1. She is referring to the working class.
2. These people have very little money to survive and are exploited with great intensity. This means that they do not have the resources to live in better conditions.
Explanation:
The text presented in the above question above is an excerpt from the book "Mary Barton" written by Elizabeth Gaskell. In this book we are introduced to the Barton family, a very poor family that belongs to the working class and is therefore a victim of exploitation by their bosses and receive very low wages that barely allow them to eat properly. In this story the Barton family lives in a very precarious situation and after the family's father is arrested, the whole family falls into disgrace, becoming even poorer and living in terrible conditions, which are the conditions shown in the above excerpt. They live that way because they don't have any resources, capable of improving their lives.