D.C. Policy Center Fellow Becky Strauss was quoted by The George Washington University’s American Communities Project in an article on place-based approaches to poverty:
There is no clear roadmap for how the District will solve the problem. “It’s sort of surprising how little we know about closing the inequality gap in cities,” says Becky Strauss, a fellow with the D.C. Policy Center, an independent policy and research center that provides analysis on local policies. The District is one of the most liberal areas of the country, and residents largely accept taxes that go toward social services, she adds. “D.C. should be the sort of city that could figure this out.”
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The District surpasses other large cities in offering anti-poverty programs, according to Strauss. She highlights that D.C. has one of the nation’s highest rates of children with health insurance, offers public pre-Kindergarten, has raised the minimum wage, and voted for all D.C. employers to offer paid family leave starting in 2020.
D.C. is also one of a few cities with a locally-funded housing voucher program, called the Local Rent Supplement Program. “D.C. is at the cutting edge,” Strauss says.
Read more: A Place-Based Approach Is Helping D.C. Children in Poverty Succeed | American Communities Project
Related: D.C. leads in anti-poverty policies | D.C. Policy Center