Poverty

=== Shelter ===
{{See also|Slums|Street children|Orphanages|Gentrification}}
[[File:Kolkata (4131122903).jpg|thumb|Homeless family in Kolkata, India|alt=]]
[[File:Street Child, Srimangal Railway Station.jpg|thumb|left|Street child in [[Bangladesh]]. Aiding relatives financially unable to but willing to take in orphans is found to be more effective by cost and welfare than orphanages.<ref name=orphanages/>]]
The [[right to housing]] is argued to be a [[Human rights|human right]].<ref>Desmond, Matthew (2016). ''Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City''. Crown Books. {{ISBN?}}{{page needed|date=October 2022}}</ref><ref>Bratt, Rachel G. (Editor), Stone, Michael E.  (Editor), Hartman, Chester  (Editor). 2006. ''A Right to Housing: Foundation for a New Social Agenda''. Temple University Press.{{ISBN?}}{{page needed|date=October 2022}}</ref> [[High density housing|Higher density]] and [[Affordable housing|lower cost housing]] affords low-income families and first-time homebuyers with more and less expensive shelter opportunities, reducing economic inequality.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cooke |first1=Thomas J. |last2=Denton |first2=Curtis |title=The suburbanization of poverty? An alternative perspective |journal=Urban Geography |date=17 February 2015 |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=300–313 |doi=10.1080/02723638.2014.973224 |s2cid=145716858 |url=https://thomas-cooke.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2963/2019/12/Cooke-and-Denton-2015.pdf |access-date=24 February 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Desmond |first1=Matthew |editor1-last=Mueller |editor1-first=Elizabeth J. |editor2-last=Tighe |editor2-first=J. Rosie |title=The affordable housing reader |date=2022 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |location=Abingdon, Oxon |isbn=978-1-000-59482-9 |pages=389–395 |edition=Second |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=emdxEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA389 |access-date=24 February 2023 |chapter=Unaffordable America: Poverty, housing, and eviction}}</ref>

The geographic concentration of poverty is argued to be a factor in entrenching poverty. William J. Wilson's "concentration and isolation" hypothesis states that the economic difficulties of the very poorest African Americans are compounded by the fact that as the better-off African Americans move out, the poorest are more and more concentrated, having only other very poor people as neighbors. This concentration causes social isolation, Wilson suggests, because the very poor are now isolated from access to the job networks, role models, institutions, and other connections that might help them escape poverty.<ref>Wilson, William J. 1987. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.</ref> [[Gentrification]] means converting an aging neighborhood into a more affluent one, as by remodeling homes. Landlords then increase rent on newly renovated real estate; the poor people cannot afford to pay high rent, and may need to leave their neighborhood to find affordable housing.<ref>Moss, Jeremiah. 24 July 2018. Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul. HarperCollins Publishers.</ref> The poor also get more access to income and services, while studies suggest poor residents living in gentrifying neighbourhoods are actually less likely to move than poor residents of non-gentrifying areas.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/united-states/2018/06/21/in-praise-of-gentrification|title=In praise of gentrification|newspaper=The Economist|date=23 June 2018|access-date=24 April 2021|archive-date=24 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210424015937/https://www.economist.com/united-states/2018/06/21/in-praise-of-gentrification|url-status=live}}</ref>

Poverty increases the risk of [[homelessness]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-01-10-homeless_x.htm |title=Study: 744,000 homeless in United States |work=USA Today |date=10 January 2007 |access-date=24 October 2010 |archive-date=25 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100525150236/http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-01-10-homeless_x.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Slum-dwellers, who make up a third of the world's urban population, live in a poverty no better, if not worse, than rural people, who are the traditional focus of the poverty in the [[developing world]], according to a report by the United Nations.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5078654.stm |title=Report reveals global slum crisis |work=BBC News |date=16 June 2006 |access-date=24 October 2010 |archive-date=30 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101030050014/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5078654.stm |url-status=live }}</ref>

There are over 100 million [[street children]] worldwide.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=32968&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080521024344/http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID%3D32968%26URL_DO%3DDO_TOPIC%26URL_SECTION%3D201.html |archive-date=21 May 2008 |title=Street Children |publisher=Portal.unesco.org |access-date=24 October 2010 }}</ref> Most of the children living in institutions around the world have a surviving parent or close relative, and they most commonly entered orphanages because of poverty.<ref name=orphanages>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/world/africa/06orphans.html |title=Aid gives alternatives to African orphanages |newspaper=The New York Times |date=5 December 2009 |access-date=18 February 2017 |archive-date=26 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170526205418/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/06/world/africa/06orphans.html |url-status=live |last1=Dugger |first1=Celia W. }}</ref> It is speculated that, flush with money, for-profit orphanages are increasing and push for children to join even though demographic data show that even the poorest extended families usually take in children whose parents have died.<ref name=orphanages/> Many child advocates maintain that this can harm children's [[child development|development]] by separating them from their families and that it would be more effective and cheaper to aid close relatives who want to take in the orphans.<ref name=orphanages/>