IntroductionMany people are not informed about the social issue of poverty. They think that poverty simply comes from people being lazy and not working. Indeed, some poverty is born from laziness, but in most cases, these people struggle daily to escape poverty. Poverty tends to take over people's lives and sometimes never leaves. The struggle to climb the social ladder is almost impossible for most people. Poverty is a social problem, it affects different individuals and there are public assistance programs to help combat this problem. What is PovertyPoverty is considered social inequality, and that is exactly what it is. “Social inequality is the unequal distribution of wealth, income, power, and opportunity” (Henslin 191). With this definition, we can conclude that poverty is indeed a social inequality, because people who live in poverty do not have the same opportunities to access the wealth, power and opportunities listed in the definition. To distinguish between the poor and the rich in our country, we have social classes. This is a large number of people who have roughly the same income, education level, and jobs (Henslin 191). People experiencing poverty rarely have the opportunity to escape the social class in which they already find themselves. A person's position on this social class scale has a major impact on the life they lead (Henslin 191). “Biological poverty refers to malnutrition and starvation” (Henslin 193). This type of poverty occurs when a person does not have access to enough food, shelter and clothing. But there is also relative poverty which simply consists of comparing the situation of different social classes (Henslin 193). In some countries, there is an official poverty line, which is the amount of income that gives...... middle of paper ... known as the HUD. This program allows people who cannot afford normal rent to live in certain homes approved by the program. This program is also income-based. The applicant must meet regulations to be approved for HUD housing. The owner or owner of the property also has hoops to jump through to get their residence approved. Houses and apartments must go through an inspection to be approved. Workfare is another public assistance program implemented here in the United States. Because people say that access to social programs encourages people not to work, they created workfare. About two in five people who move from welfare to work no longer live in poverty (Henslin 219). Workfare authorized for a limited period for people receiving social assistance. They are eligible for five years of assistance such as food stamps and WIC (Henslin 219).