Our coalition is dedicated to ensuring that true economic security is a possibility for all Americans.
Our Mission
The National True Cost of Living Coalition was founded in 2024 by two leading anti-poverty and advocacy organizations: the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA) and the Community Service Society of New York (CSS). Concerned about the nation’s inability to both accurately measure what it costs individuals and families to live in America in the 21st century and govern accordingly because existing measures center on acute basic needs and not economic security, they brought together a broad-based group of policy experts and labor, business, philanthropic and community leaders to advocate for the adoption of a national true cost of living measure that would inform policy and programming at all levels of government, and help ensure that economic security is an attainable goal for all Americans.
The Coalition commissioned the Urban Institute to develop a national true cost of living measure using its best-in-class research and methodological analysis. Its efforts are being supported by the Ford Foundation, the New York Women’s Foundation, Stardust Fund, Trinity Church Wall Street, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and others.
National True Cost of Living Coalition Leadership Team
Meet Our Co-Chairs
Jennifer Jones Austin is the CEO and executive director of FPWA, an anti-poverty, policy and advocacy organization with 170 member agencies and faith partners. Ms. Jones Austin chaired the NYC Racial Justice Commission, the first of its kind in the nation, where she led the development and passage by the New York City electorate in 2022 of three unprecedented proposals to amend the City of New York’s charter to dismantle structural racism and embed racial justice and equity in all government functions. She has chaired several other influential boards and commissions, including the NYC Board of Correction, where she presided over the promulgation of rules to end solitary confinement and the Mayoral Transition for Bill de Blasio. She was lead advisor for the City’s Full Day UPK Expansion in 2014-2015, and a lead advisor for the NYPD Reform and Reinvention Collaborative.
Jones Austin was appointed a commissioner for the New York State Community Commission on reparations remedies in 2024. She also serves as Vice Chair of the Board of National Action Network; member of the Feerick Center for Social Justice Advisory Board; and member of the Center for Law, Brain and Behavior Advisory Board at Harvard University. She was the Visiting Scholar for the New York University Silver School of Social Work in 2023 and Scholar in Residence at Alliance University’s Center for Racial Reconciliation in 2021 and 2022.
Prior to joining FPWA, Ms. Jones Austin served as Senior Vice President of the United Way of New York City; the City of New York’s first Family Services Coordinator; Deputy Commissioner for the NYC Administration for Children’s Services; Civil Rights Deputy Bureau Chief for Attorney General Eliot Spitzer; and Vice President for LearnNow/Edison Schools, Inc. Ms. Jones Austin is a graduate of the Fordham University School of Law, the New York University Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and Rutgers University.
David R. Jones, Esq. is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that promotes economic opportunity and full civic participation for New Yorkers facing economic insecurity. A highly respected New York City leader on issues of urban poverty and economic advancement, Mr. Jones has served on transition committees for former New York City Mayors Bill de Blasio and Michael Bloomberg. In 2016, the New York State Senate confirmed him to fill a city seat on the Metropolitan Transportation Board (MTA).
Mr. Jones was Special Advisor to Mayor Koch from 1979 to 1983 with responsibilities in race relations, urban development, immigration reform, and education. Prior to his nonprofit and public service careers, he specialized in corporate antitrust cases and contract litigation at the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore. Mr. Jones served as Chairman of the Board of Carver Federal Savings Bank, the largest African American managed bank in the nation; past chair of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, which is committed to making organized philanthropy more responsive to socially, economically, and politically disenfranchised people; and was Vice Chairman of the Primary Care Development Corporation, which finances health care programs and facilities in medically underserved communities.
Mr. Jones received his B.A. from Wesleyan University, interned for the late U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and received his J.D. from the Yale Law School. He is a member of the New York State and Federal Bars.
Our Steering Committee
The Coalition Steering Committee is comprised of influential leaders from the policy, advocacy, philanthropic and public service communities:
Geoffrey Canada, President, Harlem Children’s Zone
Patrick Gaspard, President and CEO, Center for American Progress
Darrick Hamilton, Economist, The New School
Lawanna Kimbro, Managing Director, the Stardust Fund
Gara LaMarche, Senior Fellow, City College of New York
Michael McAfee, President and CEO, PolicyLink
Michael Nutter, Former Mayor of Philadelphia; current Columbia University visiting professor
Ana Oliveira, President and CEO, New York Women’s Foundation
Miles Rapoport, Former Connecticut Secretary of State; current Executive Director, 100% Democracy: An Initiative for Universal Voting
J. Phillip Thompson, Professor of Political Science and Urban Planning, MIT
Our Coalition Members
Center for American Progress
Children’s Rights
Drum Major Institute
Hispanic Federation
Institute of Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School
Legal Aid Society
National Action Network
National Urban League
New York Women’s Foundation
PolicyLink
Stardust Fund
Join the National True Cost of Living Coalition
Be a Catalyst for Change!
Help us in expanding awareness and educating what a new national true cost of living measure would mean for everyday American families needing to live, work, take care of their loved ones and plan for the future.
Join us now and help drive meaningful change.