20+ Actionable Strategies for Addressing Poverty in the U.S.

A couple of days ago I summarized some of the most insidious factors that are exacerbating and perpetuating poverty in the U.S. It was a pretty bleak post. Today I take on the challenge of listing potential actions we can take to alleviate poverty, focusing on actions that are politically and economically feasible. 

I'm also intentionally focusing that do more than make poverty more survivable. Surely our nation can do better than merely making it possible for the poor to stave off starvation and homelessness ... barely. Our goal, according to Matthew Desmond, author of Poverty, by America, should be "poverty emancipation" - making it possible for people currently living below the poverty line to build wealth and emerge from poverty entirely.

Looking for more in-depth information? Desmond's excellent and authoritative jeremiad is the place to start, but I've included a bibliography (below) of other resources I drew upon in composing this list.   

1. Banking & Finance Reforms
1. Cap the fees that predatory lenders can charge on short-term loans - protections that apply not just to the initial loan, but loan extensions. Not only are the rates on short-term loans obscenely high, but many of these lenders deliberately structure their loans so that they are easily extended (all the better to tempt desperate clients), at rates that quickly become insanely usurious.
2. Create means-tested bank accounts specifically for the poor. Currently, people who live in poverty have two options, both of them equally expensive: either (1) deposit their money in banks, only to watch their balances whittled away by bank and ATM fees, or (2) utilize check-cashing companies that claim a percentage of the money they pay out. Poor people need access to safe, affordable banking: accounts that have no required minimum balance, that are exempt from ATM fees, that eschew long holds that make funds unavailable, and that are protected against exorbitant overdraft fees. Another advantage of bank accounts: they create a financial track record that can help people in poverty build credit. 
2. Housing Reforms
1. Invest in affordable, accessible housing. Insufficient housing drives up pricing for everyone, but people in poverty take the worst hit because they end up paying out a much higher percentage of their income to secure housing.
2. Pass zoning laws that make it easier to build high density housing. One way to make more housing available? Topple the current laws that protect low-density housing. In his book, Desmond suggests that when laws were passed in the 1970s eliminating redlining, many municipalities simply transitioned to zoning laws designed to exclude the types of housing that might attract "undesirables." We need to call out these laws for what they are - elitist and exclusionary - and make it easier to build lower-cost, higher-density housing where it's needed ... not just where it won't bother anyone.
3. Make it easier for people to obtain competitive mortgages for lower-cost housing. Banks tend to turn their noses up at mortgages for lower-cost housing because the modest returns they'll realize off the interest aren't worth the effort (or the perception/reality of risk), making it difficult for people in reduced circumstances to participate in the real estate market, one of the U.S.'s most reliable sources of wealth generation. 
4. Limit the extent to which landlords can raise rents. This is a tricky one, as it goes against our American spirit of capitalism to limit the extent to which people profit off their investments. But research shows that when minimum wage is raised, or rates of wealth in poor communities increase (perhaps due to the arrival of a well-paying employer), landlords reliably raise their rates to absorb the difference. If we want to increase the spendable income of people in poverty, we need to find ways to limit the ability of landlords to negate gains in income.  
5. Make it easier for tenants to transition rental buildings to co-ops. Another way to participate in the real estate market: allowing tenants to organize and purchase properties that are on sale by the landlord. Unfortunately, current law makes it easy for landlords to leverage their advantage in such negotiations, demanding prices and concessions far above what the regular market would bear. 
6. Aggressively monitor rental units for housing code violations; respond immediately to complaints with investigations, fines, and follow-ups. What does this have to do with poverty? People who live in unsafe buildings are more exposed to violence, stress, and health issues - all of which impede the ability of families to access important amenities (robust transportation, healthy commercial districts, good schools) and lead to higher health care costs.
7. As long as we're at it, in fact, why don't we make subsidized housing glorious? Instead of placing the responsibility for subsidized housing in the hands of private companies motivated by short-term greed, we should be taking steps to ensure that future builds prioritize long-term safety, aesthetics, and health. Appealing neighborhoods attract amenities and create educational and economic opportunities.
8. Maintain landlord accountability by guaranteeing the rights of renters to access legal remedies. As things currently stand, landlords who engage in exploitation (refusing to perform necessary repairs, imposing enormous late fines, engaging in punitive evictions) have many legal avenues for avoiding accountability, such as requiring as a condition of rental that rentees agree to resolve disputes via mediation - a process that can easily be manipulated to favor landlord interests.
9. Eliminate lead paint and lead pipes. Again, what does this have to do with poverty? Lead is isn't just any toxin - it's a neurotoxin. In children, continuous exposure to high levels of lead lowers overall IQ and contributes to higher rates of disruptive behaviour - factors that can impede the ability of these children to realize financial success as adults. And where are the highest levels of lead often found? In poor communities, where peeling paint and unmodernized plumbing systems are often the norm.
3. Access to Employment
1. Enforce a livable minimum wage and set limits on workarounds that allow employers to shirk benefits: limiting hours, requiring that employees work as independent contractors,  etc.  One thing that keeps poor people poor is that they are too often forced to pay out-of-pocket for benefits that wealthier people take for granted, such as subsidized health care. Also, while we're at it, we need to be aggressively prosecute companies found guilty of wage fraud, an injustice that specifically targets poor people because they lack the time, resources, or power to protect themselves.
2. Modify current laws that give employers wide license to quell worker's efforts to organize and collectively bargain. Contrary to popular belief, unionizing employees isn't proven to result in either higher prices or job loss - but it is proven to put money, benefits, and security in the pockets of workers. This likely explains why large employers and the Chambers of Commerce they sponsor continue to protect laws that make it as hard as possible for workers to engage in collective action.
3. Limit practices like just-in-time-scheduling and at-will employment. All employees deserve financial stability, but being able to anticipate revenue is especially critical for folks that are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Without this stability, workers can't effectively invest in their own futures.  
4. Eliminate predatory non-compete agreements. Employees need to be free to sell their services/expertise to the highest bidder, unencumbered by spurious non-compete agreements whose sole purpose is to frighten employees into staying where they are by "poisoning the well." 
5. Support and enforce pay equity to combat ongoing discrimination against populations most likely to experience poverty.  Politicians love talking about gender inequality and racial inequality, but no one's talking about the data that shows that people in poverty are paid less than wealthier colleagues with the same level of expertise. We need to close the pay gap that has poor people earning ~30% less than their more privileged peers.  
6. Open up more opportunities in high school for vocational training. ____________
7. Create opportunities for folks in prison to participate in vocational education, and create systems that place them in jobs with livable wages upon their release. Currently, jails are basically factories for generating poor people. Released convicts face job discrimination, housing discrimination, and are often estranged from family/community support due to prison "best practices" that, among other things, charge prisoners for phone calls to loved ones. We need programs that disrupt this cycle by focusing on equipping prisoners with the tools and resources they will need to generate wealth. 
4. Access to Benefits
1. Make the process for applying for benefits more accessible. If we're going to provide programs to support poverty, then let's at least make then accessible! Our current system is dogged by inconsistent information, inaccessible processes (often requiring access to computers, wifi, printers, and a high degree of computer literacy), and unconscionable processing delays. Many poor resort to hiring attorneys they can't afford to obtain rights that they are imminently qualified to receive - attorneys who then skim a portion of the awards for themselves. (Is this really how we want to be spending the tax dollars we earmark for poverty relief - making lawyers richer?) We need either to be reforming our current processes or at least providing free access to advocates who can help people in poverty navigate our current labyrinthian systems.
2. Eliminate penalties that dis-incent families. One tested way to build wealth is through collective living where individuals pool their financial resources, as happens when people marry or establish multi-generational households. However, our current benefits systems continue to provide higher benefits to single heads of household. 
3. Make child care affordable, available, and exceptional. Parents can't work unless they have someone to take care of their children, and they can't even begin to generate wealth if child care is so expensive, it's absorbing all their disposable income. Moreover, we need to make sure that the child care we provide isn't just babysitting, but proactively building the essential foundations for learning and future success: literacy, numeracy, and social/emotional intelligence. 
4. Make health care affordable, available, and exceptional. Recent legislation has addressed the imperative to subsidize care for the poor, but too many people who live just above the poverty line are unable to access these programs, forcing them to devote a disproportionate percentage of their disposable incomes on doctors, prescriptions, and medical supplies and thereby limiting their ability to build wealth. 
5. Provide guarantees access to paid medical leave and paid sick days. One of the many ways that we penalize poor people is by denying them paid sick days. Not only do minimum-way employers refuse paid leave, but currently they also have wide leverage to fire employees who have the temerity to ask for unpaid leave. We need to stop expecting people in poverty to tolerate inequities that would never be tolerated by their wealthier peers. 
6. Regularly audit states to ensure that grants to address poverty are actually being expended on poverty assistance. Way too much of the aid that the federal government gives to states for poverty relief ends up being spent on things that have little/nothing to do with poverty relief: pork projects, initiatives that advance political agendas. This needs to stop.
5. Potential Sources of Funding
1. Reconsider programs that reward wealth.  Provisions such as tax breaks for home ownership and inherited wealth tend to benefit those least in need of financial assistance. This has proved a hard thing to fix, not just because folks who are wealthy have the resources to sway legislators, but also because - in a country where everyone believes they have the potential to one day become wealthy (that pyramid scheme is sure to pay off one day!), even people currently living in poverty can be persuaded not to pass laws that may one day place limits on their own access to wealth. 
2. Track down tax cheaters and make them pay. Recently, the head of the IRS estimated that we are losing $1T in revenue due to tax cheaters, primarily multinational corporations and wealthy individuals. Imagine the poverty alleviation programs we could fund with that kind of money! 
3. Prioritize programs that help build wealth. To be clear, I'm not advocating shifting funds away from the programs that provide critical support to the poor: Earned Income Tax Credit, housing subsidies, WIC, etc. But I am advocating that we spend more time and treasure focusing on program that help the poor to build financial security and wealth. 

SOURCES: 

Desmond, Matthew. Poverty By America. Crown Publishing Group:New York. 2023.

Pathak, A and Ross, K. The Top 12 Solutions to Cut Poverty in the United States, 30 June 2021. Center for American Progress. Accessed Nov 2024 at https://www.americanprogress.org/article/top-12-solutions-cut-poverty-united-states/

Rappaport, Alan. Tax Cheats Cost the US $1T per year, IRS Chief Says. New York Times, 13 Oct 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/business/irs-tax-gap.html