An America without poverty is possible.

The Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality is a research center that generates policy solutions to improve the lives of people experiencing poverty in the United States.

Our Policy Issues

Good Jobs

Promoting job quality and job creation policies that ensure well-paying, secure jobs with fair benefits and build worker power.

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Public Benefits

Building the case for whole-family, community-centered approaches to food assistance, cash support, and social services. 

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Income & Cash

Championing income supports—including cash assistance and tax credits—that help families meet their basic needs and promote economic mobility.

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Care

Designing policies that recognize and fairly compensate caregiving labor, including paid leave.  

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Housing

Investing in housing as a social good, including solutions that secure stable, affordable housing for all families.

Explore Housing ≫

Latest from GCPI

Press Release, | May 13, 2025
GCPI Welcomes New Policy Experts to Tackle Urgent Threats & Improve Economic Well-Being

Georgetown Center on Poverty & Inequality (GCPI) welcomes a new Faculty Advisor and seven new staff and fellows who bring deep expertise across labor, tax, cash, housing, care, and digital equity. As economic insecurity grows and key protections come under threat, this expanded team will advance bold, evidence-based solutions that support working families and promote racial and gender equity. GCPI is growing to meet the moment—delivering actionable ideas to ensure people can meet their needs, care for their families, and live with dignity.

Blog, Timeline, | May 08, 2025
Railroads to Rideshare: AANHPI Labor Invisible No More

This AANHPI Heritage Month, we’re shining a light on the long history of AANHPI labor—often essential, too often invisible. From building railroads in the 1800s to driving rideshares today, AANHPI workers have shaped the nation while facing exploitation and erasure. This timeline connects our past to our present to ensure our labor and stories are seen, valued, and remembered.

Fact Sheet, | Apr 28, 2025
SNAP and Medicaid Cuts: What’s at Stake for Children, Seniors & Rural Communities?

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid are lifelines for millions, providing food and health coverage that stabilize families and strengthen communities. Cuts to these critical programs will hit children, seniors, and people in rural communities particularly hard. While cuts to either program would each be harmful on their own, slashing both will compound hardship and deepen poverty for the millions of people who rely on both programs. This fact sheet explores the deeply negative impacts that broad-based cuts will have on the effectiveness of the programs, the states administering them, and the people they serve—especially seniors, children, and people in rural communities.

Brief, | Mar 20, 2025
Work Requirements Are Unworkable

Work requirements in public benefits programs don’t help people work. They block access to food, health care, and housing assistance, making families and local economies worse off. This brief illustrates how work reporting requirements fail to increase work while straining state resources and imposing harmful and costly burdens on all. The brief also provides an overview of better alternatives that would be more effective at supporting employment and reducing poverty.

Agenda, | Feb 26, 2025
An Agenda for Economic Well-Being

An America Without Poverty Is Possible: GCPI’s Agenda for Economic Well-Being reflects our vision for a nation where people have the freedom and resources to care for themselves and their loved ones. In this future, economic opportunity is a right, hardship and instability are the exception, and children have what they need to reach their full potential. That is the American dream.