In this commentary for The Washington Post, researchers Martha Burt and Sam Hall recommend, among other things, that Washington, D.C., offer permanent supportive housing to those who have been homeless the longest or have the most severe forms of disability. Making major changes in its data system would help the city have real-time information regarding homeless people.

Overcrowded jails and more spending for incarceration aren't predestined. In a Philadelphia Daily News commentary, two Urban Institute researchers explain how programs to help repeat offenders return successfully to society can cut crime and save money.

Too few boards are doing a good job of helping nonprofit grops carry out their missions, explains Francie Ostrower in this Chronicle of Philanthropy commentary. They need to be more active in fund raising, monitoring programs, community relations, educating the public, and monitoring the board's own performance.

In April, the House of Representatives passed a bill to prevent individuals with Health Savings Accounts from easily, but illegally, evading taxes. The loudest response has been opposition from the insurance industry and its political allies.

Working with inmates who leave jails as well as prisons is a milestone marking a major opportunity to reduce crime in Philadelphia and across the country. Amy Solomon and Jenny Osborne explain why in their Philadelphia Inquirer commentary.

Commissioners in Travis County, Texas, says Nancy La Vigne, made "a heroic move" earlier this month, opening the doors to thousands of former prisoners who have hit a brick wall when looking for a job. In this Austin American-Statesman commentary, she explains why their action was good public policy.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain wants to suspend the federal gas tax for the summer travel season. Truckers say they like the idea. In this Marketplace commentary, Len Burman, Director of the Tax Policy Center explains why Senator McCain’s proposal won’t get us where he wants to go. http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/04/17/burman_commentary/

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) launched the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) demonstration in 1994 in five cities: Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. MTO targeted families living in some of the nation’s poorest, highest-crime communities and used housing subsidies to offer them a chance to move to lower-poverty neighborhoods. Research on the families conducted in 2002 raised some important questions about the impact of the program. Findings from the follow up Three-City Study of MTO, in 2004 and 2005, answer some of the questions but also highlight the complexity of the MTO experience and the limitations of a relocation-only strategy in being able to bring about fundamental changes in the lives of very low income families.

The United States Small Business Administration (SBA) was created in 1953 to help Americans start and build small businesses. Recently, the SBA commissioned the Urban Institute to look at four of the agency's loan and investment programs to assess their past performance and consider how the agency can set benchmarks for future performance management. The studies addressed three key research questions of particular interest to SBA and its constituents: 1) Does SBA assistance help the firms that receive it? 2) To what extent does SBA assistance serve its market? 3) Do SBA programs duplicate or overlap with other public sector programs?

Baby boomers have changed the nature of work, why not the nature of retirement? Options will multiply, retirement expert Richard W. Johnson writes in The San Diego Union-Tribune, if Medicare rules, payroll taxes, and age-discrimination and tax laws become more congenial to work.