» COVID-19

Resource Guides

In response to the pandemic, Poverty Solutions and our partners developed community education tools to ensure residents and community advocates have up to date information on how to access critical resources to support health and economic stability.

Stimulus Check Guide

Poverty Solutions partnered with Civilla to create a website to make sure Michiganders received their federal stimulus checks as soon as possible. The site, viewed over 250,000 times and used as a template for other organizations and governments such as the city of Detroit, walks people through a step-by-step process to ensure they have provided the IRS with the information necessary to receive their stimulus checks.

The Child Tax Credit: What You Need to Know

Poverty Solutions created a website with step-by-step guidance to ensure parents receive the expanded Child Tax Credit, which is worth up to $3,600 per child per year. Information on eligibility and how to access the tax credit is available on the website in English, Spanish (Español), Arabic (باللغة العربية), and Bangla (বাংলা ভাষায়).

COVID-19 Response in the State of Michigan

At the state level, Poverty Solutions Faculty Director Luke Shaefer has worked in close partnership with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to connect families with resources to help them meet basic needs, streamline processes to reduce strain on families in crisis, and help enable families to adhere to the state’s shelter-in-place order. These efforts helped to inform several responses by the State, including:

Making Michigan the first state to deliver added food assistance to families with federal funds totaling nearly $1 billion.
Gain federal approval to suspend work requirements, recertification activities, and in-person interview requirements for food and cash assistance programs, eliminating cumbersome barriers to more quickly deliver resources.
Implement numerous policy changes to streamline access to energy assistance, and negotiating long-term rate reductions and subsidy programs with DTE and Consumers Energy.

Poverty Solutions also advised state and local officials on policies to support housing stability through the crisis, and mitigate the risk faced by homeless families and individuals.

COVID-19 Response in Detroit

Poverty Solutions worked alongside partners at the city to inform the City of Detroit’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including the eviction moratorium, homelessness response, and access to technology for Detroit public school students.

In response to the pandemic U-M’s Detroit Metro Area Communities Study conducted several rapid-response surveys examining how Detroiters are adapting to try to make ends meet in the face of widespread job loss and economic upheaval.

DMACS COVID-19 findings