“The problem with poor folks,” says one of my nephews, “is that they don’t have any money!”  He discovered that obvious truth while working with a ministry of home repair and improvement in a run-down area of a large Midwestern city.
    He went on to explain his statement by telling us the story of one of their clients.  The roof of their client’s house leaked badly but he had neither the skills nor the money to repair or replace it.  So, when the cold winter winds began to blow, he turned up the heat to try to keep his family comfortable in their frigid home.  But, when the fuel bill came, it was so high that he had to default on his mortgage to pay it!  Problem?  No money.
    My nephew learned from that experience – and many others – that there is no such thing as simple charity.  The complexities of charity which he learned in the Midwest also hold true in the Rio Grande Valley we are discovering.  The hoops a potential helper has to jump through are discouraging.
    A friend, for example, told us of a family in our community who were in need of hot running water.  A generous benefactor donated a new electric hot water heater to be installed in the family’s humble little home.  Then he began to search for a licensed electrician to install it.  He contacted many who were willing – until they visited that little home.  There they discovered electrical wiring so haphazardly strung that it would not support the demands of the new appliance.  So, at the time of this writing several years have elapsed and the new water heater still sits outside the little house, uninstalled.
    Recently, friends of ours redecorated their home.  They decided they would like to give the furniture and furnishings they were discarding to “a needy family.”  The couch, chair and bedspread were perfectly good and useable; much too good to throw into a dumpster somewhere.
    To help them carry out their charitable plan, we contacted the social worker of a nearby public school system whom we had learned to know.  We offered to deliver the donated items to a family of her choosing in the school community.  A few days later she called us back and reported that she had identified a family who needed those items.  “There are many families of our students who need such things,” she reported.  “But it took some time for me to find one of those families whose house was big enough to hold the couch and chair.”
    Years ago, when I was young, charity consisted of giving a hot meal to a wayfaring tramp or donating money to buy flowers for a grieving family down the block.  But it’s not that simple anymore.  Like everything else in our lives, charity has gotten complicated.  Kindness and generosity are no longer enough to address the needs of those on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder.
     Now, the giver must choose recipients carefully, trying to avoid the “professional panhandlers” who take advantage of the generosity of others.  Then, having chosen someone “deserving,” the donor must also fight the system that keeps them stuck in poverty.  Because, you see, the real problem with poor folks is that they don’t have any money!