Poverty and Its Effect on Families in Texas
Category: News
April 21, 2026
Understanding Families Living in Poverty
To understand how poverty affects families in Central Texas, we must reconsider how we think about poverty. For a long time, many people believed that poverty was a personal failure—that if someone just worked harder, they could fix it. However, science and data tell a different story. Poverty is actually a systemic failure. It is a flaw in how our society is built, not a flaw in the people living in it (source: Frameworks Institute).
In this article, you’ll learn:
- How the way we think about poverty has changed
- The real costs of parenting
- The effects of poverty in raising kids
- What poverty means in Austin, Texas
- The term ALICE
- How Any Baby Can helps families in poverty
Poverty is a “Design Flaw”
Poverty is not simply a lack of money. While that is true on the surface, the reality goes much deeper. In our community, parents face issues that are built into the design of our economy. It comes from actions that prioritize profit over the needs of families.
You can think of it like a vehicle. Some families, or vehicles, are asked to carry a heavier load as they work against systemic barriers. Money is like fuel for a car. It is absolutely necessary to move forward. But if the road is blocked, the bridge is out, or the load is too heavy, fuel alone won’t get you to your destination. For families of color, the effects of racism and being left out of economic opportunities add even more weight to that vehicle.
When a family "stalls" or stops moving, it isn’t because the vehicle is broken. It is because the environment has piled on more weight than any vehicle was ever meant to carry.
State of Poverty in Central Texas
In 2026, the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) for a family of four living in Austin is $33,000 per year (source: City of Austin’s Demographic Profile). Roughly 10.5% of people in Travis County live below the poverty line (source: Datahood.ai)
A family needs much more than $33,000 a year just to pay for rent, food and basic healthcare. This gap between what people earn and what life costs is where the "design flaw" is most visible.
On top of basic necessities, parents have compounding costs. Considering just the first year of a child's life, parents may spend nearly $20,000 on baby-related essentials alone. According to the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI), the average cost of an uncomplicated delivery in 2025 is around $2,700 with employer-provided insurance. The cost can be $20,500 or more without insurance (source: American Heritage Credit Union).
| Category | Estimated Monthly Cost | Annual Total |
|---|---|---|
| Delivery, Hospital Costs | $2,700-$20,000+ | |
| Baby Gear (crib, car seat, stroller, highchair, baby monitor, health supplies) | $1,200-$4,000 | |
| Childcare | $1,000 – $3,400 | $12,000 – $40,000 |
| Food & Formula | $150 – $350 | $1,800 – $4,200 |
| Diapers & Wipes | $120 – $150 | $1,400 – $1,800 |
| Lowest Estimated Total: | $19,100+ |
What is ALICE and how does it relate to parenting in poverty?
ALICE stands for Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed (source: UnitedForALICE). These are families who earn more than the Federal Poverty Level but still cannot make ends meet. For example, a single-earner, low-wage family of four might earn $34,000 a year. By government standards, this family is "not in poverty." However, they cannot afford basic necessities. Any Baby Can serves many families in this population, who face compounded difficulties including a child with medical or developmental needs.
According to a 2024 Bankrate article, living as ALICE means you are always one car repair or one medical bill away from disaster (source: Bankrate). When we recognize that even a full-time job doesn't guarantee a stable life, we can see how the system is flawed.
What’s it Like for Families in Poverty?
Families living in poverty face compounding challenges. They face daily barriers that drain their ability to move forward.
- Toxic Stress: Besides being a financial problem, poverty can trigger toxic stress. Toxic stress “occurs when the body’s natural stress response... remains activated for extended periods without adequate recovery or emotional support.” This can cause physical damage to the body (source: Psychiatry Magazine), or even disrupt a child's growing brain and immune system (source: Center on the Developing Child).
- Impossible Choices: Parents are often forced to choose between essentials like going to a food bank or getting their child to school. These are survival decisions that directly hurt a child’s ability to thrive.
- Systemic Friction: Barriers like high gas prices, high rent, low wages, a lack of affordable childcare, and immigration fears act as constant friction. This friction slows down a parent’s ability to provide a stable home for their child.
Poverty is the heavy weight pulling against the work families are doing. The solution isn’t to ask them to "work harder." The solution is to lighten the weight of poverty through better system design.
- The Old Way of Thinking: A parent is "failing" to provide more for their child.
- The New Way of Thinking: Systemic design—the way our laws, wages, and costs are set up—is what limits access to survival essentials.
When families choose to move further from the city center to lower their cost of living, they make other sacrifices. They may lose access to community resources, healthcare (e.g., prenatal, pediatric, mental health), employment opportunities, and family support. Basic survival needs—like finding housing or food—can crowd out parents' abilities to focus on what their children need to grow.
Effects of Poverty on Children
Child Poverty by the Numbers
A report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that child poverty in the U.S. jumped has jumped. From a historic low of 5% in 2021, child poverty was up to 13% in 2024. This surge happened when federal supports—like expanded Child Tax Credit which lifted 15 million children out of poverty—ended (source: Annie E. Casey Foundation). The families did not change; the policies that affected those families did.
The data shows that while poverty rose for all children, the increase was much steeper for children of color. Poverty rose to 23% for Black children and 21% for Latino children (source: Annie E. Casey Foundation). These families are not just navigating a high-cost economy; they are doing so within systems that have historically added more weight to their lives.
Toxic Stress and Raising Children
The relationship between a child and their parent is the most powerful "protective factor" the child has. Even when things are hard, a loving, responsive caregiver can act as a shield for a child. However, caregivers must have the tools and resources, and also the bandwidth to be present (source: The Science of Early Childhood Development).
According to the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, “Toxic stress in early childhood is associated with persistent effects on the nervous system and stress hormone systems that can damage developing brain architecture and lead to lifelong problems in learning, behavior, and both physical and mental health” (source: Toxic Stress Disrupts Brain Architecture)
Poverty is a conversation about public health. A person's environment physically shapes their brain. Supporting young children and families is not just a nice-to-have; early care is a community investment.
How Poverty Affects Brain Architecture
The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University released a report titled Place Matters. The report explains how the environment we create shapes the foundation of a child's health (source: How Environment Shapes Early Childhood). Experiences like hearing language, feeling safe, and having someone respond to them are biological requirements, not "lifestyle choices."
Without these essentials, a child's brain adapts to survive, not to thrive. This can lead to health and learning challenges that last a lifetime. Poverty is a preventable threat to child development (source: Annie E. Casey Foundation).
The goal for those tackling issues around poverty is to reduce the load that parents carry. We can do this by improving access to healthcare, stable housing, and living wages so they can provide the stable environment their child requires.
Family Agencies are Seeing Increased Need
Community support and Family Resource Centers, like Any Baby Can, work to lighten this burden. Right now, these resources for families in Central Texas are stretched thin. Agencies are seeing several major gaps:
- Childcare: Without affordable childcare, parents cannot work. If they can’t work, they can’t pay rent. This creates a ripple effect that hurts the whole family's stability.
- Housing: There are very few resources for families who aren't yet homeless but are on the very edge. Before the pandemic, the city used BSS+ funds for both prevention and for those actively experiencing homelessness. However, it has since prioritized rapid rehousing. This shift in policy eliminates access to housing funds for families to stay in their homes (source: Austin Monitor)
- Transportation: Many families must take multiple buses just to get groceries or go to the doctor. Lugging babies and bags of food through bus stops is an exhausting physical and time load.
How Does Any Baby Can Help Families in Poverty?
Any Baby Can's direct services provide incredible support for parents and children. Our programs give kids a better path for a stable future, developmentally, physically and emotionally. Families enrolled in services may also access basic needs through the Family Support Services (FSS) program.
We have partnerships like Plus 1 with Austin Energy that provide utility support. By taking care of things like utility bills or buying diapers, parents can re-direct their dollars to areas we can't support (like medical debt or car payments).
It's not just about finances. Families will cancel visits for themselves or their child because they’re overloaded in other areas, like trying to find food or housing. We help take care of those things so the parent can focus on their child’s medical and developmental needs, and plan for their future. This helps them stay in our programs and change their family’s trajectory. We’re also actively working with families on budgeting and family planning, including job and education goals.
According to our 2025 annual client survey, 98% of families in our programs report that they’re better prepared for the future. 97% report they’re better at bouncing back after challenges!
There are very few community resources like this in Austin. Our team processes 80 to 100 internal requests per month for basic needs. The need has always been there, but we’re seeing it magnified in recent years as not only families—but also local agencies, federal programs, and other resources—are stretched thin.
Any Baby Can works to affect the entire system through our advocacy work. At the state and federal levels, we remain a persistent voice for prevention, early intervention, and maternal health. By tackling system-level policy issues during the Texas Legislative Session, we are strengthening the partnerships and education necessary to support children and families.
What You Can Do to Support Families
Individual change is tied to family change. Family change is tied to community change. If we want our community to be healthy, we must support the families living in it. One thing you can do is get a better understanding of the impossible choices parents face every day.
"It's really difficult to understand poverty without having lived it. We want to give people one morning to experience it. Our families go home every night to this, but in even a few hours, you’ll understand some of the barriers people are facing every day,” says Marie Gonzales, Senior Director of Family Strengthening and Education at Any Baby Can.
Any Baby Can hosts an annual Poverty Simulation. This interactive event puts you in the shoes of a family trying to survive for one month on a limited budget. You'll feel the constant frustration and stress of making difficult decisions you never considered if you have not lived in poverty.
For more information about public Poverty Simulation events or to bring an event to your group or agency, contact Simona.
By joining us at the Poverty Simulation, donating, and advocating for better systems, you can help all families! Together, we can ensure that every child in Central Texas has the stable foundation they need to thrive.
Share:
Share:
Share:
RELATED RESOURCES
Early Brain Development
We work to understand development and adapt to align with evidence-based best practices.
Women’s Health Crisis
The health and wellbeing of parents and caregivers directly affects children.
Get Involved
Make an impact on our community today!
THANKS TO OUR MISSION PARTNERS
Investments from our supporters create long-term benefits for thousands of families across Central Texas. Join us in building a community where all families and children thrive.
