I'm the temporary guardian of a teen who will be graduating High School this coming Thursday. She lives with me during the winter months because both of her parents are disabled (cancer and multiple heart surgeries). Their yearly income from the state, social security, and welfare is around 13,200 a year. They cannot afford heat. Hell, they don't even have electricity nor running water. They do have a septic tank, so if you need to poo, you better go get 2 gallons of water from the stream before you blow out.
So, they pile into a van and drive down to Florida, where they reside in a camper van at campgrounds, Walmart parking lots, and (I assume) homeless camps.
The kid went to Florida with her parents in 8th grade. They signed her up for Cyber School, but it's kind of hard to keep a connection when moving around every few days. She damn near flunked.
So, now I take the kid from Late October until April.
She has severe problems with Hygiene. She's really just days from graduation and a month from turning 18, but I still need to yell at her to brush her teeth! Why? Her folks don't have teeth! They don't brush, so she never really learned.
Showers are on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday nights! Believe me - that's a compromise in favor of cleanliness! She doesn't shower because no one else does in her family. They'll go a week or more without a bath. Even though I have running water... hell, I have hot water... she resists - because she's so used to being run down.
SOCIAL PROBLEMS
She has no friends. Her folks cannot afford car insurance, so she never got a license. (Don't worry, I am using state agencies to help the kid get a license and even into community college).
Her older sister met and was impregnated at the age of 19 by a guy 20 years her senior. So, her sister graduated, went wild, met a hillbilly who was 40 years old, and got knocked up.
Yeah, terrible, but it was her way of escape! Imagine needing go carry 5 gallon jugs of water just to shit or piss in a 5 1-gallon toilet? No shit that girl left the first chance she got.
The kid I take care of is now a 17 year-old aunt to a miserable, foul- mouthed kid, raised by one of the most spiteful and hateful men I have ever met in my life. I had invited the sister and boyfriend over. The 40 year-old boyfriend actual said, "Nyah, Nyah, Nyah, I want this, I want that..." ...about the 19/2- year old mother of his daughter.
It's just insane.
TLDR; Lives of poor people are batshit insane.