Taylor & Francis

This paper examines how community, social, and interpersonal networks are associated with reliance on work or welfare among rural single mothers. Based on telephone interviews with single mothers in rural northern New England, the data were used to measure the effects of demographic characteristics, community context, informal and formal social networks, and perceived social support on employment, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and other service use.

Housing programs of the past have exacerbated the problems of concentrated poverty. Current housing programs serving very low-income households, including homebuyers as well as renters, should be examined to determine the extent to which they help households make entry into neighborhoods with low concentrations of poverty. This research is designed to assist planners in understanding how well various approaches to resolving housing affordability problems can facilitate the poverty deconcentration process.

Survey-based studies reveal the prevalence of employment barriers among Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) recipients. However, the extent to which welfare caseworkers are aware of, and therefore able to address, particular barriers is unknown. This study compares survey data with electronic case records to measure the rate of agreement in barrier identification, and finds that although agreement rates are high, barriers were more likely to have been documented by caseworkers for certain subgroups of recipients.

The 1996 welfare reform act created 50 state “workfare” systems. This study analyzes the impacts of reform on the survival strategies of single-female headed families in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. The findings indicate that variation in outcomes results from the interaction of structural conditions with private network strength and that access to state support services is determined less by need than by the political-organizational goals of workfare states.

Established within a political context greatly influenced by stereotypical assumptions of impoverished women of color, welfare reform codified a work-first philosophy meant to attack perceived “dependency” and spur “self-sufficiency.” This article describes the shortcomings of the work-first approach and highlights the importance of higher education for helping women, and especially women of color, achieve economic well-being. It then reports key findings from a study that examines the impact of higher education on the lives of welfare participants in California.

The success of state welfare-to-work programs has been closely scrutinized as the 1996 TANF legislation underwent extensive review prior to renewal in 2003. Although most states' caseloads have been reduced by more than half, the poverty rates have not proportionately declined, and obtaining jobs that offer economic security remains a persistent problem for post-welfare women. The goal of this ethnographic study was to discern the factors that distinguished women with greater success after welfare from those who were less successful.

The Effects of Housing Vouchers on Welfare Families was an experimental evaluation that examined the effects of housing assistance on low-income families eligible for or receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Household-based rental vouchers were provided to participants under the Welfare to Work Voucher program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development from 2000 through 2004.

In this paper, I describe the linkage between child care, female employment, and regional economic growth. I begin with a detailed examination of modal choices in child care and relate these choices to female employment outcomes. Next, I discuss the empirical evidence regarding the importance of child care prices in employment choices. In the mid-section of the paper, I describe governmental involvement in the child care market both at the federal and state level.

Recent welfare reform movements have clearly limited job training opportunities for women on welfare. Previous studies suggest this is due to the ineffectiveness of the training for this population. This study examined which women on public assistance programs received training and whether training was associated with a higher probability of obtaining employment and better individual incomes. Using the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) of 2004, this study found that women who seemed the most job ready were the most likely to receive training.

In this study, we use new data from the Philadelphia Survey of Child Care and Work to expand on previous analyses: we include child care problems as a work obstacle, and we analyze both current welfare recipients and non-welfare “working poor” mothers. Results show that two main obstacles have a large impact on full-time work: poor mental health and child care problems. Net of other factors, mothers with severe child care problems are 22 percent less likely to work full time. Dividing the sample by welfare status, we find a child care problems effect for both groups.