Reducing Poverty in Rochester - An International Scan of Options to Consider

CGR was engaged by the United Way of Greater Rochester to research successful approaches to reducing poverty and their potential applicability to the 9-county Rochester region. Nearly 156,000 people live in poverty throughout the Greater Rochester region, with about two-thirds residing in Monroe County and over 40% in the City of Rochester. The report is aimed at informing a broader community effort to address poverty in the region, and to equip key community leaders with information about what interventions and approaches have been most successful in the United States and abroad. CGR scanned the relevant literature, reviewing more than two dozen studies from a variety of sources, reviewed additional summaries of the literature, interviewed several local and national experts, and analyzed data on regional poverty with a focus on subgroups within the low-income population. Based on this review, we recommended that the Rochester community explore several broad strategies, including increasing tax credits and other supports for families, investing more in child care subsidies and home visiting programs for mothers and young children, providing cash supplements to targeted population, refining job training programs, and increasing access to affordable housing outside the City of Rochester.

Report Date: Dec 2014
Author(s): Donald Pryor , Erika Rosenberg , Erika Rosenberg
Subject(s): Human Services , Evaluation
Location: Monroe, New York

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