I don’t understand how this is possible. We have a lot of programs to help people - food assistance, housing and health care assistance, disability... Are these benefits being counted when we say they live on $4/day?
He didn't have valid ID and without an address it was difficult for him to get ID, without which the places he could possibly live were inaccessible.
Last fall he finally found a group home, but it was temporary, and he's back on the street again.
The system, as it's designed, is complex and requires mental resources that people living on the street just don't have.
But, the good news is that he ended up walking to the DMV (3+ miles from where I would see him) and he did get his ID. That's why he was able to get into that temporary home last year. It was a huge hurdle for him to get that ID. I can only imagine that anything that requires a lot more effort than that would be beyond his abilities.
I will say, too, that what drew me to him was that he seemed to never ask for money from anyone, but he was often present on the same block when I would walk to/from work. I started up a conversation with him and over time we became friendly, and I would buy him food when he said he needed it. It was clear there were other people helping him (much more than I was), so he often didn't have immediate needs for food. Shelter, though, that's the big issue and when I did Google searches for local shelters it was really hard to find anything I could take to him.
It's one of the things that has befallen SF, where an industry funded by the city to the tune of a quarter of a billion dollars a year, fails to keep a few thousand people off the street.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/06/27/despite-241-mill...
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/City-audit-finds-...
http://www.sfchronicle.com/aboutsfgate/article/Despite-money...
Work is difficult to find or even to seek if you're homeless. It's a bit of a catch-22.
If you don't have a permanent address, up to date ID, and a bank account, and a job, many of these programs may not be available to you.
But I believe these counts do not include welfare programs other than those that give you cash (like Social Security benefits including disability). Other programs offer services or restricted forms of payment, which cannot be used for saving, for purchasing other things you might need like gas or transportation, and so on.
but too little to get Obamacare subsidies
In states which haven't, you can make too much to qualify for Medicaid, but too little to qualify for Obamacare subsidies: http://money.cnn.com/2014/04/21/news/economy/obamacare-medic...
This happened because the Supreme Court ruled that states couldn't be compelled to expand Medicaid to cover the gap, which the original legislation had depended on to make the plan work. So states which did not expand Medicaid have an income range in which you can't get Medicaid or Obamacare subsidies.
Another comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16231191 tried to even find the source of the number, more or less unsuccessfully. The purported origin of the statistic is the Current Population Survey, which has the following comments on "Income": "Data on consumer income collected in the CPS by the Census Bureau cover money income received (exclusive of certain money receipts such as capital gains) before payments for personal income taxes, Social Security, union dues, Medicare deductions, etc. Also, money income does not reflect the fact that some households receive part of their income in the form of non-money transfers such as food stamps, health benefits, subsidized housing, and energy assistance; that many farm households receive non-money income in the form of rent free housing and goods produced and consumed on the farm; or that non-money income is received by some nonfarm residents that often takes the form of the use of business transportation and facilities, or full or partial contributions for retirement programs, medical and educational expenses, etc. These elements should be considered when com-paring income levels. Moreover, readers should be aware that for many different reasons there is a tendency in household surveys for respondents to under report their income. From an analysis of independently derived income estimates, it has been determined that wages and salaries tend to be much better reported than such income types as public assistance, Social Security, and net income from interest, dividends, rents, etc."
The Census Bureau excludes capital gains/losses, noncash benefits, and tax credits in its usual measures of poverty: https://www.census.gov/topics/income-poverty/poverty/guidanc...
If we had a Universal Basic Income in the United States delivered through the IRS, the Census Bureau and its poverty rate might not notice.