Repairing the U.S. Social Safety Net

The rising poverty and unemployment rates triggered by the recession are stark reminders of the need for a secure social safety net. Such programs should provide economic security, protect vulnerable families, and promote equality—but the United States falls behind other countries in accomplishing these goals. In Repairing the U.S. Social Safety Net, Martha R. Burt and Demetra Smith Nightingale encourage strengthening the safety net and making a national commitment to end poverty.

Martha R. Burt has been at the Urban Institute for more than 30 years, where she served as the director of the Social Services Research Program, conducting research and writing about policies on welfare, homelessness, hunger, teen pregnancy and parenting, and social services. As part of the Assessing the New Federalism project, Dr. Burt directed the analysis of how public systems for welfare, child care, and child protective services had changed after three years of welfare reform. Her third book on homelessness―Helping America's Homeless: Emergency Shelter or Affordable Housing?―analyzes the policy implications of findings from the National Survey of Homeless Assistance Providers and Clients. Dr. Burt has also directed work on the impact of federal and state policy changes on the well-being of children and youth, on hunger among the elderly, and on service issues related to domestic violence. In relation to violence against women, she has examined coordinated community response to domestic violence, what TANF programs are doing to recognize and accommodate domestic violence as a barrier to work, and the effects of STOP funding through the Violence Against Women Act on justice system activities and effectiveness. Dr. Burt s research has also focused on policies and services for at-risk youth and persons with serious mental illness. She developed a widely used method to estimate the national and local public costs of teenage childbearing, and is the coauthor of a highly regarded book discussing the policy issues involved in teenage childbearing―Private Crisis, Public Cost.



Demetra Smith Nightingale is a principal research scientist and member of the faculty at the Institute for Policy Studies at Johns Hopkins University, where she teaches graduate courses on social policy and program evaluation. Her research concentrates on employment, skills training, social assistance, women and family issues, immigration, youth development, and welfare reform. Much of her research involves evaluating the implementation of public programs and the impacts of programs and services on individuals and families. Her studies have analyzed programs in every state in the United States as well as social and economic policies in Argentina, Chile, Russia, and China. She is the author of dozens of books and articles; among her books are Reshaping the American Workforce in a Changing Economy, with Harry Holzer (2007), and The Low-Wage Labor Market: Challenges and Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency, coedited with Kelleen Kaye (2000). Before joining Johns Hopkins, she was at the Urban Institute for 29 years, most recently as principal research associate and program director in the Labor and Social Policy Center. She is also a senior research affiliate with the National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan, affiliate faculty with the Johns Hopkins Population Center, a senior research consultant with the Urban Institute, and a senior consultant with the World Bank (Social Protection Division).