The Politics of Poverty Exposed in There Are No Children HereAt a young age, Lajoe, his parents and his other siblings were the first family to move into the new Henry Horner. Homes, a high-rise public housing project on Chicago's South Side. Lajoe remembers how clean and spacious their apartment was back then. As the years went by, the city became less and less able to allocate funds to deal with needed repairs to the buildings and the city didn't seem to care. Projects have become dilapidated, damp and condensed to support a large family. Lajoe became pregnant at the age of fourteen and was unable to complete high school. Eventually, she married Paul Rivers, the father of her child, and they had six more children. Lajoe's husband, Paul, was mostly separated from them and rarely offered support to their children. This story centers on the lives of the two middle children, Lafayette and Pharaoh, in the family. The older of the two boys, Lafayette, takes on the role of co-parent and support system for his mother by worrying about his younger siblings. ' well-being, who their friends are and whether they correctly dodge bullets in the hallway. He has four younger siblings, a brother a few years younger than him, and a set of triplets. He particularly watched his brother Pharaoh who was weaker and easily intimidated. At one point in the story, Lajoe realized that due to her husband's absence and lack of close adult relationships, she had placed a huge responsibility on Lafayette's shoulders. Lajoe said: “The things I should be talking to Paul about, I was talking to Lafie, I put him in a bad position. But I had no one to talk to. Lafie, that day, became a man of twelve years old. »(101) Lafayette had lost his childhood somewhere in the cities. He lived in constant fear for his life and the lives of those he loved. He tried to stay out of trouble and avoid dealing with gangs. But when you come from construction sites, it's difficult to avoid trouble. There were numerous occasions when police falsely accused Lafayette and his older brother, Terrence. As Lafayette grew older, it was harder for him to avoid older boys and not get caught up in the fast-paced crowd..