Center for Poverty Solutions

Poverty loses when human dignity prevails

America has lost the War on Poverty. After nearly 60 years and $12 trillion, the poverty rate remains stuck between 11% and 15%. We’ve focused on making poverty more bearable rather than helping people escape a trap that lasts for generations. We’ve created dependence and taken people’s dignity and purpose. There are better ways to treat people, and we will bring free-market solutions to one of the most important policy issues of our time through the Center for Poverty Solutions, starting in Chicago. Together, we can defeat poverty and build self-worth.

The K-12 achievement gap in Illinois holds low-income students back

In 2023, just 35.4% of Illinois public school students were proficient in reading and 27.1% in math. For low-income students in particular, the numbers were distressingly lower.

By Larry Han

Illinois’ declining labor force participation rate explains stubborn poverty rate

Data shows Illinoisans who would have been working a generation ago are not today.

By Chris Coffey

The four-step approach to escaping poverty

The relationship between family formation and prosperity is accepted across the political spectrum.

By Chris Coffey

Chicago’s affordable housing program rife with red tape

Time-consuming steps in Chicago’s affordable housing program stops the city from seeing more housing.

By Perry Zhao

How public programs can penalize workers earning more

Families trying to escape poverty are sometimes worse off with greater incomes because of benefits cliffs hidden in public programs.

By Aayush Goodpaty

What does it take to get a building permit in Chicago?

Chicago lags behind other cities in housing affordability. The city’s permitting process could be holding it back.

By Joe Tabor

Chicago might boost housing affordability by allowing more granny flats

Chicago’s city council could boost housing affordability by expanding a program to allow more dwellings to be developed on existing home sites.

By Dylan Sharkey

Poverty hits Black, Hispanic Chicagoans hardest, but education, jobs fix that

Black and Hispanic Chicagoans are persistently impacted by poverty more than other racial groups. What city and state leaders need to focus on is helping people down the path of education, job and then family.

By Chris Coffey

Research shows education, full-time employment can overcome poverty

The city of Chicago’s poverty rate is 17%. The Brookings Institution’s “success sequence” shows what city and state leaders need to focus on if we want to provide a pathway to prosperity.

By Chris Coffey

Brashen Gilbert

“What’s really held Englewood back as a community is there’s not a lot of male mentors. A lot of us grew up without fathers and we don’t really have a positive male role model to look up to. When you take that away, we end up on the street or in jail.”

Keith Bass

Keith Bass grew up in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, where as a young man he struggled to see a productive path forward for his life. That changed when he was mentored in entrepreneurship by Walter Mendenhall through the Male Mogul Initiative. On April 11, the initiative unveiled its new small business incubator, Co-llab, with Bass as...

How Chicago, Illinois can prepare so workers don’t become obsolete

Jobs are the best way to escape poverty, but the workplace will continue to change rapidly. To ensure Illinoisans don’t lose the jobs that lift them up, job skills will need to evolve along with education.

By Ravi Mishra

The Policy Shop: Solving poverty (the right way)

On April 9, the U.S. House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Welfare and Work came to the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago for a field hearing to explore how the dignity of work provides a solution to poverty. The expansion of work opportunities as a key to addressing the poverty problem is a core principle...

Eradicating poverty through the dignity of work

Illinois Policy Institute President Matt Paprocki told members of congress how the Center for Poverty Solutions is working to end poverty by boosting work opportunities. He said human dignity requires work rather than dependence.

By Matt Paprocki