ANN ARBOR—The need for affordable and accessible housing is an issue that transcends political affiliation—even as it rises in significance to voters—and matters as much to our emotional and mental health as our financial well-being.Two University...
Back to school brings several challenges, from student learning, expectations of academic success and mental health concerns among children to questioning technology replacing educators and AI and the ongoing shortage of teachers, school staff and...
As Detroit children prepare to return to school, widespread and chronic housing instability among city residents poses a threat to students’ ability to perform well academically.
New research from the University of Michigan’s Poverty...
Imagine, summer vacation is coming to an end and you must start school next week, but you haven’t been able to shower in a week. Would you be able to focus on school?
That was the question posed by a group of teens and young adults advocating for...
Jennifer Erb-Downward is a senior research associate at U-M's Poverty Solutions who studies child and family homelessness. Her research explores the connections between student homelessness and school discipline rates, academic proficiency,...
“It’s really a different section of the housing market that people are being pushed into,” said Jennifer Erb-Downward, who analyzes poverty and housing policy at the University of Michigan.
“We’ve trapped families into this,” Ms. Erb-Downward...
Jennifer Erb-Downward, Chalkbeat Detroit: "The deeper someone is in poverty, the more challenges they face, and that has a huge impact on a child’s ability to participate in their...
Jennifer Erb-Downward, Chalkbeat: "There should be a stronger relationship between homelessness and poverty, and the fact that there’s not supports that there’s under-identification taking place... We, somehow, as a society, have agreed that it is...
Jennifer Erb-Downward, Detroit Free Press: “The reach of these early learning programs for children experiencing homelessness is not what we need to see if we actually want to see children truly thriving in their lives and in their education. And...
Evidence shows that students experiencing homelessness get disciplined at higher rates than students who were not. Jennifer Erb-Downward, senior research associate at Poverty Solutions, believes schools should take housing status into consideration...
The Poverty Narrative: Confronting Inequity
Join us as we discuss connections between structural racism, and poverty in the U.S., and confronting policies and practices that perpetuate inequity in public health, housing, education and data.