THE PuLSE INSTITUTE | MICHIGAN POVERTY FORUM SERIES
The 2026 Governor’s Race and the Poverty Question We Cannot Ignore
EDITOR’S NOTE | Bankole Thompson, Editor-in-Chief, PuLSE Ideas & Commentary
The PuLSE Institute, a national anti-poverty think tank b based in Detroit, has invited leaders across sectors to examine what Michigan’s next governor must do to confront poverty. In this installment, Michigan State Representative Tonya Phillips challenges the next administration and legislature to address the structural barriers that sustain deprivation—and make shared prosperity a governing responsibility.
By Tonya Phillips
Michigan State Representative
Michigan is at a crossroads. Across our state, families are confronting a crisis whose reach is underestimated and whose causes too often go unchallenged: structural poverty.
Structural poverty is caused and sustained by barriers embedded in our economy and society. Addressing it requires confronting the systems that keep economic security beyond reach for too many people.
In 2024, 13.4% of Michigan households lived below the federal poverty level. Another 26.3% earned above that threshold but lacked sufficient income to afford basic necessities. Together, nearly 40% of Michigan households faced financial hardship. These figures reveal how far we remain from an economy that works for everyone.
Structural poverty reaches across race, gender, age and geography. Our next governor and legislature must respond with courage, compassion and the resolve to make lasting change. That means prioritizing policies and public investments that lift families out of poverty and create pathways to prosperity.
Affordable housing and public investment
Housing stability underpins economic security. Michigan must expand investment in public and affordable housing through direct grants, subsidies and zero- or low-interest loans for eligible individuals and housing developers.
The state must fully fund its housing plan and use every available tool to close the housing gap. Michigan estimates an overall shortage of approximately 97,000 homes. Separately, the National Low Income Housing Coalition identifies a shortage of more than 195,000 rental homes affordable and available to extremely low-income households. These measures capture different dimensions of an urgent problem: too many families cannot find housing they can afford.
Affordable utilities
Heat, electricity and safe drinking water are necessities. Yet rising utility costs continue to strain household budgets.
Michigan must enact and implement a statewide water affordability plan. An EPIC-MRA poll found that nearly nine in ten Michigan voters believe no one should lose access to safe drinking water because they cannot keep up with rising rates. Three in four supported a proposed statewide affordability program funded through a modest monthly fee on water bills.
Michigan also needs legislation that prevents utility companies from seeking and receiving rate increases year after year, limits shareholder returns and prioritizes relief for customers. We must expand access to solar energy and community solar programs while strengthening water and energy shutoff protections for seniors and families with children.
Equitable education funding
Education can be a powerful driver of opportunity, but school funding must reflect students’ actual needs.
Michigan’s four-year high school graduation rate reached approximately 84% in 2025. That progress deserves recognition. Yet the state ranked 44th in fourth-grade reading on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress—a reminder that substantial challenges remain.
Students with disabilities and those who need mental health services must receive adequate support. Expanding weighted school funding—which directs additional resources to students with greater needs—would strengthen reading and math instruction, career readiness, mental health services and school safety.
Every child deserves an education that prepares them to succeed.
Public health and healthcare access
Healthcare insecurity deepens economic insecurity.
An Urban Institute analysis projects that between 171,000 and 355,000 fewer Michiganders could be enrolled in Medicaid expansion coverage in 2028 because of new work requirements and more frequent eligibility reviews taking effect in 2027. Meanwhile, Census Bureau figures show that 6.2% of Michigan residents under 65 lack health insurance.
Michigan must invest in community health centers, mental health services and broader access to public healthcare coverage. Families should not have to choose between receiving medical treatment and paying for food, housing or utilities.
Public infrastructure
Investing in public infrastructure creates jobs and strengthens the foundations of economic opportunity.
Direct state investment in public transportation, clean municipal water systems, roads and digital connectivity can lower household costs, create good-paying union jobs and support emerging industries. These investments strengthen Michigan’s competitiveness while improving daily life.
Reliable infrastructure helps people reach jobs, attend school, obtain healthcare and participate fully in their communities.
Basic needs and an accessible safety net
Michigan cannot meaningfully address poverty while maintaining a safety net that is underfunded or difficult to navigate.
Food assistance, child care, caregiving support and emergency relief need substantial investment. Access must also improve. Families should be able to obtain assistance through clear, integrated systems that reduce paperwork, eliminate unnecessary administrative barriers and provide timely help.
People seeking support deserve dignity and an accessible path to the services they need.
Our next governor and legislature must also directly confront racial disparities in poverty. Financial hardship affects communities across Michigan, but Black and Brown families often bear disproportionate burdens.
The next governor must appoint diverse leadership and value experience across race, gender, age, religion and disability. Public decisions are stronger when the people making them understand the communities they serve.
Anti-diversity rhetoric turns working people against one another and diverts attention from policies that concentrate prosperity among those who already possess the greatest wealth. The projected Medicaid coverage losses under the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act illustrate how tax and spending decisions can put families’ economic security at risk.
Michigan needs permanent, sustainable revenue to maintain essential public systems and support lasting reform.
Politicians frequently promise to recover sufficient revenue by eliminating “waste, fraud and abuse.” Government should operate efficiently and account for every public dollar. But those obligations cannot substitute for an honest examination of tax incentives, benefits and loopholes that favor wealthy corporations and individuals.
Incoming state leaders must have the courage to pursue progressive revenue reforms and ensure that those with the greatest resources contribute their fair share.
These proposals are a starting point. Implementation will require sustained work, difficult decisions and accountable leadership.
Michigan’s next governor and legislature must make reducing poverty a governing priority. Prosperity by design means building a state where the ability to afford a home, keep the water running, obtain healthcare and raise a family is within everyone’s reach.
