Social Impact Across the US: How We Serve Those in Need

One Degree, an app that helps low-income people get information about available social services, recently won a grant from the Knight Foundation's Prototype Fund. Its creator, Rey Faustino, describes the app as a kind of Yelp for food banks, shelters and other services in a post on Knight Blog. The app is currently limited to San Francisco and Alameda County in the Bay Area.

Also in the Bay Area, a 21-year-old homeless man living in Berkeley, California gives an inside look at life on the streets in The Atlantic magazine.

With all the debate happening around the Affordable Care Act, The New Yorker looks back at the genesis of Medicaid and Medicare. This mini-history useful for anyone tracking how Americans get their healthcare today and the ongoing debate over the role of government.

The New York Times reports that those most in need -- the very bottom of the economic ladder -- are actually receiving less and less assistance. Working families, on the other hand, who often skirt the edges of the poverty line are getting more assistance. Experts in the report suggest that the trend reflects a resurgence of old conceptions of the "deserving poor" and the idea that those who don't work simply are not trying.