Half in Ten Briefing Spotlights Solutions to Fight Poverty in Rural, Suburban, and Urban Communities

Economic Justice News 04.14,10

Fighting poverty requires solutions targeted to the unique features of different types of communities, according to anti-poverty experts convened by the Half in Ten campaign for a recent briefing on Capitol Hill.

Low-income families in rural areas tend to be poorer for longer periods of time than low-income families in urban areas, according to Beth Mattingly, director of research on vulnerable families at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey Institute. Suburban and urban low-income families must contend with a shrinking safety net that makes transportation, child care, and job searches difficult.


Elizabeth Kneebone, senior research analyst for the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, said that suburban poverty is increasing at an alarming rate. According to a recent study from the Brookings Institute, between 2000 and 2008 the number of people living in poverty increased by 25 percent in the suburbs of the country’s largest metro areas.


Daniel Dodd of Step Up Savannah discussed how his organization brings government, business, and other sectors together to address poverty in Savannah, GA. Since 2003, the initiative has grown to nurture relationships among more than 80 organizations to develop projects that will engage the community in workforce development, wealth building and financial literacy, and work supports such as transportation, affordable housing, and dependent care.


Dodd pointed out how this collective effort to address poverty benefits the whole city.  “Poverty is a business issue as much as it is a human issue,” he said.


The panelists said that state and federal governments must play a role in helping families to achieve self-sufficiency.  Policy recommendations include:



  • Investing in education initiatives like youth mentoring and early childhood education;
  • Targeting transportation, affordable housing, and job creation as key avenues to help low-income residents connect to job opportunities; and
  • Engaging in a collaborative effort with service providers and state agencies to improve the capacity of existing resources.

Half in Ten is a collaborative anti-poverty campaign led by The Leadership Conference, the Center for American Progress, and the Coalition on Human Needs dedicated to cutting poverty in half in 10 years.