The Greater Louisville Project has finalized its 2017 Competitive City Update, “Poverty Beyond Income,” which takes an intimate look at poverty and assesses the interconnected barriers that keep families caught in the cycle of poverty. The data gathered indicate that because the many individual human, social, community and, of course, financial costs of poverty – Louisville is missing out on $200 million per year of economic growth.

The report looks at how the data translates to the lived experience of poverty at the household level. By focusing on multidimensional poverty at the household level, this report shifts the conversation from simply income to a broader concept that encompasses the lived experience faced by those in poverty, including deprivations in education, jobs, health and quality of place. These hurdles all build upon one another creating chronic stress within households and making poverty harder to escape.