Personally, I would link a guaranteed jobs program to a new national lottery that has the proceeds going to homeless shelters and care for the poor. Wouldn't cost much, but would offer much. 
Of course, if I were boss, I would also link all politicians' pay and benefits to the life of the very poor. If there is no homeless shelter, and no medical care, and no job, then the lawmakers also get no pay or medical care. We all know that within a few months all the homeless would be sheltered, as the resources exist. The pay of execs would be limited. 

Older I get, the more discouraged I get. As the rich get richer, they are able to institute poverty as part of the natural cycle. Build in China or Mexico, destroy American industry to the profit of the investor class, blame the poor for their inability to find jobs even at union destroyed wages...
Go Bernie.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene