MetroTrends Week in Review

This week’s debates over the Fiscal Cliff in Washington highlight the role of social services for low-income families and families living in poverty. While it remains an important and open question how wide or limited the government’s role ought to be, MetroTrends provided a range of empirical evidence about those families in need.

• Amanda Mireles wrote two posts about the damaging effects of living in concentrated poverty, and about promising new Urban Institute strategies to combat that poverty
• Mary Cunningham responded to the announcement about a drop in Veterans Homelessness with 5 critical suggestions for the Obama Administration to reach its goal of ending homelessness for Veterans by 2015
• Zach McDade wrote about a rare piece of good news in the Nation’s still-troubled housing market: over $26 billion have been distributed by the country’s five largest mortgage servicers to households on the brink of foreclosure

More next week. Check back.