It wasn't a cruel accident that Crystal Mayberry entered the foster care system at the age of five and stayed there her entire childhood. Through no fault of her own, she was born into a family intimately acquainted with generational poverty, drug abuse, and violence. Following dozens of placements and a revolving door of group homes, even Crystal's aunt threw in the towel after trying to parent her, and Crystal abandoned her education at the age of sixteen. Financially supported by SSI (Social Security Income), she took the monthly $754 for granted until it was suddenly removed. While she had been eligible as a minor with a sexual abuse and mental illness history, she was ineligible as an adult. Now Crystal Mayberry was a woman in deep poverty.

Crystal's heartbreaking struggle is one of many absorbing passages in Poverty, by America, authored by Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond....