A while back, I randomly was watching ABC News, and came across an amazing hour-long story about the lives of a group of poor kids in Camden. It really was a wonderful job of showing just how desperate the lives of so many Americans are. And, I wasn’t alone in being affected by the story, because the show took on a life of its own. Governor’s Corzine’s staffers apparently made him watch a tape of it, charity poured in, etc.

Now, one of the families featured on the show- the Marrero’s- is back in the news again. In fact, they had a brand new house for them built over the course of a week (in Pennsauken, not Camden) by the show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. First, let me state that it is wonderful that the family got a new home. Absolutely wonderful. But, there is something about all of this follow-up to the ABC piece that is so problematic, and echoes all-too familiar storylines about the deserving poor.

The deserving poor, for those who don’t know it, is an old term (used at least as far back as the Elizabethan-era in England) to talk about poor people who were a-ok, because they were sick or injured, etc. These ‘noble’ poor people didn’t deserve their lot in life, so, society was supposed to take care of them with charity. In other words, the nice guy father of five in Camden, who has a huge heart, but suffered two major heart attacks is deserving, so he gets a new house. Then, of course, there are the undeserving poor. You know, those 12-kid-having, welfare-defrauding-queens who are stealing money from the public.

Even without meaning it, Inquirer columnist Annette John-Hall gives a great example of the 'deserving poor' narrative that developed:

The family's struggles have been well-documented. A 20/20 documentary about the children of Camden first introduced us to Billy Joe, the oldest son, and the rest of the Marreros in January.

It was hard not to root for Victor: A pair of heart attacks in seven years had left him unable to resume work as an office manager and he was out of health insurance. He couldn't depend on his wife. She left with the couple's three daughters after his first heart attack in '94.

That left Victor, 54, permanently disabled, alone with five stairsteps - Jonas, 15; Steven, 16; Ethan, 17; Joshua, 18; to Billy Joe, 19 - to raise and no income to raise them.

Just like that, a situation that was already real bad became untenable.

"We were cold and hungry, but we never complained," Billy Joe tells me, relaying the story while crowded with his brothers on a leather loveseat in a family room decorated with Victor-mandated Eagles memorabilia.

This is clearly a loving family, who got the shaft in life, and are now getting some much deserved luck. But, what about everyone else in the City they moved from? The point is that the deserving poor, even when not explicitly referred to, is an extraordinarily dangerous road to go down. Yes, it was amazing that within days of original airing of the show, charity poured in for these families. Americans are, at their core, good hearted people. But, what would have been much more amazing was a realization that the Marrero family story could have been replicated over and over and over, in Camden, Philadelphia, and places all over the Country.

The answer to such massive, deeply entrenched generational poverty is not charity. The answer is public policy. If ABC and the Inquirer really want to serve their cities, the answer will not be more stories that focus on ‘fixing’ the situation of one or two families. They will continue instead to document just how pervasive poverty is, and what we can do as a city, region, state and nation to end it.