Though people like to complain about food stamp recipients using their benefits for unhealthy things like soda and extravagances like crab legs, new data show they buy basically the same food as everyone else. Households participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and households that didn’t get benefits both bought a lot of junk food, according to a new study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the program.

The number of Americans living on the streets and in shelters has dropped significantly in recent years, according to a new government report, though more than half a million people are still homeless. The annual survey conducted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in January found an estimated 549,928 homeless people across the United States. That figure is down from the 630,227 people who were homeless in January 2009, just before President Obama took office, and down from 647,000 in 2007.

The number of Americans applying for first-time unemployment benefits fell last week, a sign of continued healthy momentum in the U.S. labor market. Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs, declined by 11,000 in the week ended Nov. 5 to a seasonally adjusted 254,000, the lowest level in four weeks, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected 260,000 new claims.

Nine months after the Los Angeles City Council unanimously adopted a comprehensive plan to end homelessness, the first progress report on the plan, released this week, offered a sobering picture of the long and difficult path ahead. Proposals for storage lockers and toilets for street dwellers are stalled, new shelter capacity is being added at a trickle, and the city bureaucracy moving more slowly than some council members had expected.

Drivers’ license suspensions have become a debt-collection tool in many states, often to compel the payment of court-imposed fines and fees. In a handful of states, including Virginia, licenses are suspended for nonpayment even when no motor vehicle violation is involved, nor any issue of public safety, and when defendants are too poor to pay.

Hispanics chasing the American Dream have seen their fortunes rise steadily over the years, except when it comes to the measure that might be most vital: accumulating wealth. The most common gauge of economic well-being is income. But wealth is a far more comprehensive measure, taking into consideration things like home ownership, investments, businesses and savings, while subtracting any debts. It’s a better barometer of how well families are able to weather emergencies, fund higher educations, start businesses and pass assets down to their children, thereby growing the fortunes of younger generations.

Homelessness is one of San Francisco’s most visible problems in a time of plenty. Yet, when it comes to addressing this long-term issue, San Franciscans aren’t ready to be realistic. For proof, look no further than the measures they passed — and failed to pass — on election day. No on Prop. K, which would have raised the sales tax. Yes on Prop. J, which would have dedicated about $50 million of the sales tax money to homeless services. Yes on Prop. Q, which ostensibly makes it illegal to pitch tents on sidewalks.

When this administration took on the challenge to end veteran homelessness, many believed that it was an unattainable goal. For decades, even some of the strongest advocates for people experiencing homelessness looked at the scope of the challenge and felt that it was intractable – that at best we would get better at treating the symptoms of homelessness but that it was a problem we cannot eradicate.

(November 8) – Mary Duffy wondered how it ever happened — how she came to be an outsider in her own community, displaced, unable to afford an apartment. It made no sense. She is a small-business owner, a hardworking member of the middle class, pulling in a respectable income. How in the world, at age 67, did she wind up here, renting this room in a Motel 6? “I passed frantic about three days ago,” she said. “I’ve never been in this kind of state — panic.”

(November 7) – Being a parent is hard, even if you have a partner and a steady income (or two). Now, imagine doing that job solo. It’s a trend that’s risen steadily in the past few decades. In 1968, 85 percent of children were raised in two-parent families, according to U.S. Census data. By 2015, the share of U.S. kids in families with one parent had more than doubled, to 27 percent.