Opinion: The seemingly intractable problem that the U.S. can actually solve

A home on West Manor Street in Altadena was burned to its foundation by the Eaton fire. But some of the New Deal programs established under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt nearly a century ago provide a template: Offer more bridges out of poverty than a single, often inadequate, safety net. This progress broke through other policies of the time limiting access to resources for Black families, providing a chance to build wealth and financial stability for those who navigated these programs — an especially notable feat just decades after slavery ended in our nation and as the United States was coming out of the Depression. Beyond incorporating New Deal-type government programs with updated policies designed to support homeownership and a living wage for all Americans, what about public-private partnerships such as the one building innovative, resilient and affordable ZenniHome houses for citizens of the Navajo Nation? Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States, predicted during his 1928 campaign that “given a chance to go forward with the policies of the last eight years, and we shall soon with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this Nation.” Yet he became a powerful critic of the New Deal programs from his successor, FDR.