Extended summary essay: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty

access to basic Census Bureau information regarding U.S. poverty: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty.html

The most recent Census Bureau annual report on poverty: http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/p60-235.pdf

Poverty data from the American Community Survey 2007. Great breakdowns of poverty figures by states, communities, race, etc., and great information on income by occupation:http://www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/acs-09.pdf

Department of Health and Human Services report on poverty guidelines and discussions of issues in the measurement of poverty, as well as access information to other important research resources regarding poverty: http://aspe.hhs.gov/POVERTY/

Columbia University website on children in poverty: http://www.nccp.org/

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics homepage with access to lots of information about employment, income, benefits, etc.: http://www.nccp.org/

Great summary article on occupational mobility among full-time workers: http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2003/09/art2full.pdf

Nice summary and chart on race and poverty and access to other basic charts about poverty but not recently updated: http://www.bsos.umd.edu/socy/vanneman/socy441/trends/povrace.html

Housing costs in DC area: http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/roo/