I'd rephrase as "you just can't help SOME people". There are disadvantaged/disenfranchised communities that are that way primarily due to circumstances beyond

I'd rephrase as "you just can't help SOME people". There are disadvantaged/disenfranchised communities that are that way primarily due to circumstances beyond their control (ie local large employer closed/left town) and would/will pick themselves up given the opportunity and perhaps the right leadership. There are also plenty of disadvantaged/disenfranchised communities that are so pathological and broken every person in town could win the lottery and the community would still be in abject poverty a year later. If you're going to try your hand at community development you have to determine which mixture of those camps your community is. It's difficult to discern, but too often the question of "what are the social/cultural issues preventing the community from moving forward, and how might those be addressed?" gets dismissed because the people who get into community development have a messiah complex and can't imagine how these poor victims they're saving might have contributed to their own circumstances. When talking about communities of color the question is often dismissed as racist. The result is superficial, overly-idealistic solutions that almost always fail.