Poverty Reduction in the Short and Long Term

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has mitigated some of the effects of the recession by expanding and extending the supports available through food stamps, unemployment benefits, and health insurance, and by providing states with general purpose aid. While federal assistance has helped states support the growing numbers of residents who are unemployed or who are living in poverty, ARRA is due to expire long before the recession stops impacting the labor market and state budgets. The Urban Institute brief, Reducing Poverty and Economic Distress after ARRA: Next Steps for Short-Term Recovery and Long-Term Economic Security, outlines key goals for federal antipoverty policy. Goals include:

• Provide jobs and income support as well as other services to reduce the short-term distress over the next 3-5 years.
• Prepare policy responses that might lessen the next economic downturn.
• Make sensible long-term investments in reducing poverty by extending certain provisions of ARRA and creating additional measures (such as investing in education and post-secondary credential programs aimed at low-income youth).

For more information on Family Economic Success.

While the brief discusses the antipoverty policy goals for the federal government, several of their suggestions are also relevant to state governments. With state budget cuts likely to be even deeper in 2011 than they were this year, it is critical that policy and program level strategies support the families most in need now as well as ensure greater economic security for all families in the future.

For more information on place-based strategies to reduce poverty and economic distress after ARRA. (For other results-based financing posts visit our financing community change blog).