Poverty in Hartland Community, Michigan
My community is Hartland, a small township in Livingstone County, inthe state of Michigan. The community has an average population of15,000 people (Livingstone County government, 2016). The dominantethnicity in Hartland is the non-Hispanic White Americans with apercentage of 97.1. People from other ethnicities share the remaining2.9 percent.
According to the Livingstone County government (2016), the povertylevel in Hartland stands at 3.9%, translating to 407 people. Themajor cause of poverty is unemployment, which currently stands at 5%of the workforce. Some households are overrepresented in the povertystatistics. These households are those with female householders andchildren under the age of five years.
The poverty level in my community is a cause for worry because of thepoverty-related issues that are gradually mushrooming. The highprevalence of poverty in Hartland is significant to warrant measureaimed at curbing poverty.
Among the issues that arise due to poverty is the increased in thecrime rate. People who have nothing to eat or pay their bills will doanything to survive, even if it is purely unethical. With the higherlevels of inflation in Hartland and the USA in general, crime ratealso goes up because the poor can no longer afford commodities thatthey previously could.
Poverty has also led to increased prostitution. This issue is mostlycommon with single mothers who fall below the poverty line. Sincethey must feed their children, they resort into the vice. In additionto roaming the streets of Hartland at night, they also exposethemselves to sexually transmitted diseases. This exposes them tohealth risks, which ends up putting their life in danger.
References
Livingstone County, Michigan (2016). Community economic profileHartland Township. Retrieved from,<https://www.livgov.com/plan/econdev/Documents/HARTLAND%20TWP.pdf>accessed May 13, 2016
Seccombe, K. (2000). Families in poverty in the 1990s: Trends,causes, consequences, and lessons learned. Journal of Marriage andFamily, 62(4), 1094-1113.