We moved a couple years out of an older neighborhood where a lot of the houses were rented out under the section 8 program (gov rent assistance). So we were right in the middle of "poor" people. The majority of those "poor" had cell phones, had cars (usually with nice stereos), had big screen tv's (rent a center), kids had health care (nurse would drive to their house) so its no wonder they remained "poor". I'm sure there are those who really couldn't do any better but I'd say that even estimating conservatively still more than half were "poor" by choice.
Some of it is the housing issue. Section 8 looks at the income and says you can pay x amount so the .gov will pay the rest. So then you get to rent a place and as soon as you get a better job section 8 says now you can pay more so they adjust the rent and you can't get ahead. The couple that with the fact that costs as much if not more to rent than buy. Even in the nicer place we moved to there is an apartment complex near buy and a co-worker pays $900 a month for his small apartment and I pay $1200 a month for my 1600sq ft house. He had to move up here when they closed the branch office in TX but he plans to move back when he can. I told him for what he's paying in rent he couple get one of the smaller houses and then sell it when he moves back.