Workforce development

In 2016, the health system teamed with Spartanburg Community College and the National Center for Construction Education and Research, a nonprofit that provides global training and certification. Together, the three entities began offering construction skills training to area residents.

One out of every 10 young people between the ages of 16 and 24 is neither working nor in school. These “disconnected” young people face an uphill battle finding work and are at risk of economic hardship well into adulthood.

In many cities, low-income residents live far from available jobs, and employers can’t find people to fill open positions.

As the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) prioritizes programs to help households receiving rental assistance achieve economic self-sufficiency, researchers, policymakers, and advocates debate the utility of work requirements as an effective pathway toward economic self-sufficiency

When we stereotype or lazily assume low-wage workers to be “low skill,” it reinforces an often unspoken and pernicious view that they lack intelligence and ambition, maybe even the potential to master “higher-order” skilled work.

This report identifies services that help low-income individuals and households achieve upward economic mobility and explores how affordable housing providers offer them. We begin by presenting key economic mobility concepts and definitions.

A whole host of factors — such as friends, housing and transportation — affect a person’s health and how much they need the social safety net. It’s time the government’s big health insurance programs took this reality into account, some lawmakers and policymakers are starting to argue.

To explore the benefits and challenges of rapid re-housing support services, How Housing Matters asked a group of experts to weigh in.

The Trump Administration proposed draconian changes today in a key SNAP (food stamp) rule which, if implemented, would cut off basic food assistance for hundreds of thousands of the nation’s poorest and most destitute people.