CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — According to the U.S. Census, 26.7 million people live below the poverty line in Texas.
Texas A&M University Corpus Christi worked to lower that number with their Cost of Poverty Experience event.
"I wish people knew how complicated it is," facilitator of C.O.P.E, Kyle Johnson.
Johnson is referring to poverty.
He helped put on the cost of poverty experience.
Johnson said it's not as cut and dry as people think.
"While the system can be navigated to bring people out of poverty, when the right tools are not being used that same system can trap people in poverty," he said.
To help convey that message the university set up a simulation where people stepped into the shoes of someone experiencing poverty.
it began by participants receiving a folder outlining their new life.
"You have family situations where it could be a family of one person all the way up to a family of six people with children spouses, the cases could include domestic violence," Deshawna Colvin with Texas A&M University-CC said.
Followed up by having a limited amount of cash and having to accomplish tasks.
Although this is a visual representation Colvin said poverty isn't always obvious.
"We also think of poverty as something you can actually see," she said. "There's people who are going to work every single day who live paycheck to paycheck who have to pay for day care, who don't have a car so they have to use public transportation."
Johnson said he hopes that’s the part of people's take away from the experience.
"The greatest power of all is when we can come back together and debrief and just acknowledge what happened, acknowledging the temptation and situation that they found themselves in and it just gives them a perspective that helps them when they leave here," he said.
The university said they hope to host the event again next year.