The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
Alyssa G. Norris
Living in Tucson, it’s no secret that we have a poverty problem.
While driving through town, you may see homeless people walking down the street, you may have experienced increases in your rent and utilities bill, or you may have been impacted when the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) was paused last fall.
Whether you have experienced these hardships or heard about them on the news, most seem to agree that we have a poverty problem. We disagree about why.
In 2024, Tucson’s poverty rate was over 18% compared to a federal poverty rate of approximately 12%. The existence of our poverty issue is clear as day. Political sparring often arises from arguments about the causes of poverty — are they individual or structural? Some believe that poverty is an individual failure caused by mental illness, drug use, and laziness. This belief often informs advocacy for tougher responses, like “sweeps” of homeless encampments. Some believe that poverty is a structural issue caused by barriers bigger than an individual's habits or luck. This belief often informs advocacy for increased investments in social services.
To a certain extent, both arguments have merit, but the simple truth is that the root causes of poverty are structural.
As a student interviewer in the Poverty in Tucson Field Workshop at the University of Arizona, I saw firsthand how Pima County residents are struggling to get by. When I spoke with a local single mother, I learned how she juggled raising her children and paying rent while relying on the Sun Tran to get to her job that paid barely above minimum wage. Her experience does not reflect a lack of hard work; It reflects deeper structures at play. This holds true for the 29% of our over 280 participants who reported that they were not making ends meet, and the 50% who were just scraping by.
Pima County’s median household income is $10,000 less than the national average. In addition, lower earners have to pay a higher proportion of their wages on housing in Pima County. Regardless of work ethic or other individual factors, wages for Pima County workers simply aren't enough to pay rent. These structural factors, and many more, have created conditions for poverty spells and generational poverty in Pima County. These structural factors are the why.
As national conversations about “cost of living” have taken off, so have policy efforts in Tucson. In the past two years, Pima County and the City of Tucson have adopted the Prosperity Initiative, 13 policies to reduce generational poverty, and community leaders have launched the Community Coalition for Prosperity, a cross-sector network of leaders guiding the implementation of the Prosperity Initiative.
There’s no doubt that this momentum is powerful and exciting. But generational problems will take generations to solve. Uprooting the structures that cause poverty requires political will, intentional funding, and radical policy shifts at all levels. As these policies take shape, we as community members still have a role to play. We can start by unlearning our misunderstandings about poverty.
A common line of thinking is that if individual failures cause poverty, then individuals should get themselves out of poverty. One conclusion could be that we should cut social services and increase policing. But solutions like these don't just lack humanity. They don’t work. These solutions hide homelessness from the public without addressing root causes. Individual blame arguments fuel advocacy for interventions that don’t work and advocacy against interventions that do work.
For example, STAR Village, Tucson’s first outdoor safe sleeping site, is a small-scale step in the right direction. However, local opposition argued that the presence of homeless participants would exacerbate crime and worsen the quality of life in the neighborhood. This pushback, which emphasizes individual blame, makes it harder to implement effective solutions like these. Notions of individual blame are counterproductive and make it harder to end poverty.
Assigning blame and hashing out moral judgments doesn’t change our poverty crisis. By recognizing root causes, unlearning our biases, and giving local change a chance, we uplift solutions that work. Our perceptions are powerful; our perceptions shape action.
Follow these steps to easily submit a letter to the editor or guest opinion to the Arizona Daily Star.
