Asset Building and Low Income Families (Urban Institute Press)

Low-income families have scant savings to cushion a job loss or illness, and can find economic mobility impossible without funds to invest in education, homes, or businesses. And though a lack of resources leaves such families vulnerable, income-support programs are often closed to those with a bit of savings or even a car. Considering welfare-to-work reforms, the increasingly advanced skill demands of the American workforce, and our stretched Social Security system, such an approach is inadequate to lift families out of poverty. Asset-based policie, allowing or even helping low-income families build wealt, are an increasingly popular strategy to facilitate financial stability. Asset Building and Low-Income Families draws together top experts to assess this growing body of research and suggests ways to translate academic findings into policy that works.

Michael Sherraden is the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development and director of the Center for Social Development, George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis.