7. The Hypothesis
• Households living in poverty are key driver of
public service costs
• Reducing poverty can reduce public sector costs
for health care, income support and social services
8. Estimating the Gain
• Each additional person in poverty is associated
with $8,200 in spending on social service and
income maintenance programs
• Only includes Medicaid, food stamps and
assistance to families—including the TANF
program and other state administered general
assistance
9. Detroit’s Opportunity
Dividend
If we decrease Detroit’s poverty rate from 12.9
percent to 11.9 percent…
The Detroit Opportunity Dividend =
$396 million annually
10. City Dividends
$3.4 billion $820 million $396 million
Total City Dividends for Detroit…
$4.6 Billion Annually
11. City Dividends
$124 billion $29 billion $13 billion
Total City Dividends for the nation…
$166 Billion Annually
12. What can urban leaders do to achieve the
Opportunity Dividend now?
