The stats are so disturbing most of us have stopped paying attention.

Almost 36 million Americans live at or below the government's official poverty line, which many social welfare professionals, social scientists and antipoverty advocates say is way too low. They believe the reality is more like 30 percent than 12.5 percent of the U.S. population is currently living in poverty.

Since 2000, the U.S. poor has increased by 4.3 million and the number of Americans with no health insurance risen by 5.2 million.

Nearly 13 million U.S. children are poor. And when you look at kids under six living in families with only a single mom, 52.9 percent are poor.

The number of Americans suffering from hunger has increased 3.9 million since 1999, with more than a million children having empty bellies most days.

When it comes to living in severe poverty --- with incomes half the poverty line or worse --- the number rose by 1.2 million in 2003 to 15.3 million. And these men, women and children trying to eek out an existence reached an all-time high since they started being counted in 1975.

The poverty profile here in sunny Southern California is even grimmer.

A first-ever head count last January across Los Angeles County found 91,000 homeless people living on the street and encampments or in shelters and cars. Some 35,000 of these desperate down-and-out folks were chronically homeless.

The count, which was done over three nights by more than 1,000 enumerators, confirmed once and for all L.A.'s dubious distinction as the homeless capital of America. In fact, it dwarfs counts in New York City (48,155), Detroit (14,827), Chicago (6,715) and Miami-Dade County (5,160).

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, 1,674,599 individuals were poor in Los Angeles County. And about 640,000 children (24.6 percent) of all kids in the county were growing up in poverty. Poverty rates varied from zero in Vernon to a surprising 9.1 percent in Beverly Hills to 36.9 percent in Westmont.

"A Tale of Two Cities," a 2000 report done by United Way of Greater Los Angeles, spotlighted the growing chasm between the haves and have-nots here. And a 2003 report by the Institute for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty concluded that, "in L.A. County, the gap between the rich and the poor is greater than in any of the other major regions of the state, California as a whole or the U.S."

'Not a big problem'
To explore how such a devastating amount of poverty exists in our nation and, closer to home, in the midst of our daily lives, The Tidings talked to six individuals from diverse backgrounds who work in different fields, but who all share an abiding concern over the growing economic dire straits of so many Americans.

For the third year in a row, both the poverty rate (12.5 percent) along with the raw number (35.9 million) of poor people has risen. Yet, in a recent Gallup poll, only five percent of Americans believe that poverty and homelessness are important national problems.

How can that be?

"There's a fair amount of just focusing on your own stuff and your own life and the crazy rush that you're in," pointed out Rhonda Meister, director of the St. Joseph Center in Venice, which serves the immigrant poor, low-income seniors, veterans as well as homeless men, women and children.

Moreover, "I don't know how many people see a linkage between homelessness and poverty," continued Meister, who has directed the antipoverty center since 1985. "Because until very recently in L.A., there really hasn't been a sustained focus on helping the general population understand that it isn't just somebody out there who's lazy and doesn't care for the most part. You sure don't get it on your regular nightly news very often."

Recently, readers of The Los Angeles Times received a first-hand account of life on Skid Row through a five-part series by columnist Steve Lopez, who lived in the poverty-laden area for a week. The purpose of the series was to give readers something less appetizing than their regular breakfast to chew on --- to "rub their noses" in this fact of life, Lopez said.

Subsequently, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has assembled a committee of community leaders to examine and address the poverty issue. How effective the committee will be in its efforts remains to be seen. Especially, it might be noted, in a time when access to adequate health insurance, affordable housing and a livable wage are becoming increasingly difficult for more and more middle-income workers, to say nothing of the poor and unemployed.

Tolerating poverty
A related but deeper question is how can the richest nation in the world morally tolerate the level of poverty that exists in our society today.

Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet Darlene Kawulok, chair of the religious studies department at Mount St. Mary's College, teaches two classes in social ethics where she likes to investigate the power of affluence and seduction of material possessions. During her seven years at the Mount, she's seen her students largely replace human relationships with relationships to materialism.

"We have become so rich in this country that it has numbed us to what being human is all about," she said. "And that takes us further and further away from Gospel values. It takes us further and further away from what Christian anthropology says being human is all about.

"I think that that contributes to a kind of masking poverty and putting an invisible face on poverty. And as long as we keep pilling up stuff in our lives, I think that we then numb ourselves to the ability to critically think and discern about what's happening to other human beings."

Maria Elena Perales, who directs the Los Angeles Archdiocese's Office of Peace and Justice, believes most Americans first of all try hard to pretend poverty isn't a real problem --- and then, if it is a real problem, it's the government's problem, not theirs.

"I think this is how people get away with it: 'I pay my taxes. They should be able to do something about these people,'" she explained.

And then there's always blaming the victim.

"There's a lot of that," she said. "You know, 'They could pull themselves up if they really wanted to.' Or 'They're not working hard enough to get out of poverty.' A member of my own family thinks like that. It's a sentiment especially shared by middle class people who were once poor themselves and are now better off."

Is it intractable?
With the rate at 12.5 percent and nearly 36 million poor men, women and children, has poverty become so intractable in our society nothing can really be done about it?

"That's a hard question," said Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet Patricia Zins, an intake person and case manager at the Good Shepherd Center for Homeless Women in Los Angeles. "It's growing each year. And how we can just let it grow and grow, and not do anything about it to make life better for more people, I don't understand.

"I really don't know what's in people's minds," she admitted. "But I just think if more people returned to God, what God wants for the world ..." and her words trailed off. "But our society is pretty Godless."

Jeff Dietrich, a member of the Los Angeles Catholic Worker community for 35 years, points out that we live in a capitalistic society that actually requires a certain level of unemployment to keep the economy revved up at its optimal level.

"So I think it's disingenuous to really talk about solving homelessness," he said with a chuckle. "And I think that when Jesus said the poor are always going to be with you, yep, that's true. That's absolutely true because that's the way we've planned it.

"And it means that those of us who really take this stuff seriously should roll up our sleeves and get to work and do the best we can. But we shouldn't expect any real help from the government or big business. We should be protesting and yelling and screaming at the hypocrisy of our society that claims to take care of people but doesn't.

"But in the meantime," Dietrich stressed, "we should be practicing our own moral values within our communities and churches to help the poor."

Editor's note: This is the first of a three-part news analysis series dealing with poverty in California and Los Angeles.