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Monday, July 13, 2009

Lean on Me: Informal Safety Nets in Hard Times



Robert Frost put it this way: “Home is the place where, when you have to go there,/They have to take you in.” In this day and age, it’s not exactly clear who “They” are. We don’t know enough about the size or resilience of the informal support networks that help people cope with economic misfortune.

Long-term unemployment is at a record high, and foreclosures that often lead to eviction of either owners or renters are increasing the ranks of the homeless. Fewer than half the unemployed receive state unemployment compensation, and the largest cash assistance program for low-income parents, the earned-income tax credit (E.I.T.C.), provides benefits that are conditional on having earned income.

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