Poverty

By Simon Lancaster

At sundown on April 16, a chilly Friday night in Minneapolis, 13-year-old Qa’id Walter’s feelings on homelessness were rather lighthearted. “Homelessness doesn’t seem so bad,” he said. “It sounds kinda easy and ya know, maybe a little fun.”

By Simon Lancaster and Samantha Timmerman

When a toddler started howling in front of Natalie Cherne, a Youth Squad leader at the Children’s Museum, she ran over to him and started making funny faces to cheer him up. It didn’t work.

By Twin Cities youth

Several of September’s essays contained illuminating points about what teenagers care about right now. We liked them so much that we put together a list of their quotes.

Immigration
I want Barack Obama to open the border for three reasons. First, most of the Latinos want jobs. Second they want a life that Mexico can’t give us. Third, Latinos are not criminals; we just want a better life for our kids such as education, jobs, and things like that. — Luis Pacheco, 14, Harding High School

By Paris Porter

In March, ThreeSixty writer Paris Porter wrote about his family’s move to St. Paul back in 1996 to escape the violence and poverty of Chicago’s South Side. This summer, Paris and Minnesota Public Radio producer Sasha Aslanian produced a powerful radio documentary about his family’s experience and the controversy the inflow of poor, black families from Chicago caused in Minnesota in the 1990s. Listen to the radio story and read his original story here.

By Sarah Ericson

Lylian Davis stood outside her mobile home, squinted at the sun and considered the presidential election.

“Yeah, I’m going to vote. For whom, I’m undecided.” Among her neighbors in Landfall, a tiny St. Paul suburb of mobile homes where 1 in 5 of about 700 residents lives in poverty, Davis thinks she’s unusual.

“ ‘ Oh, my vote doesn’t count.’ That’s all I hear around here.” Davis said.

Nationwide, low-income Americans vote at much lower rate than wealthier citizens. According to a 1990 survey published by Harvard University Press, almost 9 out of 10 individuals in families with incomes over $75,000 reported voting in presidential elections while only half of those in families with incomes under $15,000 reported voting.