To identify solutions to hunger, Congress created the bipartisan National Commission on Hunger “to provide policy recommendations to Congress and the USDA Secretary to more effectively use existing programs and funds of the Department of Agriculture to combat domestic hunger and food insecurity.”
Child care can be an insurmountable barrier for low-income parents seeking education and training so they can get better jobs to support their families. Helping families with child care can also be challenging for programs trying to help these parents get ahead. Despite funding and policy barriers, there are programs that have taken on this challenge.
An estimated 2.8 million Americans between the ages of 16 and 24 are neither in school nor employed. In many big cities, up to one-fourth of all young adults can be characterized as “disconnected.” The problem is also severe in rural communities located in high-poverty areas, a pattern that is vividly illustrated by the disproportionate number of minority youth in the South who fall into this category.
In 2000, HUD, in recognition that any solution to homelessness must emphasize housing, targeted its McKinney-Vento Act homeless competitive programs towards housing activities. This policy decision presumed that mainstream programs such as Medicaid, TANF and General Assistance could pick up the slack produced by the change. This study examines how seven communities sought to improve homeless people’s access to mainstream services following this shift away from funding services through the Supportive Housing Program (SHP).
In 2006, the Community Affairs Offices of the Federal Reserve System partnered with the Brookings Institution to examine the issue of concentrated poverty. The resulting report, The Enduring Challenge of Concentrated Poverty in America: Case Studies from Communities Across the U.S., profiles 16 high-poverty communities from across the country, including immigrant gateway, Native American, urban, and rural communities.