Health

This chapter addresses the issue of health care for low-income people. The United States, virtually alone among developed nations, does not offer universal access to health care, leaving many millions of individuals without health insurance or other means of obtaining necessary medical services. In 2010, Congress enacted the landmark Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)—popularly known as “Obamacare”—marking an important but incomplete response to the nation’s health care crisis. This chapter examines the ACA in detail, including its impact on Medicaid and Medicare, the major government health programs in the United States, its creation of Health Insurance Exchanges and tax credits to help low-income households obtain private health coverage, and the reform of private health insurance markets through a patient’s bill of rights, which, among other measures, prohibits insurance companies from refusing coverage for preexisting medical conditions. Perhaps the most critical aspect of the ACA was its expansion of Medicaid to cover virtually all low-income citizens (and certain immigrants) who do not qualify for other health coverage. Although several states opted out of the ACA’s Medicaid expansion, the Medicaid program nevertheless remains the largest single provider of health coverage in the United States. This chapter also provides a detailed description of Medicaid, its eligibility criteria and scope of coverage; the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a government-funded health insurance program for children in households with too much income to qualify for Medicaid; and Medicare, the federal health insurance program for aged, blind, and disabled individuals.

The Right to Vote

This chapter discusses the right to vote. Democracy demands that every vote count and that every voter be able to shape social and economic policy. Equality of participation, however, is seriously undermined by the outsized role that money plays in American electoral politics—making the exercise of the franchise even more important for persons who are poor or have low income. The chapter discusses the legal and practical barriers that low-income citizens face when they go to the polls, including demands for identification cards, the need to take time off from work, and long waiting periods at the ballot box in neighborhoods that are poor or populated by persons of color. The chapter sets out the constitutional basis for the right to vote, locating current restrictions in past practices that excluded the poor and unpropertied, and impeded the political rights of African Americans after emancipation. Discussion focuses on conditions that states have attached to the right to vote, on protections afforded under federal statutes, and rules governing voter registration campaigns.

Housing

This chapter discusses the major federal programs providing rental and homeownership assistance to poor and low-income people. On the supply side, for decades the United States has not funded new Public Housing that it owns and manages; instead, tax credits are the major driver of new construction, with buildings owned and operated by private developers who commit to time-limited affordability requirements. On the demand side, the leading rental support program gives tenants “vouchers,” allowing them choice where they can live but no guarantee that a landlord will rent to them at the subsidized payment levels. Moreover, many households, and disproportionately people of color, have been or continue to be arbitrarily denied rental assistance because of a family member’s prior contact with the criminal justice system, even just an arrest—a policy that has caused great hardship and contributed to homelessness. For those tenants who receive it, federal housing assistance is a critical lifeline. This chapter focuses on how prospective tenants can apply for and maintain eligibility for Public Housing or subsidized units in Multifamily Programs, and how to obtain and keep a voucher. The chapter also discusses issues critical to housing justice—tenant participation in assisted housing; rights of tenants when a private owner leaves an assisted program; housing support for the homeless; the government’s duty to affirmatively further fair housing; and problems of environmental displacement.

Consumer Rights and Credit Protection

This chapter discusses consumer laws that protect—but in practice may hurt—low-income people, involving such matters as debt collection, consumer reporting, and lending. People with low income, people of color, and women face many legal, practical, and structural inequalities in commercial markets. In particular, minimum wage jobs do not lift full-time workers out of poverty, and many low-income people, vulnerable to predatory practices that exploit their financial instability, become trapped by debt. The U.S. Constitution does not specifically address many of these problems. The Equal Protection Clause in part protects against companies that refuse to do business because of a person’s race or gender; the Due Process Clauses provide some protection against companies that deploy judicially-sanctioned procedures to deprive a person of property without notice or an opportunity to raise objections; and the Eighth Amendment bars cruel and unusual punishment—and jailing a person who is too poor to pay a debt, which can include an unpaid court fee, should certainly be seen as cruel and unusual punishment. Congress has enacted various laws to protect consumers from unfair and arbitrary treatment. Attention in this chapter is given to debt collection, consumer reporting, access to credit, and limits on garnishment. In addition, the chapter discusses the fringe economy, including the dangers that payday, auto title, and online lending present, as well as private loans used to finance higher education. The chapter also touches on tax collection by the federal government.

Education

This chapter discusses state and federal laws that affect educational opportunity for poor and low-income children and adults. The federal Constitution does not guarantee a right to education. Instead, the provision of public schooling is a state responsibility, and the quality of public education varies considerably based on the wealth of the community in which a public school is located. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Equal Protection Clause does not require states to provide equal educational opportunities to students from low-wealth communities that on a par with those in schools with greater resources. The result is an educational system characterized by disparities and inequalities—rather than driving children forward, public schools in some disadvantaged neighborhoods serve as a conduit in a school-to-prison pipeline, with highly racialized impacts. The chapter discusses how the education of poor and low-income children is affected by residency requirements, truancy laws, punitive disciplinary policies, school fees, and the absence of state-funded programs for toddlers too young to attend kindergarten. Congress has enacted programs designed to supplement educational opportunities for students who are poor or from low-income households, and the chapter discusses some of them, starting with preschool through to vocational training opportunities and federal loans and grants to attend college. These programs, although important, are largely indifferent to the democratic benefits of racially integrated schools and do not go far enough in ensuring every child a free, quality education as a strong foundation for development and growth. The chapter also discusses how student debt has become a barrier to social mobility, and some of the protections available for students unable to pay their college loans.

Cash Assistance

This chapter discusses the public provision of cash assistance to needy families and individuals in the United States. The chapter briefly surveys the constitutional and international law status of a right to subsistence, then focuses on the three main cash relief programs in the United States: the state-federal co-operative Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF), which generally serves very low-income families with minor children; the federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, which serves low-income elderly, blind, or disabled people; and residual, “general assistance” programs, operated by some states to provide small cash grants to destitute families and individuals that do not qualify for other income support. The chapter provides a detailed account of the financial, categorical, and immigration-related eligibility requirements for these programs, the conditions attached to receipt of assistance (such as work requirements), and the processes for application and appeal of agency decisions. The chapter also examines the history, evolution, and social impacts of welfare programs for families in the United States and offers some critical perspectives on relief policies.

Access to Justice: Enforcing Rights and Securing Protection

This chapter provides an overview of civil litigation as it affects poor and low-income people. The U.S. Constitution is intended to “establish Justice,” but many poor and low-income people experience the court system as a source of injustice—subjecting them to meritless default judgments, fees and fines, imprisonment and forfeiture of property when no crime has been committed, and enforcing harsh collateral consequences of contacts with the criminal justice system. Moreover, many low-income people are blocked from going to court at all, because employment and consumer contracts include boilerplate terms that mandate arbitration, consigning the claimant to a private system of dispute resolution that has been questioned as unfair and in conflict with statutory and constitutional rights. Part of the problem is that the legal system assumes that litigants have the resources they need to bring or defend a civil action. The U.S. Constitution does not guarantee a right to counsel in civil litigation, and fee waivers, even when they are available, do not cover all of the costs of litigation. A rising number of civil litigants face stiff obstacles when seeking justice under law, for they cannot afford legal representation and lack resources to litigate in a meaningful way. This chapter is designed to help low-income people navigate the civil court system so that it moves closer to the ideal of equal justice under law, rather than exacerbate poverty or further entrench racial inequality.

Food Assistance

This chapter focuses on food assistance as a specific type of noncash benefit for poor and low-income persons. In 2006, the United States substituted the term “food insecurity” for hunger, but by any measure the United States has too many people—even those working full-time—without enough money to purchase groceries. The chapter describes the major federal programs that provide food assistance, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, known as food stamps); the WIC program, for pregnant women, new mothers, and infant children; the School Lunch and School Breakfast programs; and senior nutrition programs. These programs use different models to provide assistance: SNAP is designed to increase the purchasing power of a poor or low-income recipients; WIC targets a discrete group with special nutritional needs, and combines food support with health and nutritional counseling; School Lunch and Congregate Meals provide meals in group settings to students and to seniors, combining food with social activity. The emphasis throughout is on eligibility, benefits, and the relation of food assistance to other cash-assistance programs and to wage labor. The food-assistance programs discussed in the chapter are vital to health and development, and also boost local economies and support the agricultural sector. But they do not go far enough in reducing hunger, and they arbitrarily restrict benefits to some of the poorest people in the country.

Rights in Public Spaces

This chapter discusses the rights of low-income persons, including those who “look poor” or homeless, to travel, to become members of a community, and to use public spaces, such as streets, parks, libraries, and post offices. Many localities have adopted “quality of life” regulations that restrict and even criminalize acts that are innocent when done in the privacy of one’s home, such as sleeping or eating, but become illegal when done in public. The chapter sets out the constitutional right to travel from state to state and within a state, and describes the practical and legal barriers that exist to the actualization of that right, such as the absence of public transportation or not having money to buy a car. Attention is given to the constitutional status of residency requirements and how they impact efforts to obtain better housing and schooling. It explores permissible limits on rights to use public spaces, and protections that may be invoked in many typical encounters with the police, such as demands for identification cards or the seizure of possessions temporarily left in a park. Practical advice is given about library services and mail delivery, as well as how to get licenses for commercial activities that make use of public spaces, including street vending.

Work-Related Benefits and Employment Protections

This chapter discusses federal statutes that impact the work lives of poor and low-income people. These statutes regulate some of the terms and conditions of employment, but do not guarantee rights to a job, to a livable wage, or to work as a pathway to economic mobility. The key federal statutes prohibit certain types of employment discrimination, and protect the right of workers to organize and take collective action to advance their common interests. The chapter pays special attention to the wage and hour protections afforded by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, addresses the rights conferred by the act, offers a critique of the federal minimum wage rate, and notes the emerging nationwide movement to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. The chapter also addresses federal programs that provide economic supports for low-income workers, apart from the assistance programs described in other chapters, including unemployment insurance, which replaces a percentage of wages for workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own; the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, which reduce or eliminate payroll taxes for most workers with minor dependents, and can increase family income through refundable tax credits; and the Social Security program, which provides benefits to retired, aged, blind, or disabled workers and their families.