'Tis a huge difference between "poor" and "squalid".
I grew up poor. Didn't know it, though, because everyone else was in the same boat my family was in. :-) I'm sure that Dad would have loved some help fixing furniture; he was busy working 6 days a week, and volunteering to boot.
I commute through a lower-middle class to "poor" neighborhood on my way to work. Everything is neatly kept up, painted, trimmed, mowed, etc etc. My guess, they'd love a hand, too.
I don't commute through the "squalid" neighborhoods. 'Tisn't safe. The cops only venture through there in force.
The difference? I can think of five separate churches that I pass by on my commute, in a dozen-block radius. There are more, I'm sure, a street or two over, too. Dunno about the "squalid" neighborhood, like I said, I don't venture there often. I know there are plenty of pawn shops and liquor stores. Couple of homeless shelters, too.
Whatever you subsidize, you get more of, IMHO.
Yup, squalid vs. poor.
Poor makes do with what they’ve got.
Squalid destroys it.