The Salvation Army is an international Christian humanitarian organization that works with many at-risk communities. The media contact is Kurt Watkins.

The Poverty Initiative is based at Union Theological Seminary in New York City and was established in May 2003. Its goal is to “to raise up generations of religious and community leaders dedicated to building a social movement to end poverty, led by the poor,” and it brings together scholars and grass-roots organizations. Contact the coordinator […]

The Poverty Forum, formed in 2008, is “a select group of leaders and policy experts representing divergent political perspectives but sharing biblical values surrounding God’s concern for the poor and a commitment to address poverty.” It has 18 participants and posts its specific policy proposals. It is led by co-chairs Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners, and Mike Gerson, […]

Read a Feb. 16, 2006, analysis from the Economic Policy Institute of the economic impact of living-wage legislation.

See a Dec. 10, 2008, Brookings Institution report on the impact of living wage laws.

Yvonne M. Vissing is a sociology professor at Salem State College in Salem, Mass. She is the author of Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Homeless Children and Families in Small-Town America and can speak about the spiritual lives of homeless children.

The U.S. Census Bureau provides a summary page on marital status and living arrangements.

CATCH is a partnership among the city of Boise, Idaho; 12 local congregations; and the business community to provide long-term housing and supportive services to the area’s homeless population. Each participating congregation sponsors a homeless family’s housing for six months or a year; CATCH also is developing a 10-year plan to address homelessness.

Orange County Congregation Community Organization lobbied the city of Anaheim to include affordable housing in a large new housing development.