Brooks says that none of the 4,000 community development corporations around the country have lifted all the residents, in poor neighborhoods, out of poverty. First, in New Jersey there are hundreds of CDCs like New Communities, the most famous, which are doing saint's work. The NJ Housing and Community Development Network is our statewide group that assists local CDCs. Like CDCs across the country these groups bring housing, jobs, and social services to poor areas and have lifted a few of our poor out of poverty.

Will those two programs dramatically reduce poverty? Of course not. How can you expect the under funded section 8 program and CDCs to do that? That's why Obama is calling for more money. The section 8 program is the only housing subsidy for the poor. Unlike the mortgage interest deduction, which is a subsidy for all homeowners, less than 15% of the poor, who are eligible for Section 8, actually get a voucher.

Brooks' attack on Edwards' plan to expand Section 8 vouchers is even dumber, since it is not designed to do what Brooks says. He really is criticizing "mobility" approaches, which encourage inner city residents to move to the suburbs. Vouchers technically allow a family to use their vouchers to rent a suburban apartment. But very few poor have Section 8, and the one's that do don't use them to move to the suburbs. Some mobility programs have worked, some have not. No one has proposed it as a solution to the poverty problem.

Brooks says that whereas Obama believes in improving poor neighborhoods (thus the reference to CDCs), Edwards wants to help people escape poor neighborhoods.

This attack is misleading, especially as to Edwards. Edwards has called for dramatic expansion of EITC, a tax break for the working poor, a public works jobs program in poor neighborhoods and universal health insurance, strengthening union organizing. Edwards doesn't just rely on vouchers, as Brooks suggests.

Have the CDC's and section 8 solved the poverty problem? That's a ridiculous expectation. You want to reduce poverty? To do that will require a multi-million dollar national commitment similar to the one we made to attack Iraq, a country that never harmed us.