Local opinion: Poverty is not just about income

Arizona has one of the highest poverty rates in the nation, with nearly 14% of our residents living below the federal poverty line. But the poverty measures we rely on miss something crucial about the lives of struggling Arizonans, including many in our own backyard.

Consider the story of Ernest, a man I interviewed during my research across multiple continents, including Native American communities here in Arizona. Ernest owned land and lived in the only concrete house in his village, yet couldn’t feed his family three meals a day. Or Hope, who had shelter and a caring husband but no voice in household decisions about her children’s education or healthcare.

After decades of studying poverty from South Asia to Arizona’s tribal lands, I’ve learned that our conventional understanding of poverty misses something crucial: The relationship between poverty and human agency, the ability to choose, act, and shape futures.

From the Navajo Nation to Tucson, I’ve seen how poverty isn’t just about income, but about the relationship between individuals and their environment — their community, local markets, and institutions. The poor often lack not just money, but access to credit, insurance, healthcare, and the social capital that provides informal support networks. More importantly, poverty actively undermines people’s agency.

Recent research from the University of Arizona and other institutions confirms this. Studies show that financial stress taxes mental bandwidth, making it harder for people to make good decisions. Poverty creates what psychologists call “cognitive load” — when you’re constantly worried about paying rent or buying food, you have less mental capacity for long-term planning or complex problem-solving. This isn’t because poor people are less capable; it’s because poverty creates conditions that impair anyone’s cognitive function.

This matters for Arizona. Our state’s anti-poverty efforts, from SNAP benefits to job training programs, while helpful, may not be enough if they don’t address how poverty undermines people’s ability to make effective use of these resources.

The successful programs combine resources with rebuilding human agency. So-called “graduation programs,” which provide asset transfers alongside coaching, skills training, and mentoring, have shown remarkable results across countries, lifting ultra-poor households durably out of poverty. In Bangladesh, women who received not just livestock but also hands-on training and regular support maintained their gains years later.

Closer to home, programs working with Native American communities in Arizona have found similar patterns. Simply providing resources isn’t enough. Effective interventions must also address the psychological and social barriers that poverty creates.

Women’s empowerment programs offer another powerful example. Research from India shows that when women gain control over their earnings, through direct deposit into their own bank accounts rather than their husband’s, they work more, and community attitudes about gender roles shift over time. This has direct relevance for Arizona, where women’s economic empowerment remains a key challenge, particularly in rural and tribal communities.

This research points toward more effective approaches for Arizona:

Strengthen relationships, not just individuals. Since poverty is relational, solutions must address how markets, institutions, and communities serve the poor. This means improving access to banking in underserved areas, expanding rural broadband for economic opportunities, and building more responsive local institutions.

Build agency alongside assets. Effective programs combine resource transfers with coaching and support that help people navigate complex systems. Arizona’s workforce development programs could benefit from this approach.

Address psychological constraints. Simple changes like automatic savings programs or streamlined application processes can help people overcome the cognitive burden that poverty imposes.

Measure what matters. Current poverty measures miss people who fall below the poverty line multiple times during a year. In Arizona’s seasonal economy, this is particularly relevant — many families may appear stable annually while struggling during certain months.

The stakes are high for our state. Arizona’s poverty isn’t just an economic issue. It is about human potential. When we strengthen people’s agency alongside their assets, we don’t just help them escape poverty temporarily, we help them build lasting economic stability.

This isn’t just about being compassionate; it’s about being smart. If we want a stronger Arizona, we must stop treating poverty as just a matter of income and start treating it as a matter of human potential.