Rally for NJ Public Education Part l: It's the Poverty, Stupid!
This is a story about a hospital in an inner city neighborhood that serves a very high population of low-income people of color. Many don’t have the resources to properly care for themselves. Unemployment is high, and many still don’t have health insurance. A significant number live in poverty, and about one third don’t speak English as their first language. Many have seen their SNAP benefits cut so they can’t provide proper nutrition for themselves and their families. Some areas around the hospital are dangerous; gangs, gun violence, drug trade and crime have proliferated.
The hospital cannot turn anyone away who comes in for treatment. Some patients follow the prescribed course of treatment and get better, but others, because of any number of reasons outside the hospital’s control, don’t. There is only so much they can do once a patient leaves, especially if the patient is homeless.
Although it has an experienced and dedicated staff and has instituted successful education, service and outreach programs that have helped unify the community, this hospital has been under state control for almost 20 years and there has been a lot of dysfunction in management. Resources have not always gotten to the areas where they were desperately needed. Repairs to the actual structure of the building have long been neglected, so parts of it are unsafe to occupy. It’s top heavy with
