When the modern safety net was first conceived, poor single men often weren’t even on the agenda.

The first priority was the poor children and the women who were often their primary caregivers. The assumption was that single adults without dependent children didn’t need the extra government help. “We’ve always thought about men being able to pull themselves up by bootstraps, who’ve never needed support,” says Joe Jones, President and CEO of the Center for Urban Families in Baltimore. “Women and children are considered to be more vulnerable.”

But it’s becoming increasingly clear that designing the safety net this way has ended up excluding a group that’s become increasingly at risk: poor, unmarried men. Lawmakers from both parties are now looking at policy changes that would help bring them in......

......Local and state officials are trying to find ways around the impasse in Washington. New York City is currently conducting a three-year, pilot program to expand the EITC to low-income workers without dependent children. The $11 million program is significantly more generous than Obama’s, offering up to $2,000 a year for single workers earning up to $26,800 a year.

NYC’s program has just finished enrolling participants, but the coordinators say the next challenge is making sure they stay in touch. “It takes a while for knowledge and for people to trust the program in the community,” says Cynthia Miller, a senior fellow at think-tank MDRC, which is helping to run the pilot......

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