A lonely road

> Having a child pushed her well below the poverty line

Although it's not discussed, family planning support (from contraception to abortion) may be as important as good free public transport in supporting vulnerable individuals into getting out of the poverty trap.

Not saying people should not have babies just because they're poor, but public services can surely provide the counseling so they can weight consequences of such a decision, means to prevent unwanted pregnancies and freedom to stop them if the mother decides or the prospects change. In this case it's clear the pregnancy was unwanted/unexpected.

"Before becoming a mother, Scott had no problem finding work. She’d prepared food for the elderly and stocked shelves and sold magazines over the phone. She’d collected debts and made fast-food burgers and, most recently, answered calls from Verizon customers. She had a small apartment, rented for $495 per month, where black mold spread across the walls. But she was self-sufficient. She could afford food. “I was maybe one notch above poverty,” Scott said.

Having a child pushed her well below the poverty line"

So she knew she was pretty much at the poverty line and decided to have a child anyway, further making it more difficult to live a normal life. This was a poor choice, which led her to her current situation.

"The call center wanted Scott to take night shifts, and Za’Niyah was eligible only for subsidized daytime child care. Scott quit and tried to find something else, somewhere else."

It sounds like she can't even take care of herself, let alone a child. The best idea in her case might just be to give her child to the state.

"They tended to live in the middle of Atlanta, near the subway, and they also received welfare, cash payments from the government that were available to nearly all in deep poverty, regardless of whether they had a job."

"a change that stems from the belief that entitlement programs failed to incentivize work and trapped people in poverty."

It does trap people in poverty. All of my extended family have been living in abject poverty for 2+ generations. Why? The state paid them enough to live and they never had a desire or a want for anything beyond this.

The issue is that money doesn't solve the problem. You can throw as much money as you want at it, with little or no results. Detroit is a good example of this having the opposite of the desired effect. Money was thrown at the school systems for 30+ years and it's now a shell of a city with probably the worst school systems in the country.

“They want you to get a job, which is not all bad,” Scott said. “But the way they go about it is horrible.”

The issue is that if you leave people up to their own devises, they will not look for work and continue to live in the homeless shelter forever. It gives you an incentive to bust your ass and find a job asap.