Background

In March 2019, City Council released its Narrowing the Gap report, which outlined actionable strategies for preventing and alleviating poverty that have been successful in other cities or at a smaller scale in Philadelphia. Following the release of the report, City Council passed two resolutions which established a Special Committee on Poverty Reduction and Prevention. This committee was tasked with proposing actionable policies and programs which could be implemented in order to reduce and prevent poverty.

The Special Committee consists of a full committee with diverse representatives of policy experts, practitioners, providers, and thought leaders. Using the Narrowing the Gap report as a basis, City Council identified three subcommittees of the larger full committee – 1) Housing, 2) Jobs and Education, and 3) Social Safety Net.

Committee Goals

While the resolutions did not identify measurable goals for the Special Committee, the co-chairs have defined its goal as moving 100,000 Philadelphians out of poverty by 2024. The co-chairs have tasked Reinvestment Fund, who has been retained by City Council to provide support, with identifying city population cohorts that programs and policies would strategically target in order to reach our 100,000-person goal. The Special Committee would produce a report that recommends short term (1 year), intermediate term (5 years), and long term (10 years) interventions in the funding, local legislation, and state/federal advocacy arenas.

Process and Timeline

City Council has indicated that they would like the Special Committee to complete the process and provide a report by the end of the calendar year. To that end, the Special Committee has outlined a quick moving timeline: