Report on Anti-Poverty Policy Tools for Government Reconstruction Efforts in the Gulf Region after Hurricane Katrina

Although Hurricane Katrina dramatically showcased the conditions of America’s urban poor, the disaster has not resulted in a comprehensive public dialogue on the country’s current social safety net and how it failed the storm victims. Rather, discussions about hurricane aid and reconstruction conceptualize hurricane victims as a special group of “deserving poor” and propose that federal assistance for storm victims be funded by budget cuts in other anti-poverty programs. In an effort to help redirect the national dialogue on Hurricane Katrina toward the general problem of poverty alleviation, the Foundation has commissioned a group of scholars to produce a public report on the deficiencies in U.S. anti-poverty policy that will point out the inability of the present U.S. social safety net to help people avoid and withstand losses due to uncontrollable events. The authors will critique the use of work-based solutions to poverty for the low-skilled and will examine the role of discrimination in creating and perpetuating poverty.