Affordability is the word of the moment — and behind it is something stark. Nearly half of Americans can't cover their essential expenses, gas is up about a dollar a gallon since February, and more people are going hungry now than at the height of the pandemic. In Detroit, where food insecurity was already widespread, that squeeze lands even harder.

"When the economy catches a cold, Detroit gets pneumonia," said Cass Tretyak, an outreach navigator at Community & Home Supports. She joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to unpack how a punishing economy keeps failing people living in poverty — the rising demand for food and housing help, the toll of new federal rules tightening access to benefits like SNAP, and what it actually takes to keep her clients fed and housed.