Scott W. Allard
Daniel J. Evans Endowed Professor of Social Policy, University of Washington-Seattle Campus
Co-Director, Family Self-Sufficiency Data Center, University of Chicago
Areas of Expertise:
Connect with Scott
About Scott
Allard's primary areas of research expertise are urban poverty, employment among low-skill workers, food security, safety net utilization, and the spatial accessibility of governmental and nongovernmental safety net programs.
Contributions
In the News
Opinion: "Commentary: Poverty Is Up in Suburbs; Here’s What’s Causing It," Scott W. Allard, Herald Net, June 8, 2018.
Research discussed by , in "Poverty on the Rise in Lake County, North Shore," The Daily North Shore, February 8, 2018.
Quoted by in "Lake Country Community Foundation Holds Poverty Awareness Event," Chicago Daily Herald, January 26, 2018.
Quoted by Yadira Sanchez Olson in "Author Says 'Misunderstandings and Biases' Lead to Rise in Poverty across Lake County," Chicago Tribune, January 23, 2018.
Quoted by Tim Foley in "Fighting Misinformation, Grooming New Leaders, and Unlocking More Giving: Ideas for 2018," The Chronicle of Philanthropy, January 2, 2018.
Opinion: "Ferris Bueller's Daily Grind: How Poverty in Chicago Went Suburban," Scott W. Allard, The Guardian, July 14, 2017.
Opinion: "Life in the ‘burbs’ isn’t as Sweet as It Used to Be," Scott W. Allard, KPCC - Southern California Public Radio, October 26, 2011.
Quoted by in "Outside Cleveland, Snapshots of Poverty’s Surge in the Suburbs," New York Times, October 24, 2011.
Opinion: "Tackling Today’s Poverty with Yesterday’s Philanthropy," Scott W. Allard, The Avenue Blog, The New Republic, August 1, 2011.
Guest on C-SPAN Book TV, June 4, 2011.
Opinion: "The Suburban Poor," Scott W. Allard (with ), Next American City Podcast, October 10, 2010.
Publications
"Strained Suburbs: The Social Service Challenges of Rising Suburban Poverty," (with ), The Brookings Institution, Metropolitan Opportunity Series , September 30, 2010.
Examines the limited capacity of many public and nonprofit social service programs in suburban communities to respond to significant increases in poverty within their communities over the past decade.
"Nonprofit Helping Hands for the Working Poor: The New Realities of Today's Safety Net" in Old Assumptions, New Realities, edited by Robert D. Plotnick, Marcia K. Meyers, Jennifer Romich, and Stephen Rathgeb Smith (Russell Sage Foundation, 2010), 187-213.
Highlights the key role played by nonprofit organizations in the contemporary safety net and the challenges of a system heavily reliant on publicly funded private providers of antipoverty assistance.
"Out of Reach: Place, Poverty, and the New American Welfare State" (Yale University Press, 2009).
Discusses implications of dramatic changes in the provision of safety net assistance in the last two decades away from welfare cash assistance and prioritizing community-based social service programs, with particular focus on how these changes limit access of high-poverty neighborhoods to safety net resources.
"Proximity and Opportunity: How Residence and Race Affect the Employment of Welfare Recipients" (with ). Housing Policy Debate 13, no. 4 (2003): 675-700.
Demonstrates how lack of access to employment opportunities shapes social welfare program participation and work outcomes among low-income female-headed households.