Poor America Panorama

It is election year in the richest country in the world. But tend

cities for the homeless are springing up around the nation. Are

you sleeping here? There's not a lot of space in there. Tonight,

Panorama find out what it means to be poor in America. From the storm

drains under Las Vegas. We look up and about 50 yards away from us

there is about a foot and a half of water rushing towards us. To the

1.5 million homeless children. went to bed hungry because my

parents didn't make anything. We have nothing to eat. And the all-

night queues to see doctors. You've brought some blankets? In a country

where 50 million don't have health insurance. No money, no doctors.

The the ask what happened to President Obama's vision for

Las Vegas, the capital of capitalism. Home of the dream that

with hard work and luck, anyone can But there is another world below.

These are storm drains that run and of the city. A vast labyrinth which

has become a home for struggling Americans. $16 million a night are

frittered away just a few feet above. While some down here have it

swapped a bed for what looks like a cardboard coffin. These tunnels

criss-cross for 200 miles under Las Vegas, and about 300 to 400 people

live down here. There is a fierce debate in America about what now

has become a staggering gap between those at the bottom and those on

Right under the throb of the casinos lives Ned. He used to live

in a nice flat. He was a well paid tiler. But, like 30 million

Americans, he is now jobless. His partner, Donielle, tries to make

their space look like home. Why did you come to Vegas? Work. To get re-

established. It was prior to the economy being heard as it is now.

Once we got to Vegas it kind of stumbled. Four months ago they

swapped their middle-class life for life in a drain. A world filled

with drugs, alcohol and filth. What do you miss about your previous

lives? You take for granted the conveniences of power, hot-water, a

refrigerator to keep food well. She is a great cook, I love to cook as

well. But no fridge is the least of their problems. They live now win

their fragile existence can be wiped out at a moment's notice, by

flash floods. We look up and about 50 yards away from us they raised

about a foot and a half of water rushing towards us. Everything was

taken. The water got to about two betide. How often does that happen?

As often as it rains in Vegas you will get floods. In the evenings,

Ned and Donielle go above ground to hand out flyers for nightclubs.

They hustle for review dollars of ticks and commission. Are you guys

going out tonight? But America's immense wealth passes them by. How

do you cope with it, it must be stressful? A you wake up and

breathe and no it's going to keep on. It's going to get better.

have to keep your faith about two. -- about you. After dawn, on the

other side of town, the local school bus takes a surprising route.

Every day it picks up a group of children outside a cheap motel

where they live. This is the face of America's massive and employment.

-- unemployment. Here, in the richest country on earth, there are

more than 1.5 million children without homes. At which the -- at

Whitney School, that means about half the children. Joshua, one of

the students who lives in the motel, squashes in with his brother,

sister and parents. It is a big change. They used to have three

bedrooms, a three-car garage and a hot tub. It looks like a big house.

It was pretty big. They look really happy. Yeah. They were. They left

home unable to afford the rent, after Rick, but Dad, lost his car

repair job. There are almost 3 million more unemployed Americans

now than when President Obama was first elected. And the ranks of

America's poor are being swelled by people like them, he used to be

comfortably off. We are really dried up. We couldn't live off what

they gave any more, so I tried to find any job and nobody was hiring.

Virtually destitute, they squatted for months in an abandoned trailer

without water or light. Rake, like many Americans, didn't qualify for

unemployment pay. Later, he picked up some part-time work and they

moved here. It is much better but it's still very different than home.

The only time I thought there was something wrong was about four

months ago when they had a gang shoot off over there. What do you

think about it? I don't like it here because there's a lot of bad

people over here. Gangsters, drug dealers. Lalani, and normally

confident 14-year-old, has become reclusive. I had to take her to the

hospital because they said she had the starting of an Also. Evidently

she was worrying. You don't talk about it? Too painful? I don't want

my kids... I don't want them to have to dwell and worry about

grown-up stuff. What does the future hold? I hope that we get

into a house at some point. Have some freedom and space. Instead of

just always having to... The other day my son, he said, can I get a

haircut? And we told him that he had to wait. Something as simple as

a haircut. I don't want to have to worry about that. It has been hell.

A couple of times I really wanted to kill myself. I didn't want to

live this life any more. There are now 47 million Americans who

qualify as being poor. The most in over half a century. And, across

the country, there is anger. Because a fifth of America's income

is earned by a very wealthy 1% of the population. America is now

deeply divided and it was all meant President Obama was elected on his

promise to bring jobs back by putting ordinary Americans' first.

Back then, the country blamed corporate excess for the crash and

was behind him. Today I say to you that the challenges we face are

real. They are serious and they are many, but know this, America, they

But a year ago the President lost control of Congress and now has to

compromise with the Republicans. They blame his spending policies

and the 1.3 trillion dollars budget deficit for bringing the economy

down. They say hard work is the answer, not handouts. Really poor

children in really poor neighbourhoods have no habits of

working. At one extreme Republican President hopeful, Newt Gingrich,

suggests bringing back child labour. So what if they became assistant

janitors and their job was to mop the floor and clean the bathroom?

And you pay them. The debate has polarised America and become

increasingly bitter on both sides. This guy is leading in the

Republican field. Maybe that is why he is leading. Yeah, make them

scrubber up, their kids, make them janitor for our kids. Mop the floor

Many of President Obama's conservative opponents say the

poverty debate is absurd because so-called poor Americans are not

poor at all. Half of poor people have computers, about 40 % of them

have widescreen HDTV use. They have totally adequate food to eat. When

you interview the poor you ask them, were your children ever hungry at

any point in the year? 96 % will say, no, our children were not

hungry. They get a double bag, a bottle of water. But back at

Whitney School, the teachers see a different reality. Three school

meals only get the children here through the week. So on Fridays

they pack them food for the weekend, too. We need to make about 150 bags.

These are beeforoni. They are pop top because a lot of the kids don't

have cooking facilities. They can eat it cold if the need to.

fact is that now 20 million Americans, almost half the poor,

earn less than $11,000, or �7,000 a year, for a family of four. The

numbers living in deeper poverty have exploded under President Obama.

I work in the cafeteria for lunch duty. A lot of times I would see

children putting ketchup packets in their pockets, lots of them, to

take home for what they do, they add a little water to them and make

soup. Just noticing that the kids were hungry all the time.

teachers told us poor children here eight very bad day at home. But we

assumed they had enough food. They got together a group of pupils

whose families they know are struggling. We don't have any

dinner. How often does that happen? It's already happened five times.

How has that felt? It felt kind of weird because it felt like I was

getting dizzy one time. Have you ever not been able to have dinner

at home? Yeah. I went to bed hungry because my parents didn't make

anything. We have nothing to eat, so I just went to bed and waited

until I went to school to eat. I was very, very hungry. How did that

feel? When I went to bed I tried to ignore it but my tummy kept on

growling and growling. Stephen is troubled by a host of worries most

eight year-olds don't have. His mother is pregnant. I worry we

won't have enough money to have food for the baby. I feel really

sad. My mum thinks she is going to give it to adoption, but I'm not

sure if it costs money. Lesley is six. She was more withdrawn than

the others. My mum at eight wrath. -- was eating rats. Is that

something you eat a lot audited just happen once? Ones. Was that

because she ran out of food? Yeah. Still, in the debate over poverty,

the Conservatives don't accept that food shortages are widespread. And

the last thing you do they want is to see more money spent on welfare

when America can't afford it. The Department of Agriculture says 6.4

million families have very low food security. That means that they do

sometimes not have enough food. it does not. It explicitly says

that is not the case. It says that what they have is potentially some

disruption temporarily... reading the definition. Food intake

reduced at least some time during the year because they couldn't

afford enough food. Yes. And that would mean at one point in the year

they may have shrunk the size of their meals. Again, if you ask the

same families, did your children have enough to eat? The

overwhelming majority of them will say yes. Lesley's teacher says

she's often distracted and is finding it difficult to learn.

Stephen Fry's really hard in class and is coping. But most of the

children here are a year or two behind. The dream is that these

children will be on the same level playing field as every other child

in America. We know that doesn't happen because they are in such

survival mode. They can't possibly learn because they are not thinking

about learning. They are thinking about their shoes hurting, where

they are going to sleep at night, or their tummies are crumbling.

President himself admits America is more unequal than it's been since

the Great Depression. Even many of his own supporters say he has

America now has by many standards the lowest social mobility of all

of the high-income countries, meaning that a child born into

poverty is likely to grow up as a poor adult, and this is stunning

for a country that not only prides itself as being a middle class

society, but as the society where anyone can make it and where social

mobility is so high. President Obama admits it's a long

road ahead, but claims one historic policy victory in the battle for

more social mobility. Two years ago, he signed a healthcare bill that

was meant to ensure more Americans could afford to see doctors, and so

what of it? It's really cold. It's 2.00am in

the morning. I'm in rural Tennessee. I'm not alone. There are hundreds

of people, all camped for the night in their cars - families, children,

the lot. Good morning. How may I help you?

It's hard to imagine a scene like this anywhere else in the Western

world. People had heard that doctors and dentists were coming in

the morning, laying on free consultations, and the disabled and

sick had come out in their hundreds. I came to an event like this three

years ago. It was exactly what the newly elected President Obama had

promised to change. But today's scene is almost

identical. Tell about your teeth. How are your teeth? Are they

hurting you? Which ones are they? Top. The top?

They broke off? Yeah, about four of them broke off. Can we see? See?

Have you been to see a dentist at all? When you're of single-income,

it's hard. It's expensive. So you lost your job. You lost your

medical care. No job, no doctor - that's how it is here? No job, no

doctor - no job, no money, no doctor, you know? Six, seven, eight.

Finally, after four hours, the doors open. 14. Thank you. You bet.

Thanks for coming. Stan Brock, born in Britain, started this charity to

help people in the Amazon jungle, then he decided America was just as

needy. We're going to go 25 at a time, and there are 500 people out

there so far, and so it will go pretty quickly.

All this is a small glimpse of the fact that 50 million Americans

still don't have health insurance. That's almost four million more

than when President Obama took office.

In a nearby room, Robert has come in to ask about a hernia he's had

for ten the years - the bottom line, his intestines are protruding.

was the last time it was examined? Never. Really? Robert doesn't have

a doctor. Insurance for him and his wife would cost about $5,000

annually, and that's almost as much as he earns in a year as a

construction worker. The doctor, a volunteer from the National Guard,

takes him aside for an examination. I'll wait on you right here.

wife Anita is worried. We just don't have the funds, and so he

just keeps going, you know? He's not going to complain. He - he just

keeps going. He knows he has a family. The doctor here tries to

persuade Robert go to the emergency room. I certainly wouldn't put it

off. If I go to the emergency room, they're going to send me a bill.

The - but the... I know they are. I can't afford to pay no bills.

real issue for him is, is this a potential source for infection?

Then you get the whole concept of acceptsies, which -- sepsis, which

is life threatening. Now Anita is frightened. She tries to persuade

him to get medical help. I mean, what they going to do if we can't

pay the bill? They can't come and eat us. They can't kill us and eat

us. They can't take our home away because we owe a hospital bill.

President Obama's new law aims to make health irnshurns cheaper and

compulse -- insurance cheaper and compulsory, but many of his reforms

don't come into effect for another two years.

2009 was a seminal moment for America. Change was promised. It

hasn't really happened. Some change has happened. Insurance will start

in 2014 if the Republicans don't appeal it. The healthcare bill may

not see the light of day. There are now more people uninsured than when

President Obama came in. Except if the bill comes in as scheduled -

2013, 2014, that'll change, and change sharply. Many Americans may

not find what we saw here particularly shocking. Over 40%

strongly believe health care is a choice and if you want to see a

doctor, you have the pay. The deeply divisive issue hit the stage

at a Republican debate recently. The question: what if someone who

hadn't bought health insurance went into a coma? Who pays? That's what

freedom is about - taking your own risks. This whole idea that you

have to prepare and take care of everybody -

APPLAUSE Congressman, are you saying society

should just let him die? No. CNN debate sparked outrage in some

quarters. Yeah, was the response from several audience members about

whether society should let the man die. Not a single candidate, it

should be pointed out - not a single candidate on the stage

stepped forward to say it would be morally wrong to let another

American die by withholding medical care.

Robert did eventually go to the emergency room. He was told

treatment would cost $20,000, and that without it he might get

gangrene. But Robert went home. In places now, it's hard to believe

that America is the world's economic giant. Detroit looks worse

than Beirut. In a day here, we passed only two neighbourhoods that

weren't crumbling. President Obama has spent billions on rebuilding

Detroit's car industry and America's infrastructure as well as

on programmes to fight poverty, but he's up against the historic

collapse of the country's manufacturing sector. With little

money and half the population now gone, many of Detroit's schools

have been shut, like this one. Norbert Kidd used to teach nearby.

This used to be the gym, and when the school was operating, there may

have been about a thousand kids here. This was a popular place. I

was in this many times. It was very active. It was very beautiful.

Detroit's become a battleground for the opposing agendas of how to get

America back up on its feet. The President still believes the way

forward is spending on social services and infrastructure, but

there's little to show for it here, and now Republicans have won

control of this state and many others. They say overspending and

overtaxing is the problem, and they're making cuts, even if it's

hard to see what's left to slash. So what have we got? A police

station, fire station, courthouse - all in ruins? Yeah, this whole

neighbourhood just is crumbled completely. The services in the

area are really in trouble. There's not enough money to fund them.

They're talking about laying off police officers, fire agents. The

libraries are closing. The roads need repair. The lighting is

falling apart. We just - my street, for example - the streetlights have

been out for like six months. Now Michigan State Government has

turned its attention to cutting programmes for the poor. Instead,

it's giving tax breaks to business. The Republicans here firmly believe

that the market, not a welfare state, will create jobs. We have

forgotten where we came from, the spirit of entrepreneurialism, like

the idea that it's innovation and technology and hard work that made

this country great, and that's what we're really trying to get down to,

this concept of economic gardening to lift everybody up. With

unemployment - and now cuts too - many homeless shelters here are

full. Off a highway 45 minutes from Detroit, we saw how people are now

coping. This is one of the many tent cities

that have now sprung up all over America. Scattered in these woods,

there are 30 tents. People have settled in here for the winter.

So this is it? This is it, home sweet home. Anthony and Alena have

been here for over a year. Have you had any problems living in

the tents? Yeah. The black mould was on our pillows, in our blankets.

We were literally rubbing our faces in it sleeping every night, so I

have been having coughs for the past, like, four months.

The couple are here because Anthony was turned away from the homeless

shelter. They referred me to tent city down here. The shelter did?

The shelter did. One day they referred 17 people here all at once,

and they were overbooked. They weren't ready for that many people.

It seems Tent City has become a semi-dumping ground for the

homeless here. Last night we got a call saying they had six that

couldn't make it into the shelter and if we could place them. We

usually get calls around 10.00pm at night the hospital emergency room

once called us, other agencies that help people who are trying to find

shelter. And it's not just here. Panorama has established that

public agencies and overstretched shelters are referring the homeless

to tented encampments outside several other cities in America.

Do you think it's acceptable that people are living in tents on the

side of a highway not far from where we're sitting right now?

absolutely not acceptable, and we have to take steps and policies in

order to make sure those people have the skills they need to be

independent. It won't happen overnight. But that's the problem,

isn't it? It's not happening overnight. Here we are in the

middle of the crisis, and there's not enough room in the shelter for

them, and you're making more cuts. What we could do is the old way -

the way of financial collapse of the entire system, and then

everybody loses, or we could get our fiscal house in order.

America is so deeply divided over its greatest sore - poverty - that

it's hard to see how any leader could resolve it. But if anyone had

the chance, it was probably President Obama who had so much of

the nation behind him when he was first elected. Did his country

expect too much of him? That's hard to say because I think he

compromised too much too easily. You know, to be fair, President

Obama was never a liberal or progressive firebrand. He never

claimed to be, you know, a left- wing... But he did promise change.

He did promise to tackle poverty. Yes, he did promise change, and he

walked into a maelstrom and brought about some real change.

Recent unemployment figures have dropped slightly, and the economy

is showing some signs of growth, but only some are gaining from it,

and this is not the vision of America President Obama's

supporters were led to believe in. It's 2012. Almost a million

American children sometimes go hungry. And tent cities are

springing up across the country. The world's economic powerhouse has

a sickness. While both sides blame each other, America can't fully

admit its poverty, and it's certainly not dealing with it.

Next week on Panorama: Alistair Campbell investigates Britain's