Families living in poverty face a daunting number of obstacles. The jobs they can find don't pay a living wage. If they can find housing, either they can't afford it or it's unsafe, in a dangerous neighborhood, or both. Quality childcare, health care, and education are all too often out of reach. Public transportation is inadequate and expensive.

Here are a few facts and figures:

• Approximately 12.5 percent of the U. S. population now lives in poverty.  That's one in every eight people.  If you consider only children, that figure is higher than one in six.

• Families with children are the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population in the United States.

• A minimum-wage worker would have to work more than 70 hours a week, 52 weeks per year, just to keep a family of four above the poverty line.

• What is that poverty line? Only $18,810 per year for the average family of four. Even so, 3.5 million Americans work full-time all year long and still live below the poverty line.

• There is no state, county, or metropolitan area in the nation where someone working 40 hours a week at minimum wage can afford the Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom rental.

Note: (Fair Market Rent is the fair price in a regional housing market for a specific housing unit, established by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Housing is considered affordable if it costs no more than 30 percent of a family's income.)