For three months Pastor Harlan Young and his family have called a rented house in Fresno's Lowell neighborhood, home. Young and his family once owned a house in the city which went into foreclosure. Young is now featured in a Time documentary called, "The New Poor of Fresno." Young says, "There are some new arrivals in poverty; folks such as us who maybe haven't been in below the technical poverty line in the past, but because of the economic downturn, they find themselves in this situation."
The City of Fresno's Homeless Director, Gregory Barfield says the high unemployment rate along with tighter budgets and increased expenses have created a new breed of poor. Barfield says, "Many of us have taken pay cuts. We have seen increases in PG&E and other utilities and it just takes a combination of many of these things to continue to put additional pressure on a family."
Young says the biggest challenge of living on a strained budget is the perception of being poor.
