Policy Briefs

Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit for Childless Young Adults Improves Housing Security: Evidence from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act

October 14, 2026

Jiwan Lee, Katherine Michelmore, Natasha Pilkauskas, Christopher Wimer

Young adults ages 18 to 24 in the United States face some of the highest poverty rates of any age group: 1 in 5 lives in poverty,1 and over half have incomes below 200% of the poverty threshold (approximately $32,000 for a one-person household in 202...

"American Rescue Plan" highlighted in a document

Policy Briefs

Lessons from Detroit's ShotStoppers Community Violence Intervention Program

September 23, 2026

Sam Stragand, Amanda Nothaft, John Bulat

The City of Detroit partnered with Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan to evaluate the first two years of the ShotStoppers program. Our evaluation drew on public safety data, administrative records, interviews, focus groups, and surveys t...

Map of Community Violence Intervention zones in Detroit

Policy Briefs

Sheriff and Community Mental Health Partner to Bring Co-Response to Washtenaw County, MI

March 18, 2026

Matthew Alemu

Download PDF of the full essay Introduction“Don’t hurt them!” I heard this appeal from a Black male driving by what he likely interpreted as the start of an unprovoked police encounter with a civilian. At a quick glance, this driver’s perception mak...

Policy Briefs

Exploring the Role of Homeowners Insurance in Economic Mobility and Neighborhood Stability in Detroit

March 11, 2026

Sam Stragand, Amanda Nothaft

Houses on a neighborhood street in Detroit

Policy Briefs

Public Banking in California: Learning from the Bank of North Dakota

July 7, 2025

Daria Lenderman, Lucy Lawrence, Gabriel Coll, Terri Friedline

Download PDF of full policy brief IntroductionPublic banking is a promising way for cities and states to most efficiently use public funds for investing in their communities, especially supporting small business owners, developing affordable housing...

Policy Briefs

The COVID-Era Social Safety Net and Economic Well-Being Beyond Child Poverty

February 20, 2025

H. Luke Shaefer

Policy Briefs

Lessons Learned from Pandemic-era Aid: Opportunities for schools to improve the identification of children experiencing homelessness

January 31, 2025

Jennifer Erb-Downward, William D. Lopez, John Bulat

Download PDF of full policy brief IntroductionFunds from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 dedicated to Homeless Children and Youth (referred to as ARP-HCY) dramatically expanded the number of school districts in the state of New York and national...

Policy Briefs

Inequality in Crime Victim Compensation

September 18, 2024

Jeremy Levine

Download PDF to view full issue brief IntroductionIn the aftermath of crime, victims face considerable challenges. Survivors of gun violence rack up hospital bills. Rape victims seek mental health counseling and relocate to safer environments. Famil...

Policy Briefs

Opportunities and Challenges of Public Banking in the Windy City: Perspectives of Chicago Residents

July 17, 2023

Terri Friedline, Sofia Da Silva, Ameya Pawar

Download PDF to view full policy brief > IntroductionThere has been a groundswell of interest in public banking in recent years. Public banking coalitions are active in about 35 cities with a combined 43 million residents, such as in Los Angeles, Ne...

Policy Briefs

Suburban Detroit Water Unaffordability: Causes, Consequences, and the Need for Comprehensive Policy Interventions

May 15, 2023

Dana Kornberg, Mackenzie Taradalsky, Victoria Guster-Brown, Sylvia Orduño, Diane Weckerle

Download PDF for the full policy brief IntroductionMichigan is blessed with a significant portion of the world’s freshwater supply, but water quality and affordability have been persistent issues affecting households throughout the state. Overwhelmi...

Policy Briefs

Evidence on Measures to Reduce Excessive Use of Force by the Police

January 19, 2023

Trevor Bechtel, Mara Cecilia Ostfeld, H. Luke Shaefer

Download PDF for the full policy brief IntroductionThe tragic killings of a number of unarmed Black individuals by law enforcement officers, including Tamir Rice, George Floyd, Philando Castile and Breonna Taylor, has brought the racialized nature o...

Policy Briefs

Can a Public Bank Redress the Private Banking Industry’s Harms to Chicago’s Residents? An Analysis of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Complaints Database

January 18, 2023

Terri Friedline, Ameya Pawar

Download PDF for the full policy brief IntroductionTo participate fully in the economy, people need financial products and services made available by banks to pay bills, send money to friends and relatives, buy a house, and start businesses. These p...

Policy Briefs

The Child Development and Care Subsidy: Challenges and Opportunities

November 11, 2022

William D. Lopez, Karen Otzen Kling, Amanda Nothaft

Download PDF for full policy brief See an accessible version of the PDF IntroductionAccess to high-quality, affordable, and reliable child care is essential to economic stability and mobility for families. In Michigan, finding and paying for child ...

Policy Briefs

Learning from COVID-19 Eviction Response Measures in Detroit

November 11, 2022

Alexa (Lex) Eisenberg, Research Area Specialist Senior, Laura Meyer

Download PDF of full policy brief Download PDF of related working paper IntroductionMass evictions threatened public health long before the onset of COVID-19. Because the power and property relationships that give rise to eviction are structured by ...

Policy Briefs

How Much Did Child Poverty Fall Between 1993 And 2019? How Does That Compare To What Happened Between 2019-2021?

October 28, 2022

H. Luke Shaefer, Patrick Cooney

Trends in the Economic Well-Being of Households with Children (presentation) Download full PDF essay Download data (excel spreadsheet) IntroductionIn a recent story in the New York Times, Jason DeParle wrote about a new report by the research cente...

Policy Briefs

Material Hardship and Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2022

October 27, 2022

Patrick Cooney, H. Luke Shaefer

Download PDF of full policy brief IntroductionFor the past two years, we have reported on rates of material hardship experienced by U.S. households, to better understand the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and government aid efforts. Over ...

Policy Briefs

The Effects of Income on the Economic Well-being of Families with Low Incomes: Evidence from the 2021 Expanded Child Tax Credit

September 27, 2022

Natasha Pilkauskas, Katherine Michelmore, H. Luke Shaefer

Download PDF of full policy brief IntroductionInterest in basic income and unconditional cash transfers as a means of improving well-being has grown substantially over the last few years in the United States. There remains much to learn about the cau...

Policy Briefs

Lessons from Detroit's Make It Home Program for Sustaining Very Low-Income Homeownership

August 10, 2022

Margaret Dewar, Roshanak Mehdipanah

Download PDF of full policy brief IntroductionLow-income homeownership is precarious. Households with limited income can lose ownership when they fail to pay their mortgages, which often have unfavorable terms, or property taxes, which are often inf...

house keys with a key chain that reads "home sweet home"

Policy Briefs

The Power of Connections: Cultivating Social Capital to Drive Economic Opportunity in Detroit

July 25, 2022

Afton Branche-Wilson, Anna Lam, Judy Lansky

Download pdf of full policy brief IntroductionPublic policy discourse about poverty often starts and ends with a call to expand resources including post-secondary education, income supports, or workforce development opportunities. Although this appr...

Policy Briefs

One Time Spending for Long-Term Impact: Evaluating Washtenaw County's American Rescue Plan Act Allocations

July 5, 2022

Amanda Nothaft

Download PDF of full policy brief IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemic and its disproportionate impact on Black and other non-White communities illustrated existing economic and health disparities, not only nationally, but also in Washtenaw County. Mir...

Policy Briefs

The COVID-19 Cash Transfer Studies

June 13, 2022

H. Luke Shaefer, Brian Jacob, Natasha Pilkauskas

Download PDF of full policy brief, "The COVID Cash Transfer Studies: Key Findings and Future Directions" By H. Luke Shaefer, Brian A. Jacob, Natasha V. Pilkauskas, Elizabeth Rhodes, and Katherine Richard Download PDF of working paper on Randomized...

Policy Briefs

Material Hardship and Well-Being of U.S. Households at the End of 2021

March 22, 2022

Pat Cooney, H. Luke Shaefer, Samiul Jubaed

Download PDF of full policy brief IntroductionOver the past two years, the federal government has passed and implemented a set of unprecedented and robust cash-based safety net measures — most notably expanded unemployment insurance (UI), a series o...

Policy Briefs

Disability in the Shadow of Mass Incarceration

March 11, 2022

Reuben Jonathan Miller

Download PDF of full essay IntroductionIt was April of 2009. The city of Chicago was just past the midpoint of its “10 year plan to end homelessness,” and it was only a few months before city officials admitted the depths of the city’s poverty, rena...

Policy Briefs

A Way Home: Why Supporting Youth Experiencing Homelessness is Critical in Michigan

February 23, 2022

Jennifer Erb-Downward, Amanda Nothaft

Download PDF of full policy brief View accessible version of PDF IntroductionBefore the start of the pandemic, Michigan’s public schools identified 4,763 homeless youth living independent of parental support. These youth are homeless—living outside...

a person with their head in their lap while sitting on steps

Policy Briefs

Analysis of the Census 2020 Count in Detroit

December 16, 2021

Patrick Cooney, Ren Farley, Samiul Jubaed, Kurt Metzger, Jeffrey Morenoff, Lisa Neidert, Ramona Rodriguez-Washington

Download PDF of full policy brief Executive SummaryEach year the Census Bureau releases an official estimate of the residential population of every municipality in the nation. The Census Bureau estimated that in 2019, Detroit had a population of ro...

Policy Briefs

Families with Low Incomes and the Child Tax Credit: Who is Still Missing Out?

December 14, 2021

Natasha Pilkauskas, Katherine Michelmore

Download PDF of the full policy brief IntroductionSince July, the vast majority of families with children under 18 have been receiving a monthly payment from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as part of the temporarily expanded Child Tax Credit (CT...