craigslist, you can pick one up for a few hundred, I'm sure. With kids, that's what I would do.
What I'm trying to get at is that being poor is not enough to produce what's seen in this article. You need a combination of poverty, broken family unit, lack of education (just because the school is down the street doesn't mean your parents are going to let you attend!), even craigslist is something that you might never have heard of!
Then, if you are working 7 days a week, getting up at 5:30am, and all that stuff - why the heck you need a sofa for $1,500? Safe and invest this $1,500 in your child's education for Goodness sake! This is what poor Jews have been doing in the US since before-ww2 and look how well it worked for them!
And blunt jokes aside -- I would fill much more fulfilled putting this 1500 to my kids college fund/whatever then buying something I don't really need.
Why are you poor? Because you are stupid. Why are you stupid? Because you are poor.
No one will break the vicious circle for them. They have to do it.