Introductory Remarks: Is the Issue Welfare or Poverty?

This article introduces the Urban Welfare Reform symposium materials, giving a broad overview of areas of discussion and conflict. It focuses particularly on the disparity between the problem of welfare dependency debated in congress and the general problem of poverty noted by legal scholars. It concludes that the focus on welfare as a problem in and of itself is misdirected. It urges that focus be shifted to poverty in general, with welfare discussed as a solution rather than a problem in its own right