to the courts was close to $600,” she said. “I thought I was finished, but I guess I wasn’t.”

Last year, she found she owed more than $3,000 in restitution, which has now gone to collections. She must pay her outstanding fines and fees, then wait five years, before she can have her record expunged and become re-licensed in her former occupation as a caregiver. Without a job, she struggles to pay it. But until she pays it, she cannot work.

“If I had the money I would definitely go pay,” she said. “I feel it weighing over me. It’s holding me back.”

In what critics see as an example of collection efforts run amok, Philadelphia in 2010 began to collect court-related debt dating to 1971, after a series in the Philadelphia Inquirer revealed the city had failed to collect an estimated $1.5 billion.

A review by the courts determined that an estimated 400,000 residents owed the city money – cash that Philadelphia, facing a $1.35 billion budget shortfall over five years, sorely needs.

First Judicial District President Judge Pamela Dembe defended the program, which critics say has been problematic because of often incomplete payment information, making it difficult --and in some cases impossible -- to prove whether the debt has been paid.

“When, and only when, an individual is convicted of a crime, there are state required fees and court costs which the defendant must pay,” she said in a written statement. “If the defendant doesn’t pay, law-abiding taxpayers must pay these costs.”

Critics argue that that debt and aggressive collection efforts can prevent poor defendants, many of whom lack legal representation, from contributing to society.

“We’re talking about saddling a population that has nothing with debt, and then telling them they’re supposed to successfully re-enter society and be productive,” said Rebecca Vallas, an attorney with Community Legal Services, which provides legal assistance to poor Philadelphia residents.

'Stunted my growth'
Tyeisha Gamble, 26, who lives on Philadelphia’s north side with her 2-year-old son and her boyfriend, said she has been trying to extricate herself from the system for seven years.

In 2006 she was convicted of simple assault, a misdemeanor, after an altercation with a co-worker. Included in her criminal conviction -- her first and only -- were about $500 in court-ordered fees and fines.

She said she did her best to pay her debt while attending school, racking up more debt with student loans, but fell behind. In 2011, she earned her BA in fashion marketing from the Philadelphia Institute of Art. But Gamble said her criminal record, which can’t be expunged unless she pays her debt, has made it nearly impossible to land a job in her field.

“It’s stunted my growth,” Gamble said of the $300 she still owes the court. “I’ve put out so many applications, and sometimes I get as far as the interview part, or I actually landed the job, and then got the job taken away from me because of my record.”

Compounding the problem, in Pennsylvania, as in most states, criminal justice debt can also lead to civil penalties, including suspension of drivers’ licenses, garnishment of wages and loss of public benefits.

Sanctions like jail or suspended licenses do not always bring money in, however, so some courts are looking to private companies to help. States such as California and New Jersey have passed laws that allow private vendors to help bring in outstanding fines.

In these instances, courts and municipalities contract with traditional debt-collection agencies, often the same firms that collect on credit card or health care debt. The companies, in turn, often tack additional one-time or monthly service fees onto debtors’ bills.

Other companies have moved beyond collections work to become a part of the criminal justice system itself by overseeing probation. Over the past 15 years, these for-profit probation companies have emerged as important players in court systems across the country, particularly in the South.

Judicial Correction Services, a probation company operating widely in Georgia, Alabama and Florida, has placed advertisements in publications geared at municipalities promising increased revenue, streamlined court dockets and reduced expense. “Unpaid fines are nearly eliminated,” the ad promises.

The role of private companies in enforcing court-ordered financial penalties has led to legal challenges in Alabama, Georgia and Washington, among others.

The suits allege that the companies, which charge monthly supervision fees and additional fees for monitoring, drug testing and other services on top of court fees and fines, routinely seek to incarcerate offenders who fall behind on their payments. In a ruling last summer on a suit involving Judicial Correction Services, an Alabama judge said that the probation system in one town had led to a “debtor’s prison.” The company said it was merely complying with a state mandate to collect on court-ordered fines and fees.

Judicial Corrections Services did not respond to requests from NBC News for comment.

Those skeptical of the for-profit model worry that private companies are more focused on the bottom line than the public good.

Dale Allen, chief probation officer for Athens County, Ga., said that although the county’s publicly run probation program charges monthly supervision fees, probation officers there are less focused on collecting fees than a for-profit company may be.

“I’m not a collection agency,” Allen said in a recent interview. “I want to be a compliance agency.”

“Financial compliance is part of the sentence,” he added. “But there’s a difference between not being able to pay, and not wanting to pay.”

The reporting for this story was supported in part through a grant from the nonprofit Open Society Institute, which says its mission is to "build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens."

More In Plain Sight coverage 

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Courtesy Adam Legg

Navy veteran Adam Legg said a long jobless spell after tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan left him feeling hopeless and led him to "go weeks without smiling, walking around like a shadow, like you're not there."

By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

Hundreds of thousands of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have been flying home to a fresh fox hole: A debt crater that’s sucking in entire military families and could be helping to fuel the veteran suicide crisis.

Courtesy Adam Legg

"I was a watch commander where I had 25 to 30 people working beneath me, in charge of millions of dollars worth of ammunitions, weapons, vehicles, computers," said Adam Legg, a Navy veteran. "And then when I come home, not only can I not find a job, I can't take care of my family."

A bad job market, a long backlog for federal disability benefits, and occasionally unwise spending habits have been conspiring to strain the financial and mental health of many veterans, experts say.

"We keep hearing of suicides rising. How much pressure do you think one person can take?" asks Christopher Fitzpatrick, deputy director of VeteransPlus, a nonprofit that has fielded more than 170,000 calls from ex-service members with imminent financial concerns. 

"No one wants to talk about the fact that there are other reasons, besides PTSD, for suicide at 2 in the morning. You know how we know? We have an online form people use to contact us, and we get those emails — they’re sent at 1, 2, 3, 4 in the morning. People are reaching out, literally: 'Can you please help me? I’m losing everything.'"

It's a problem that could get even worse in coming years, with more than one million service members expected to make the transition to civilian life.

Navy veteran Adam Legg, 30, ran into financial trouble following two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. A jobless and hopeless period that began after his service separation in 2009 led him to "go weeks without smiling, walking around like a shadow, like you're not there," he said.

He couldn't secure a job at his local McDonald's or at dozens of other companies to which he applied in Central Florida. With a wife, Melissa, and a young daughter to feed, he maxed out a credit card that he was able to pay off with money he'd saved during his eight years in the Navy. 

'Very, very dark place'
But bigger bills — like the mortgage — went untouched. After losing his Florida home to foreclosure and two cars to repossession, Legg said he began to consider suicide. 

"When you feel like you can’t take care of your family, feed them, shelter them, it’s a very, very dark place. A feeling of uselessness that maybe they would be better off if you’re not around," Legg said. 

"We've been below the poverty line, absolutely. I was a watch commander where I had 25 to 30 people working beneath me, in charge of millions of dollars worth of ammunitions, weapons, vehicles, computers. And then when I come home, not only can I not find a job, I can’t take care of my family. If it weren’t for my wife, if she was not supportive the way she was, I really don’t think I’d be here right now."

According to VeteransPlus, fewer than 20 percent of their clients have stockpiled a six-month savings cushion while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan despite untaxed, hazardous-duty wages that fattened paychecks.

Some returning veterans planned to live off their credit cards until landing civilian work, even though the veteran unemployment rate is two points higher than the civilian rate, Fitzpatrick said. Some expected to support themselves via VA benefits, apparently unaware that average wait time for that money approaches — and sometimes eclipses — one year.  

The Pentagon urges military personnel and their families to bank some money while in the service. This year, during “Military Saves Week," service members were reminded to “set a goal, make a place and save automatically.” Service members also can take advantage of the Thrift Savings Plan, a federally sponsored retirement savings and investment program resembling a civilian 401(k).

But even some of those who build up savings while serving abroad find their stash exhausted after buying gifts for family and plucking shiny toys, like motorcycles, for themselves when they come home from war, according to VeteransPlus.

"We don’t like using the word ‘entitlement,’ but often that’s what it really is for these young men and women who feel like they’ve served their country and are coming home with some money and ‘now it’s my turn,’" Fitzpatrick said. 

Move west, young man
For Legg, the way out was to escape Florida, not his life. He and his wife packed up their daughter, dog, cat and remaining belongings and recently drove to the Pacific Northwest. Two things lured the Legg family to Baker City, Ore.: a lower cost of living and its proximity to a military-friendly college, Eastern Oregon University. 

He's now a full-time student, living off of his GI Bill and his VA benefits for a diagnosed anxiety disorder (not PTSD), damaged knees, a bad back, and an injured left arm — combat baggage that requires daily Vicodin consumption. They live in a small, rented house.

Melissa was scheduled to deliver their second child last Wednesday. Soon, Legg plans to file for bankruptcy. 

Courtesy Adam Legg

Navy veteran Adam Legg and his family moved to Oregon from Florida.

"I have no choice. We're at that rock bottom line," he said. "I'm not the only one. Of the (veteran) friends I've kept up with, most are struggling." 

Many veterans panic when they face getting kicked out of their homes, or must decide between buying food or diapers, said Kristy Kauffman, executive director of Code of Support, an Alexandria, Va.-based nonprofit that proclaims to "bridge the gap between civilian and military America."

"It happens far too often. We get at least one call, email, or referral every week," she said.

Kaufmann agrees with Fitzpatrick that poverty is one factor behind the veteran suicide rate, adding: "It does increase the risk." 

"The vast majority of those who have worn the uniform," she said, "are imbued with a strong sense of mission and pride in 'getting it done.' For those who have trouble reintegrating into the civilian world — whether due to physical or mental health issues, or lack of employment opportunities — it's that loss of mission that seems most debilitating."

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David Friedman / NBC News

Tara Simons, left, and her daughter Alexis talk in their kitchen in West Hartford, Conn.

By Allison Linn, Staff Writer, NBC News
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – Like many Americans who move to the suburbs, Tara Simons came to West Hartford because she wanted her daughter to grow up in a nice, safe place with good schools.

Her fall from a more financially secure suburban life to one among the working poor also happened for the same reason it’s happened to so many others. She had a bout of unemployment and couldn’t find a new job that paid very well.

As a single mother, that’s made it hard to hold on to the suburban life that is, in her mind, key to making sure her daughter gets off to the right start.

“I’m basically paying to say I live in West Hartford,” she said. “It is worth it.”

It’s a struggle that many Americans bruised by the weak economy can relate to.

The number of suburban residents living in poverty rose by nearly 64 percent between 2000 and 2011, to about 16.4 million people, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of 95 of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas. That’s more than double the rate of growth for urban poverty in those areas.

“I think we have an outdated perception of where poverty is and who it is affecting,” said Elizabeth Kneebone, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of the research. “We tend to think of it as a very urban and a very rural phenomenon, but it is increasingly suburban.”

Simons’ situation is complicated by the fact she’s a single mom. Poverty and financial insecurity among single moms is far higher than for households headed by single dads or two parents.

The rate of poverty among single mothers actually improved dramatically through the 1990s, thanks to a strong economy, more favorable tax breaks and the success of so-called welfare-to-work programs. But two recessions and years of high unemployment erased many of those gains.

Moving for a better life
Simons and her daughter Alexis moved from Massachusetts to West Hartford eight years ago because Simons had a job with a local rug retailer.

Alexis, now 14, made friends, became an avid lacrosse player and is now a high school freshman.

The picturesque suburb, with its well-kept homes and an upscale town center, has a median household income of $80,061, more than double that of Hartford itself, which is $29,107 according to the Census Bureau.

And yet the number of people needing help has skyrocketed in recent years, said Susan Huleatt, the human services manager for West Hartford.

About five years ago, Huleatt said a mobile van began coming to town once a month to distribute fresh produce to people in need. Now, four vans come each month, and more than 200 people sometimes line up for the food. That’s in addition to the city’s own food pantry.

David Friedman / NBC News

Simons chooses an outfit for a job interview.

Simons expected to work for the rug retailer until retirement, but about a year ago she quit after disputes with one of the two owners. She had never had trouble finding a new job and was unprepared for how hard it would be.

“I know that part of it is my fault and I absolutely take responsibility for that, but I never in a million years thought that I would (be in this position),” she said.

Simons went without work or unemployment benefits for five months before she got her current job about six months ago. The position, as a customer service representative for a local health products company, pays $14 an hour. That leaves her with take-home pay of about $460 to $480 a week, plus about $127 a week in child support. Simons has full custody of her daughter.

She is behind on her electric and gas bills and owes nearly $400 to her daughter’s club lacrosse team, which has her worried that her daughter won’t be able to play this spring.

Like many working poor people, she has fallen into a debt spiral. She took out an $800 payday loan, and she estimates that it will end up costing her $1,600 to pay it back. She also has several hundred dollars in credit card debt and has worked to pay off hundreds of dollars in bank overdraft fees. She’s sold jewelry for cash.

She and Alexis had to leave the house they were renting after she lost her job and a roommate. She got one-time aid from the city’s crisis fund to help with the down payment for her new, cheaper apartment. Still, the $1125 rent eats up more than half of her monthly take-home pay.

She went on Medicaid after being unable to afford health insurance.

Simons said it’s been hard, and sometimes embarrassing, to accept help.

“The thing is, I don’t want it,” she said. “I want to pay my bills.”

Hoping for a break
Simons has continued to apply for jobs daily, hoping to land a higher-paying position with health insurance she can afford.

One morning in early March, she got a break.  A rug retailer about 40 miles from West Hartford offered her a job interview.

Excited and anxious, Simons carefully picked out her clothes and fretted about her hair. She was too nervous to eat.

A few hours before the interview, her boyfriend Phil Volonis stopped by to give Simons some gas money. Her 2005 Chevrolet Cavalier had broken down the day before, so he had lent her a car.

David Friedman / NBC News

Simons takes cover from the rain as she heads into a job interview.

Later that evening, Simons walked out of the interview confident that she had done well, but still not sure if she had gotten the job.

Driving home in the pouring rain, Simons said that while living in West Hartford has been good for her and her daughter, she dreams of moving somewhere warmer.

She mused that perhaps Alexis will go to University of Florida – which has a good women’s lacrosse team - and she could move down there, too.

But for now, she said, she would do almost anything to keep her daughter in this town.

“The kid’s been through enough,” Simons said. “So, I just want her to feel as safe and settled as possible, and I want her to know that she can count on her mom to keep her where she is and keep promises.”

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Media coverage of poverty: Why 'so little'?

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Front page from part three of the eight-day Children in Poverty series from the Springfield News-Leader in Missouri.

By Barbara Raab, Senior Producer, NBC News

"Why is there so little coverage of Americans who are struggling with poverty?"

So begins a thought-provoking essay by Dan Froomkin in Nieman Reports, a respected publication that covers journalism, raising a subject that is getting more ink than usual these days.

In his essay, Froomkin examines what he sees as paltry coverage of America's poor. Citing research from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, Froomkin reports that poverty coverage takes up less than one percent of the news content in the nation's major news outlets.  

He and others suggest some possible reasons ("neither advertisers nor readers are likely to demand more coverage, so neither will editors," for one) along with a wealth of ideas that could make compelling stories for readers and viewers.

Froomkin's piece begins with an example of what he'd like to see more of: a major series that ran on the front page of the Springfield News-Leader in Missouri's Ozarks for five consecutive days, focusing each day on a specific problem facing children in Missouri's Ozarks region: "No home," "No shoes," "No food," "No car," and "No peace." It's outstanding work, well worth a read.

Froomkin's article led the public editor (a/k/a ombudsman) of The New York Times to raise questions about her own newspaper's coverage of poverty, and to let readers know she'd be digging further into that question in coming weeks. Among her initial observations: The Times reporter who has covered poverty policy for decades thinks the paper "has made an extraordinary commitment" to the subject, but some advocates for the poor beg to differ. We'll be watching for more of this discussion in the weeks ahead.

This past Sunday, some of us woke up to a lively viewer call-in segment on C-Span’s Washington Journal about hunger in America, and about media coverage of it. A lot of callers had strong feelings about the issue, and about what should be done to attack the poverty problems in the country (as did almost all of the hundreds of commenters on our first blog post for the In Plain Sight project here).

Here is more of what the In Plain Sight team has been watching and reading this week:

• The Philadelphia Inquirer reports Philly has the highest rate of deep poverty – that’s income below half the poverty line – of big cities in America. That's perhaps not a surprise, because Philadelphia also has the highest poverty rate – 28.4 percent – of any of America’s biggest cities.
• The Washington Post had a terrific read on a Rhode Island town that relies on food stamps to survive. Be sure to check out the accompanying SNAP Map breaking down food stamp distribution by state.
• Is hunger in America a “myth”? A former Montana state legislator makes the argument in an op-ed in the Great Falls Tribune.
• And here’s one economist’s argument against raising the minimum wage.

What are you reading and watching on poverty in America? And what are your thoughts about media coverage of poverty? 

By Barbara Raab, Senior Producer, NBC News

 “Forget the dreams, how do we make it to tomorrow?” asks Ben,  a husband and father who’s been laid off from his job at the credit branch of a car company, has fallen behind on the mortgage and is struggling to provide the basics for his family.

Ben is one of the distressed Americans trying to keep his head above water in “American Winter,” a documentary produced by Emmy award-winning filmmakers Joe and Harry Gantz, and debuting tonight on Monday, March 18^th on HBO. It tells the story of the worst recession of our lifetime through the eyes of eight families in Portland, Oregon during one winter.

Working with the nonprofit organization 211info in Portland, the Gantz’s were given full access to monitor and record calls from families calling the emergency hotline for help. They followed some of these callers over the next several months.

NBC News talked with Joe and Harry Gantz about their film, and about what they hope to achieve with their firsthand view of the struggle millions of Americans are experiencing.

NBC News: The tag line to the film is “a documentary about a country in search of its promise. “ What do you mean by that?

Joe Gantz: The promise is that America is the land of opportunity. The American dream is that anybody can make it in this country,  that we’re all having equal opportunity, and if you try hard, you work hard, and you’re talented, you can achieve a comfortable life. I think that is slipping away in a lot of respects. It’s becoming harder and harder for somebody to raise a family. The wages for many Americans even if they’re working fulltime and overtime,  they’re working at very low paid jobs and they’re not able to support a family.  The families we followed in this film were comfortable three or four years ago, many of them were solidly middle class, they never envisioned being in this situation. As [Portland Commissioner] Nick Fish says in the film, we’re in a ‘one strike and you’re out’ economy, and so these families find themselves falling over the cliff, struggling in ways they never envisioned.

NBC News: Were you shocked at what you found when you really got into their homes and their lives and their stories?

Harry Gantz: I wouldn’t say we were shocked, but it certainly affected us to see the level of desperation and how it affects everybody emotionally. It’s not just trying to find a job, or trying to navigate the social services. That’s a full time job in itself. But it’s the emotional impact. Hearing these kids feel like they don’t know what their futures are going to be. This is the first generation of families that feels like it’s not going to get better. And because of the lack of decent social services and decent paying jobs, people feel like, the American dream, as one of the subjects in our film says, is [just] turning the heat on, turning the lights on.

Joe:  We could listen to all the [211info] calls coming in. And there are hundreds of calls every day.  And that is overwhelming. You’re just inundated by the level of desperation in this country. The people who aren’t in that situation often don’t know what 211is and don’t know what it’s like for the people who are in that situation. But you listen to those phone calls, “how do I get my heat on?”, “how do I get help for getting my electricity turned off?”, “how do I get help with my rent? , “how do I get food”? It’s just call after call after call.

NBC News: In some ways, the people you got to know are in plain sight. And yet, people who are not in that situation don’t seem to be aware of them.

Joe: There may be a bit of willful ignorance, on the one hand, by the people who are making it. But on the other hand, the people who are struggling are so ashamed. Our society says if you work hard and you’re talented, you push and go by the rules, you will succeed. And they’re not succeeding, they’re struggling mightily, so they are ashamed. They don’t tell people. We were working with families, and the children’s friends would come over, and I’d meet the family of that child that was visiting, and I’d explain what we were working on, and they’d say, “We’re in the same boat.” But they wouldn’t talk to each other because the parents had so much shame, they wouldn’t want to tell what was going on in their households. The shame keeps everyone extremely isolated.

Harry: The fear of destitution is inherent in everybody. So it’s in everybody’s best interests in this country to have a strong middle class, and to help people ascend from poverty.

Joe: The way people ignore this vast chunk of America that is falling off the financial cliff is by using these derogatory stereotypes about people who need help. They say they’re lazy, they made their own mistakes, if they were capable they would be succeeding, they should pull themselves up on their own. But when you follow these families as we did, over months, and you live with them and walk in their shoes and see what they’re dealing with, these families are all extremely hard-working, they’re loving families, and they want nothing more than to get back on their feet and be a contributing member of society.

NBC News: When you talk about help, what is your answer? Is it to put more money into the traditional safety net, or something else?

Harry: Whether it’s from taxpayers, or secular social services, or religious social services, it takes all of those three in order to deal with this problem. That’s the short term solution. Of course the longer term solution is a living wage job and a safety net that if you have a bump in the road and your kid gets sick or you lose your job, that there’s a net that society provides to help you get back on your feet.

Joe: And not just a net that helps you barely survive, not just a safety net that allows you not to starve. But a safety net that really helps you get back to where you once were so you can contribute once again.

Harry: There’s such a backlash right now about anything the government is doing.  [Poor people] have been demonized to the point where it’s better just to cut government spending and “good luck, we’re all on our own, we’ll make it that way, leave me alone.” There are people in our film who felt that, and then found themselves in this situation and suddenly they had so much more insight and compassion for people in this position. What I learned is that no parent is perfect – most of these people got in this situation through no fault of their own. But even if it was their fault, and they made a bad decision – do the children deserve to suffer? No.

Joe: When the children suffer, the repercussions last for 20 or 30 years. They don’t graduate from high school, they don’t get a good job, they can wind up in prison – and the repercussions and costs for those kids go on and on.

NBC News: Do you feel after doing this project that there’s some takeaway that’s optimistic or some reason for hope?

Joe: What’s not depressing is spending time with these families. And seeing how their backs are against the wall, and seeing how these families come together because they have no one else to rely on. Most of these families don’t have financial help through their circle of friends or family. They have this core of love for each other and they’re determined to get through it. When you’re in a low paying job that takes a tremendous amount of your time, it takes a tremendous amount of time to track down social services, they don’t just come to your door and hand it to you. You spend so much time just calling and going to places and seeing what you can get, so it’s difficult. The difficulties of being on the financial edge are unimaginable if you haven’t been there. And yet these families have this much love for each other and this much struggle to keep going and be positive and keep their hopes up. The human spirit is something I’m optimistic about on an individual basis.

Harry: I feel the same way as the families do. If you’re not at least optimistic, what are your children going to say? They’re going to feel like they’re doomed. Part of the American spirit is to be optimistic and if you’re not optimistic, it’s hard to get up in the morning and go on in that situation. This film is advocating for not cutting social services. The system can’t take any more.

Joe: Demonstrations are good too! People have to get together and show, this is the majority of this country.  And if by putting these faces in front of the public rids the shame that’s associated with being poor,  that might empower more poor people to advocate for themselves.

Spencer Platt / Getty Images file

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Camden, N.J., is the most impoverished city in the United States

By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News

Camden was not always America’s poorest, most crime-ridden city, with scores of open-air drug markets driving children indoors and property values to bedrock lows. Yet when the New Jersey city’s collapse came, it was stark and complete. Civic mismanagement, soaring crime rates, and the flight of business all contributed to Camden’s precipitous decline, the city a victim of industrial forces that shaped the 20th century and left residents stranded. Surrounded by affluent suburbs, Camden shows an ugly face of America that many would rather ignore.

How bad is the crime problem?

Camden had the highest crime rate of any city in the country in 2011, according to a review of FBI data by CQ Press. It’s not just the number, but the desperation and gruesomeness of the crimes that is startling. A mother who decapitated her 2-year-old son and a man who killed a 6-year-old boy accounted for but two of the city’s record number of murders in 2012. At the same time, the drug problem has continued to grow, with an estimated 175 open-air drug markets scattered across the crumbling city. Now, officials are planning to disband the more than 140-year-old police force and replace it with county cops, due to arrive in April. There were nearly 70 murders in the city in 2012, almost one for every 1,000 people.

How poor are the people?

Among the nation’s poorest, according to 2011 census data, with 42.5 percent of the city’s 77,000 residents thought to be living below the poverty line. The city's median household income was $21,191, lowest among the cities surveyed by the U.S. Census. And this is in one of the nation’s richest states. Children in Camden were far more likely than children in the surrounding county or state to live in poverty according to a 2007 report by the Legal Services of New Jersey.

What about education?

A set of charter schools have made some inroads in the city, but the problems for most students remain dire. The graduation rate for Camden high school students was just 49 percent in 2012, according to the state Department of Education. The problem isn't even money, as Camden spent $19,204 per student in the 2011-12 school year, according to the state education department’s Education Funding Report. However, only 1.4 percent of the city’s students met the state’s College-Readiness Benchmark, the report noted.

Compounding the problem is that plenty of children aren’t getting basic nutrition before showing up in the classroom, said Michael Moynihan, president at the United Way of Camden County. “If kids don’t eat breakfast, they can’t learn,” Moynihan said. A pilot breakfast program at six schools started by the United Way shot up to include 84 percent of eligible students, and may be expanded to the rest of the city’s 26 schools. 

Where did business go?

Once an industrial boomtown, Camden fell victim to the same post-World War II forces that shuttered factories and ravaged cities like Detroit and neighboring Philadelphia. Without other industries to fall back on, the city has never recovered from the economic blow. “Camden was particularly vulnerable,” said Paul Jargowsky, director of the Center for Urban Research and Education at Rutgers University. “There really was nothing else other than Campbell Soup and the shipyards and RCA Victor.” 

What have politicians done?

In the cases of at least three mayors in the last 30 years, the most noteworthy thing politicians have done is go to jail. The scandalous streak began with Angelo Errichetti, a son of the city and former Camden high school footballer who was caught up in the government’s Abscam probe – an FBI sting that targeted public corruption – and convicted of bribery in 1983. Arnold Webster served as mayor from 1994 to 1997 before pleading guilty to fraud charges in 1998.  Webster’s successor, Milton Milan, was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison in 2001 on bribery, money laundering, and racketeering charges.

Can the city recover?

Much of the development that has occurred in recent years has grown up around the healthcare and education industries, including the city’s Rutgers campus and Cooper University Hospital. “There are some pockets of real progress and there are some very visible neighborhood transformations that have occurred,” Moynihan said. “There are other neighborhoods that still have whole blocks of boarded up or long-vacant houses that serve as places for squatters, for drug users, for all sorts of risky behaviors.”

While the city’s population has suffered over the last two decades, it may be the most stubborn residents that drag it back, Jargowsky said. “I think a lot of people are very committed to seeing people come back,” he said. “Among my students who live in the city, they’re very committed to wanting the city to have a renaissance.”

Related: 

'By the grace of God': How workers survive on $7.25 per hour

Poverty in America: A problem hidden 'In Plain Sight'

Share your story with us at InPlainSight@nbcuni.com 

This story was originally published on Thu Mar 7, 2013 5:04 PM EST

By Shoshana Guy, Producer, NBC News

CAMDEN, N.J. -- Inscribed on the walls of City Hall are the words of Walt Whitman, the great American poet who spent his final years in this city: “In a dream I saw a city invincible.”

But the decades since have not been kind to Camden. Today it is the poorest in the nation.

Directly in the shadow of the glittering skyline of Philadelphia, Camden has long suffered the indignities that poverty breeds. A drive through the streets of the 9-square mile city reveals a moonscape of crumbling infrastructure and abandoned homes, nearly 4,000 in all.

“I always think of Camden as the best visual aid in America to see what has gone wrong and what is going wrong,” said Father Michael Doyle, who has been serving the city’s poor from his Sacred Heart Church for more than 40 years. 

Camden was once a manufacturing boomtown, home to RCA Victor, Campbell’s Soup and the biggest shipbuilding company in the world. But once industrial jobs began drying up decades ago – as they did in so many other cities across the United States – many people left for greener pastures.

Then came a crushing blow: the race riots of 1969 and 1971, which left the city mortally wounded. In the decades that followed, civic corruption and mismanagement rendered Camden increasingly poor and violent. Three mayors have been indicted in the past few decades, adding to the sense of hopeless among residents.

Last year was the bloodiest in Camden’s history; the city of just 77,000 had 67 homicides. On average someone was shot every 33 hours.

“It was a tough, tough year,” said Camden Police Chief Scott Thomson. “And for a city as hardened as Camden is and has become over time, it buckled the city to its knees.” 

Distraught over the level of violence, the community erected crosses on the lawn of City Hall to try and draw attention to the crisis.

Thomson said crime rates have gone up because he has fewer cops. In early 2011, unable to fund its obligations, the city cut the police department in half, leaving roughly 200 officers to police one of the most violent cities in the country. 

NBC News

Crosses on the lawn of City Hall mark lives lost to violence.

“It’s gotten to the point where even in our daytime hours in this city people are scared to leave their homes,” said Thomson.  “And this is the United States of America. Children should not have to fear even sitting on their own front steps.”

There is movement to get more officers on the streets. In April of this year, a new county force will take over for the City Police Department, adding 200 officers to the ranks.

The decision to regionalize the force enraged the Camden Fraternal Order of Police, which has charged the city with union busting. 

“The experienced officers are the best chance they have to provide safety to the public,” said FOP spokesperson Nancy Webster.

But Chief Thomson hopes more boots on the ground will help stabilize the city. “At no point in time can we ever quit,” he said. “Failure is not an option.”

Chrissy Rodriguez, who lives on one of the most violent streets in the city, worries about her two young boys constantly. 

“My kids don't get to go outside. They don't get to play,” said Rodriguez. “And I'm not gonna let them ride a bike down the street … in the afternoon. People are getting shot.”

But it’s hard for people like Rodriguez to scrape together enough funds to leave. Roughly 30 to 40 percent of Camden’s citizens are out of work. Rodriguez has only been able to find a part-time job, which brings in about $700 a month. 

About 42 percent of Camden’s population lives below the poverty line, with the average income hovering around $26,000 a year. That is in stark contrast to the rest of New Jersey, where the average household income is $71,000 a year — the third highest in the nation. 

“America has decided to concentrate its poor,” said Father Doyle. “The wall around Camden is very high, it’s an economic wall. You can’t get over it.”

The “walls” of Camden hold in a population that is 48 percent black and 47 percent Hispanic.

The city is trying to revitalize. Old buildings along the waterfront have been turned into luxury condos. Cooper Hospital and Rutgers University have created stability on handfuls of blocks. And recently Cooper opened a medical school. Still, the main industry remains the drug trade and it’s been so bad for so many years that the city’s tragedies often seem to go unnoticed.

Recently, a former citizen of the city paid for a billboard near the Camden exit off I-676 that read, “Say something nice about Camden.” 

Camden’s got heart. And you’ll find that heart in community leaders like Tawanda Jones. Better known as Ms. Wawa, Jones is the leader of the dance troop the Camden Sophisticated Sisters Drill Team for school-age girls.

“There's a lotta people from Camden that are so gifted and so talented,” said Jones.

Jones has been volunteering her time for more than 25 years. She raises money to help the team travel, visits the children’s schools on her days off, and dedicates herself four nights a week, all year round to creating a safe space for children.

“We practice all year round cause there’s danger all year round,” said Jones.

For now, through the efforts of people like Jones, the City Invincible marches on. 

“There's a spirit in poor people, resilience and a hope and a generosity,” said Father Doyle. “We might be invincible in that regard, that human beings do not give up.”

Related: 

'By the grace of God': How workers survive on $7.25 per hour

Poverty in America: A problem hidden 'In Plain Sight'

Share your story with us at InPlainSight@nbcuni.com 

This story was originally published on Thu Mar 7, 2013 5:03 PM EST

Melinda Hunt / AP file

Since 1869, more than 800,000 people have been laid to rest at the potter's field on the island that lies in the waters just off the Bronx borough of New York City.

The New York City medical examiner's office is digging up dozens of unidentified bodies buried in the city's potter's field as part of a new push to solve unsolved missing persons’ cases.

In recent months, 54 bodies have been exhumed from Hart Island, which sits on the Long Island Sound. More than 800,000 people are buried there, most of them poor citizens, officials say. 

The unidentified include runaways, the homeless and others whose families lost track of them. And now dozens of positive identifications are being made, thanks to improved DNA technology.

Encouraged by the success, the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner applied for and received a grant from the National Institute of Justice to continue their work. Investigators are now poring over decades of records.

"We have about 1,200 cases that we are working on that go to the late 1980s," said Dr. Benjamin Figueroa, who is helping to supervise the search effort.

In examining the skeletal remains of unidentified persons, anthropologists are able to extract DNA samples and glean new leads that weren't contained in the original case files. Modern science can now indicate whether remains belonged to a male or female and roughly how old the person was.

Read the original story at NBCNewYork.com

"We can go back now and say, for example, it's actually a black female age 17 to 25," said Dr. Bradley Adams. "There's work we can do now with forensic anthropology which couldn't be done back in the time."

Many advances in DNA technology came about from identifying human remains recovered at the site of the World Trade Center attacks after 9/11. Scientists at New York’s new forensic lab are entering DNA samples from exhumed bodies into local and national databases.

But generating the DNA samples is only half the battle, said assistant lab director Mark Desire.

"Equally challenging is to get a DNA profile to compare it to a family," said Desire. "Part of the big push is to make sure reference families' samples get in the system."

Without a DNA sample from relatives, cases often cannot be solved. If some of the people buried are from out of state or overseas, it's especially difficult to make the match.

That appears to be the case with "Baby Hope," the 6-year-old girl whose starved body was found stuffed in a cooler in the woods off the Henry Hudson Parkway in 1991.

"You have information that can make a very straightforward identification, but nobody is looking for that child," said Adams. "Otherwise, there would be a DNA hit. It's hard to believe you'd have a child ... that's still unidentified."

In cases where a DNA match fails, scientists may turn NAMUS, a national website that lists missing people, unidentified bodies and clothing found on bodies.

"The great thing about NAMUS is there is a whole community of volunteers and cybersleuths ... who will analyze what we put on the website," said Figueroa. “There have been a number of times where somebody from the general public has pointed us to a missing person in connection with one of our unidentified."

"We don't pass judgment on who that person was," Figueroa said. "If there is something that can be done, we're going to do it. It's our job to identify that person. Doesn't matter if that case came in today or 20 years ago."

From a legal and financial standpoint, officials say a family can move forward once they have a death certificate in their hands.

In Queens, 83-year-old Gloria Chait has held on to her son Steven's belongings and has renderings of what her son might look like now, decades after he disappeared from his dorm room at Columbia University in 1972.

"I love this kid," said Chait, who still keeps Steven's belongings in his room in their Fresh Meadows home. "No one wants to go 40 years not knowing where your child is."

But she also has a grim hope that the city's new push to identify the "lost souls" of Hart Island may finally give her answers as to what happened to Steven.

"You can't be cynical about this. You have to be realistic and a bit optimistic," said Chait. "You have to understand what kind of suffering goes with a person that disappears. It is immeasurable."

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