Governor Gretchen Whitmer highlighted the 2026 Poverty Task Force Report this week, highlighting the scope of poverty’s impact across Michigan and providing recommendations to lift people out of poverty. Additionally, the report details how to best connect families throughout the state with economic opportunity, improve quality of life and outcomes, and create change.
In 2024, a Michigan family of four with two adults and two children in childcare needed $78.216 annually to cover basic expenses. 40% of those in Michigan lived at or below that threshold. Of those households, 26% earned more than the federal poverty level.
The report outlines policy recommendations with clear goals, including:
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- Improve pathways to quality employment
- Enhance public safety by removing barriers to economic participation
- Provide pathways to prosperity through stable, affordable housing
- Support prosperous futures for Michigan’s youth
The new report also includes seven recommendations that come directly from the Anti-Poverty Strategies Report, based on a mixed-methods analysis of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in Michigan conducted by the University of Kansas’s Center for Public Partnerships & Research:
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- Eliminate full family sanctions and lifetime bans to create a more stable safety net for children.
- Reduce requirements that go beyond federal standards and allow more time for compliance so that families can gain stability.
- Continue to collaborate with local and statewide partnerships dedicated to housing, homelessness prevention, and mental health services for Family Independence Program clients with a focus on streamlining enrollment in services.
- Invest in and incentivize more creative core activities that engage clients in evidence-based barrier removal activities such as on-the-job training and allow more time, as needed, to complete education and training goals that increase the likelihood of higher-paying wages.
- Employ more Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) staff and allow more time for processing cases, interviewing, trust-building, and assessing barriers.
- Prioritize families under 200% of the federal poverty line for all TANF-funded programming.
- Create a housing assistance supplemental grant on top of cash assistance.
The Michigan Poverty Task Force identifies and coordinates efforts within state government to lift Michigan families out of poverty and help put them on a path to prosperity. They work across state government to find ways to strengthen, broaden, coordinate, and streamline the efforts.
Please click here to read the full report.
