"not so poor" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when you want to indicate that something is better than what is generally believed, but still not great. For example, "The team performed not so poor in the tournament, considering they had a difficult draw."
I'm not so poor anymore".
The lessons of KIPP — some of the lessons, at least — also apply to schools that are not so poor.
"People may say, 'O.K., you made the poor not so poor, but you made the rich very rich and without equitable distribution.' That's why you need reform.
Americans believed that it was possible to become rich and that increasing wealth benefited the poor as well as the not so poor.
Households affected by bedroom tax will undoubtedly be poorer, but not so poor as to be at risk of immediate eviction solely because of the penalty.
Government officials insisted that Serbia was not so poor as to reduce people to selling their body parts, while police officials noted that not a single case of organ trafficking in Serbia has been prosecuted in the past 10 years.
"It was a food of the poor, and people aren't so poor any more.
That's a pretty good riposte, although I'd say that if the other teams weren't so poor then surely United wouldn't have managed 89 points?
In late June, the N.F.L. convened its rookies in the hope of teaching them to make choices that aren't so poor.
It is like saying to Aboriginal families, "If you only made your kids go to school, or knew how to parent properly, or weren't so poor, then you would succeed.
"If we weren't so poor, our children wouldn't have to take work so far from home," said Akhdar, a 67-year-old man who, like many others interviewed, refused to give his full name for fear of reprisals from the authorities.
