All too often, "experts" come in to a neighborhood with ideas about what's wrong and how to fix it. Before designing a program to serve a particular neighborhood, tap into the expertise and experience of the residents there.

The data shows that folks in the Lower Ninth Ward know a lot about poverty. Here's what three residents we interviewed had to say on the subject:

36.4% of the residents of the Lower Ninth Ward live below the poverty level compared to 27.9% overall in Orleans Parish. What do you think accounts for this difference?

Poverty is closely tied to ethnicity and race in this country. If you look anywhere where there is a majority of black people in a community, you are going to see higher concentrations of poverty, and it is going to be higher because of the historical relationship between black people and white people and the economic development of this country. Racism -- the fact that black people were not paid at all and later not paid equitably for the work that they did, means that black communities do not have the wealth that has been accumulated in non-black communities. For the amount of work African-Americans have done in this country, they don't have the accumulated wealth that other groups do, relative to the amount of work performed.”      —54 year old African American nonprofit consultant (Fall 2003)

People are impoverished here because of the employment situation. What kind of employment do we have? We have service employment. And we don't have any 'old' money.”      —75 year old African American social worker (Fall 2003)

There used to be all kinds of businesses in this community. There was a supermarket and other businesses. These were mostly white-owned, but they employed people who lived here. When the children of the original business owners inherited the businesses, they didn't want to manage the businesses. They tried to allow black people to manage their affairs for them. But folks have just been programmed to take orders from certain people. And when someone else replaces them, they don't respect them the same. As a result, you start having a breakdown in authority, which led to a breakdown in performance.

Eventually the families started talking about selling those businesses. At that time, we should have had blacks come forward to buy them. But African Americans couldn't get loans to buy the businesses. And they were never told why. But outsiders had no problem getting loans.

The Vietnamese came in and took over the businesses. They don't employ many black people. That raised the poverty level, because the people who were used to doing something for themselves -- the opportunity was not there. They were not educated as to what to do in such a situation, so they just didn't know what else to do.”      —53 year old African American laborer (Fall 2003)

What effect do you think the high poverty rate has in your neighborhood?

I think it is very disheartening for people who live in a community with a lot of poverty. It creates two things. It makes people feel hopeless when they juxtapose where they live or how they live, their quality of life to those not in poverty. And it creates a sense of separation. It keeps them from feeling 'We're in this collectively.' It keeps them from feeling powerful and united.

When people have no discretionary funds or time, they can't see themselves being able to offer anything to their community. They feel 'I just have enough to make it to live. I gotta make this bill.' Rich people can do the kinds of things they do to help their communities, to help one another, and, thereby, establish a power base, because they have time to think about those things. The money gives them that.”      —54 year old African American nonprofit consultant (Fall 2003)

The poverty rate decreases the positive things that get done. If you have more people with something to bring to the table, then the meal is going to be much better… We are living in a society where people learn how to take, instead of to give, to lie, rather than tell the truth, to wait for you to do something before they try to do something. It affects all of us.”      —53 year old African American laborer (Fall 2003)

In a poor community, the upward mobility is not there. The aspiration to seek out and have a better life, to have better finances isn't there. Those in poverty don't have money to go anywhere, so they are not stimulated. Their perspective becomes very narrow about possibilities in life. Mostly families here are simply fighting to survive.”      —75 year old African American social worker (Fall 2003)

What thoughts do you have about what should be done about poverty here in the Lower Ninth Ward?

The only way you can actually change things is to find out what's happening. You can't encourage people unless you find out what's discouraging them.

We could open up a work center. Five to ten people every day could come in and we could set it so they could go clean up. Based on a community fund, we could pay them. It could be something to give them, and it would increase their self-worth. White folks say, 'Those folks don't want to work.' But there've got to be opportunities for them to work.”      —53 year old African American laborer (Fall 2003)

The solution requires a consciousness that we are all connected. I don't think the solution is to just give people a better education. Just give people access to housing. Just give more. I see poverty as a holistic problem needing a holistic solution. And we need to define what we see as a basic standard of living, and assure that for all.”      —54 year old African American nonprofit consultant (Fall 2003)

The country now doesn't believe in entitlements. Still we subsidize big business. But to pay childcare… well, that's a dirty word. Our government believes in 'trickle down' but when it trickles down to us, it's service jobs at $5-$10 an hour. We need to make good employment more available. We need some innovative ideas for how to make our young productive.”      —75 year old African American social worker (Fall 2003)

Source Citation: “Beyond Data: Straight Talk from some Lower Ninth Ward Residents.” (Fall 2003).  Interviews by Nilima Mwendo and Allison Plyer, Greater New Orleans Community Data Center. <http://www.gnocdc.org> (March 23, 2005).