HAYS COUNTY
An exercise in empathy was conducted this past week as community members gathered at the Hays County Elections Office to participate in a poverty simulation. About 75 people attended the Community Action Poverty Simulation, which is an interactive, immersive experience that attempts to sensitize participants to the realities of poverty. The event was sponsored by Wimberley United Methodist Church and hosted by the Homeless Coalition of Hays County. The event included a presentation by the Hays County Health Department Manager, Matthew Gonzales who shared poverty statistics relating to the Hays County community.
Participants arrived around 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 27 to check in and receive information about their role in the simulation. Attendees were from a wide variety of communities from social workers to teachers and even political representatives such as San Marcos Mayor Jane Hughson.
“The statistics and situations we use are real, based on real-life experiences of families with low incomes,” said Nancy Heintz, the simulation facilitator.
Each person was assigned a role in a low income family living on a limited budget. Participants took on roles such as working parents, children, widowers, senior citizens on social security and veterans. Each participant’s role was tied to their family unit with each team dealing with additional stresses such as homelessness, unexpected pregnancies, evictions and disabilities, which limited the work they could achieve. The experience is divided into 15-minute sections, which represent one week where family units must work together to maintain their budget while trying to cover their basic needs.
“This poverty simulation demonstrated how much time and energy many families have to give just to survive from day to day. It quickly dispels the myth that people would do fine if they would only go out and get a job,” said a participant.
As the family units gathered in the middle of the room to assess their needs, the walls of the conference room were lined with volunteers at stations where participants interacted with simulated stations, including the department of social services, a community health center and the utility company, to name a few. Depending on their situation, there were participants requesting loans from payday advance lenders or waiting at the general employer for jobs. Each 15 minute section was a frantic race to either obtain more money for bills or to try and figure out transportation to pay bills all while maintaining the weekly balance of school, work, groceries and childcare.
Hays County Health Department Manager Matthew Gonzales explained the different categorical definitions of poverty. Absolute poverty measures poverty in relation to the amount of money necessary to meet basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter while relative poverty defines poverty in relation to the economic status of other members of the society; people are impoverished if they fall below prevailing standards of living in a given societal context. The crowd was engaged as they reflected on their own experiences within the simulation and also within their real lives. Gonzales walked the audience through the root causes of poverty, including education access, low paying jobs, food insecurity, high housing costs and social mobility. He encouraged the audience to utilize the Hays County Resource Directory, which was created for residents, practitioners and social workers to connect with resources to improve residents’ quality of life. One can find the directory on their website at hayscountytx.gov/resource- directory.
Heintz debriefed the participants and reflected on what had been learned throughout the simulation. Many participants reflected on the stress and anxiety felt by the overwhelming task of balancing a family budget with not enough funds.
“This program helps people understand the complexities and frustrations of living in poverty day to day,” said Kaimi Mattila, board member of the Homeless Coalition of Hays County. “With a greater awareness of its impact, we can more effectively address the poverty issues in our community.”
The simulation was designed to provide participants a glimpse into the structural barriers, as well as some of the personal and emotional repercussions people in poverty face, as well as to broaden awareness of poverty among policymakers, community leaders and others. For more information on The Homeless Coalition of Hays County check out their Facebook at facebook,com/HomlessCoalitionofHays
