By Dennis Archambault

In last night’s State of the Union address, President Obama soberly admitted that due to political opposition to his agenda, there’s not likely to be much progress in the legislature. However, he promised to remain focused on fighting poverty by promoting policies related to access to well-paying jobs with benefits, a quality education, affordable health care services, and retirement savings. Absent was reference to housing and reinforcing the public health infrastructure. Enterprise Community Partners (ECP) noted the lack of reference to housing — which is vital to population health.

An analysis  published by ECP today notes that there needs to be a much broader strategy to fight poverty on all fronts, including housing: “We look forward to a constructive debate in the coming months on how to best address these critical problems,” notes John Griffith and Diane Yentel, ECP analysts. “After all, as the president said last night, ‘the future we want — opportunity and security for our families, a rising standard of living and a sustainable, peaceful planet for our kids — all that is within our reach, but it will only happen if we work together. It will only happen if we can have rational, constructive debates.”

To read the complete analysis, visit http://blog.enterprisecommunity.com/2016/01/bipartisan-poverty-opportunity.

Dennis Archambault is director of Public Affairs for Authority Health.