2026 U.S. Poverty Laser Talks
Please invest in housing and homelessness assistance in the FY27 budget
Engage: Housing affordability and homelessness are urgent challenges. Working families across the country are doing everything right and still can’t afford a place to live.
Problem: Nearly half of all renters are rent-burdened, spending over 30 percent of their income on housing. Rising costs for food, health care, and other essentials are pushing too many families toward housing instability and homelessness.
Inform: This crisis is solvable. Housing Choice Vouchers (HCVs) and other special purpose vouchers currently help 2.4 million households stay stably housed and move toward economic security. The program provides flexible supports like rental assistance, landlord incentives, and help with move-in costs. However, chronic underfunding means only one in four eligible households receive assistance.
Call to Action: Congress can strengthen housing stability nationwide. Will you urge appropriators to increase funding for Housing Choice Vouchers to fully renew current vouchers and add 250,000 new vouchers in Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27)?
Protect children and families by delaying devasting cuts to SNAP
Engage: Imagine the nation’s most effective anti-hunger program being dismantled while wealthy corporations receive tax cuts. That’s exactly what is happening.
Problem: Under last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R.1), states will now pay a share of SNAP benefit costs. This unprecedented cost shift puts an estimated 2.4 million at risk.
Inform: States must now cut SNAP or threaten funding to other important services. Rural communities and low-wage workers will be hurt. Children, seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities will be hurt as well. A few states have received a temporary delay. But the House did not reverse or delay the cuts in their proposed Farm Bill.
Call to Action: Food prices are rising. Yet everyone deserves access to nutritious food. Congress must repeal or at least delay these devastating SNAP cuts for all states in any farm-related bill. We cannot allow this assault on food security to stand.
Improve the Child Tax Credit for families with low wages
Engage: The “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act passed by Congress in July 2025 missed a crucial opportunity to protect children from poverty.
Problem: Congress declined to help 16 million children in families with low wages by expanding the Child Tax Credit (CTC).
Inform: Congress must fix this discrepancy as soon as possible. Here’s how:
- Change the “phase-in” of the CTC so it is available to more families who are paid the lowest wages.
- Narrow the widening gap between families who get the full credit and those who don’t.
- Remove the CTC refundability cap. Many parents working in low-wage jobs have low tax liability. Removing the “refundability cap” would allow them to receive the full benefit of the CTC.
- Family expenses typically come due on a monthly basis; we should pay the credit monthly as well.
Call to action: Investing in our families and workforce is the best way to achieve our shared goal of healthy and prosperous communities. In any tax legislation this year, will you support these much-needed improvements to the CTC?