(Feb. 26) – “We find that underreporting of government transfers severely understates income of those in deep poverty and thereby makes poverty look more severe and inequality look worse than it truly is,” the authors stated. “Using the administrative variables, poverty and inequality are lower than officially reported, program effects are larger, and fewer individuals have fallen through the safety net.”

(Feb. 26) – More than 50 million Americans live in economically distressed regions plagued by high levels of unemployment, poverty and fiscal anxiety, according to a new report that highlights just how uneven the domestic recovery has been.

(Feb. 26) – The U.S. economy right now is a pretty mixed bag: On Tuesday, the White House released a reassuring economic report that says the overall U.S. economy has rebounded strongly since the Great Recession, and that it’s still on the rise. But the report also acknowledged that rising wealth and income disparities urgently need to be addressed.

(Feb. 26) – As a Supreme Court ruling on housing policy loomed and unflattering depictions of the affordable housing industry circulated, I prepared for a relevant American Bar Association panel on housing policy. We explored incentives for creating affordable housing in “high opportunity areas” rather than concentrating such projects in distressed, low-income, minority neighborhoods. 

(Feb. 26) – The burden of “Evicted,” Matthew Desmond’s astonishing book, is to show that the world Lamar inhabits is indeed hell, or as close an approximation as you are likely to find in a 21st-century American city.

(Feb. 24) – A panel of House Republican leaders rolled out a set of goals and broad policy reforms Wednesday geared toward fighting poverty. The platform launch is the first step in House Speaker Paul Ryan’s push to temper election-year anger with a “bold, pro-growth agenda” of conservative solutions.

(Feb. 25) – Poverty in Wisconsin hit its highest level in 30 years during the five-year period ending in 2014, even as the nation’s economy was recovering from the Great Recession, according to a trend analysis of U.S. census data just released by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers.

(Feb. 24) – News of the increasing numbers of deaths among middle-aged Americans and the high rates of opiate overdoses are in the news, and since 2011, the Obama administration’s Rural Poverty Coalition has been tackling the multi-generational issues that come with providing social services to rural America. 

(Feb. 24) – Rural children living in poverty will receive more attention under several new initiatives announced by the Obama administration during a Tuesday meeting of the White House Rural Council. 

(Feb. 24) – The gap between the richest and poorest American communities has widened since the Great Recession ended, and distressed areas are faring worse just as the recovery is gaining traction across much of the country.