Stephanie-V27774
It may very well have to do with the individual attitudes of the people in question. Landlords who don’t make much money from their properties in poor neighborhoods might not want to spend the $$ on maintenance. Poor people might not have the money to buy cleaning supplies, or they might not feel that they have to take responsibility for their messes when their landlords don’t keep the property clean and repaired. Some people make it a personal matter of pride to be neat and responsible, like the Mexican family that you knew. Some people are just filthy, and the amount of money that they make doesn’t make a difference. Of course, living in poverty is also degrading and enervating, so people might feel that it’s hopeless to keep their homes clean because they’ll still be poor. It also seems kind of pointless to scrub your apartment top to bottom if you have rats and roaches and your front porch is covered in other peoples’ garbage.