ABSTRACT
By all indications, poverty will only increase in coming years, as the country adjusts to globalization, technology, and internal political conflict. But as the chapters in this section show, our policies that attempt to connect the poor to housing and jobs have largely failed to meet their own goals. All operate under the assumption that improving physical proximity to opportunity will remedy poverty, and that opportunity consists primarily of the availability of traditional jobs and education. In this view, measuring and mapping opportunity across a region, in relation to the location of the low-income, should help determine strategies for redistribution. But as Chapter 12 demonstrates, proximity is not solving the problem for either the concentrated urban or suburban poor; even with opportunity available, the poor cannot access it without family and institutional support systems. Even if dispersal programs were effective, Chapter 10 shows how they are impossible to implement at scale. Chapter 11 illustrates the intricate survival systems of the poor-the role of both strong and weak ties in helping the poor navigate both the formal and informal economies. Opportunity is thus not just the existence of nearby assets and services, but the resources families have to thrive.
