Nebraska Poor People’s Campaign rallies at U.S. Capitol to demand action on poverty

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Hundreds of activists from across the country are joining together on Capitol Hill this week to draw attention to poverty in America.

The three-day Poor People’s Campaign event is aimed at bringing together poor people, along with faith leaders from around the U.S., to demand that lawmakers address poverty.

Angela Montalvo, a leader in the group’s Nebraska chapter, said poverty is the fourth-leading cause of death in America.

“Poverty is a policy choice, and there is an answer,” she said. “Poverty is not because people are making poor individual choices and they end up that way. There are a lot of policy choices that go into the systemic poverty that we see.”

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Montalvo said thousands of Americans are being kicked off Medicaid, child poverty is increasing, and the federal minimum wage hasn’t risen in nearly 14 years.

She said 626,000 Nebraskans are poor or low income.

“That’s about a third of the population,” she said. “A house with two adults and two children, such as my own, needs over $23 an hour just to meet their basic needs.”

On Tuesday, the campaign will be meeting with members of both the House and the Senate to ask that they address their concerns.

The campaign’s Nebraska leaders are planning to meet with all the state’s representatives.