The Economist recently featured two articles that depict the new extent of American poverty. A lot of us have grown complacent in the face of widespread unemployment and destitution, but as Catholics we cannot become weary of solidarity. As depressing as it is, I’m afraid a little reminder is due.

THE statistics are worthy of Detroit or Newark: almost half the children in the local schools are from families poor enough to be eligible for free or cut-price lunches; a tenth of households qualify for food stamps; one in eight residents gets free meals from soup kitchens or food banks; perhaps one in 12 has suffered a recent spell of homelessness. Yet the spot in question is not a benighted rust-belt city, but Sarasota, Florida—a balmy, palm-studded resort town on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico…

That has left people like Ken struggling to keep body and soul together. He describes how he gave up his cooking job to look after his ailing mother in 2007. When he started to look for work again a few months later, he could find only a part-time job, which soon evaporated. He had no savings, so could no longer afford to rent. He wound up in a tent in a camp for the homeless called Pinellas Hope, which was set up by the Catholic church in the town of Clearwater, 50 miles up the coast from Sarasota.

Before you think this is an isolated incident, please note that these “tent cities” are springing up all over the United States: Seattle, Virginia Beach, Sacramento, etc. (read more)