From empathy to action
Policy Pathways
What you just navigated in this simulation is not a matter of poor budgeting or bad luck — it is the direct consequence of systemic design. True change requires moving beyond treating individual symptoms to addressing the structural root causes.
Housing Stability & Eviction Prevention
When safe, affordable shelter consumes more than 50% of household income, an unexpected car repair or reduction in hours turns into a housing emergency.
Across the United States, there is a shortage of over 7 million affordable and available rental homes for extremely low-income households. In most counties, a full-time minimum-wage worker cannot afford a modest one-bedroom apartment.
Expanding tenant right-to-counsel protections, modernizing local zoning laws, and funding the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) to expand permanently affordable housing supply.
Food Security & The Benefit Cliff
Working parents often face the impossible paradox of turning down an hourly raise because an extra dollar an hour can disqualify their family from thousands in vital food or childcare assistance.
Anti-poverty programs are frequently designed with abrupt phase-outs (“benefit cliffs”) rather than graduated step-downs, trapping families in place as their costs outpace wage gains.
Modernizing the federal Farm Bill to align SNAP benefits with real food costs, and creating gradual taper rates so working families never lose more in benefits than they gain in earnings.
Fair Wages & Economic Self-Sufficiency
A job is no longer a guaranteed exit from poverty when entry-level wages fall short of the baseline cost of living.
In the majority of U.S. markets, basic subsistence expenses — transportation, child care, healthcare premiums, and utilities — outpace baseline wages, leaving zero margin for emergency savings.
Establishing living wages indexed to local cost of living, expanding refundable child and earned income tax credits, and passing universal paid family and medical leave.
Healthcare Burden & Uncompensated Medical Debt
A single minor injury or deferred preventive check-up can wipe out months of financial progress and push a household into systemic collection traps.
Millions of working adults fall into the “coverage gap” — earning too much to qualify for Medicaid in non-expansion states, yet not enough to afford commercial premiums and deductibles.
Closing state-level Medicaid coverage gaps, regulating uncompensated hospital medical debt, and ensuring preventive primary care access for all community members.
Take action in your community
Connect directly with grassroots policy networks to join state advocacy teams and engage lawmakers on hunger and nutrition.
Join an advocacy teamUse the Root Causes Challenge in classrooms, civic workshops, faith communities, and board orientations. Contact Matambanadzo Studio for facilitation toolkits and partnership inquiries.
Inquiries & Partnershipspam@matambanadzostudio.com