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.

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.”

REPORTS

Common-ground solutions to empower Chicago’s poor: A model for America’s cities

Center for Poverty Solutions: How to better assess poverty in Chicago and America

Making work pay in Illinois: How welfare cliffs can trap families in poverty

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

Ehi Aimiuwu

“After high school, I wanted to do something related to tech. I ended up going to Prairie State College. I already had one kid at the time. I ended up dropping out because I got into a really bad relationship.” “The relationship ended up causing both of us to be homeless. I was in and...

The Rev. Charles Moodie

“I’m originally from Yonkers, New York. I’ve been married 23 years to my wife, Kehinde, and I have two sons: Joshua, who is 23, and Josiah, who is 21.” “When we were in New York, my wife and I believed Chicago is where God wanted us to be. So, my wife and I resigned our...

The Policy Shop: The real causes of – and solutions to – Chicago poverty

This edition of The Policy Shop is by Bryce Hill, director of fiscal and economic research Chicago voters soundly rejected raising taxes on businesses and renters March 19 when they told Mayor Brandon Johnson they didn’t trust his lack of a plan to “Bring Chicago Home.” Johnson still didn’t seem to get the message, even...

Vallas: 8 ways to fix Chicago housing crisis without Johnson’s tax hike

Now that Mayor Brandon Johnson’s real estate transfer tax has failed, here are eight practical ways Chicago can provide more affordable housing without raising taxes.

By Paul Vallas

Fabian Santiago

“I was arrested and framed for murder four days after turning 16 years old. I have an ongoing multimillion-dollar lawsuit.” “To this day, the U.S. Attorney’s office hasn’t produced one criminal prosecution of this crew, but at the time in Humboldt Park there was a group of detectives who were basically running as a criminal...

Sherronda Booker

“2020, after volunteering at my children’s school for so long, I was offered a job in the lunchroom. I think the wage was maybe $13 an hour. I am also a licensed cosmetologist who was not actively doing hair because I was more focused on raising my three children.” “$13-an-hour was not enough to live...

The Policy Shop: Chicago’s poverty paradox

This edition of The Policy Shop is by Head of Policy Joshua Bandoch. When President Lyndon B. Johnson told the U.S. Congress in 1964 he was declaring the War on Poverty, he did not set out a vision for an America in which over $12 trillion in taxes would be spent over more than 60 years to...