This paper presents a preliminary evaluation of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program, that was mandated by the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), showing trends over time in wages for mothers who received welfare benefits in 1996, using the power of a longitudinal data set: a nationally representative sample of 1000 welfare mothers in the 1996 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), linked to their IRS wage records from 1996 to 2007. Only one in ten of the 1996 cohort of welfare mothers received wages that were at least 175% of the poverty line by 2007. By 2007, only one in six of those with more than a high school diploma achieved this level of economic self-sufficiency. For all time periods, the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, had a positive impact for only the lowest wage earners, that is, with earnings below half the poverty line. Our resultsY provide a commentary on the validity of neoliberal assumptions underlying the long-term implementation of the PRWORA. Analyses of future SIPP panels will determine whether these trends continued.

Welfare reform brought on by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 has been the object of considerable debate and scholarship. This article shows impact over time in employment for a nationally representative sample of welfare mothers who received welfare benefits in 1996, using the 1996 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), linked to 10 years of their IRS wage records. In 1996, nearly half of them worked for wages. The vast majority had attained a high school diploma or less. Almost a fifth reported a severe disability and either fair or poor health. In 1997, the PRWORA was implemented for the entire U.S. That year, nearly three‐fifths had paid employment. Nearly three‐quarters received wages by 2000. After the recession of 2001, receipt of wages decreased. By 2007, receipt of wages was back to the 1997 level. Health, age, education, and work history of these mothers impacted receipt of wages as expected, but not car ownership and number of children. Our longitudinal data demonstrate the impact of business cycles as well as health, age, education, and work history to determine paid employment outcomes. Analyses of future SIPP panels will determine whether these trends continue.

Purpose This research examines the effects of health, location, and other factors on receipt of wage income for young heads of households, aged 19 to 25, who lived in HUD-assisted housing and in other rental housing in 2011.

Of an estimated 6.8 million households in the United States headed by young adults, aged 19–25, 5 percent receive housing assistance that is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This research looks for evidence in the 2011 American Housing Survey that the stigma associated with residence in HUD‐assisted housing has translated into low self‐efficacy and the “why try” response to becoming economically self‐sufficient. In 2011, a majority of these young householders, 58 percent, participated in the labor force, with household median incomes at 96 percent of the poverty line. Forty percent of householders with less than good health or disability participated in the labor force. The vast majority was also parenting. Small families were the norm. An estimated 526,000 children under age 18 lived in assisted housing headed by these young millennials. Of these, 158,000 children were under age 5 and living in households headed by a single adult who was not a labor force participant. Logistic regression was used to find whether there were any statistically significant predictors of labor force participation at the 0.10 level. Good health and no disability of the respondent (OR = 3.3, CI = 1.5–7.4) and educational attainment of some college (OR = 3.2, CI = 1.0–10.2) were statistically significant for the entire sample. Each additional adult in the household also increased (OR = 1.9) the odds of labor force participation by the household head (CI = .9–3.7). For households headed by a single adult, residence in the Midwest Census Region depressed labor force participation (OR = .32, CI = .10–1.00). We conclude that the discovery of these statistically significant predictors suggests that the stigma of living in assisted housing does not create such low self‐efficacy that labor force participation is avoided. Assisted housing reduces the burden on shelters and foster care systems as well as provides a significant safety net for workers who are unable to earn a living wage.

Objectives. To compare blood lead levels (BLLs) among US children aged 1 to 5 years according to receipt of federal housing assistance. Methods. In our analyses, we used 2005 to 2012 data for National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) respondents that were linked to 1999 to 2014 administrative records from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). After we restricted the analysis to children with family income-to-poverty ratios below 200%, we compared geometric mean BLLs and the prevalence of BLLs of 3 micrograms per deciliter or higher among children who were living in assisted housing at the time of their NHANES blood draw (n = 151) with data for children who did not receive housing assistance (n = 1099). Results. After adjustment, children living in assisted housing had a significantly lower geometric mean BLL (1.44 µg/dL; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.31, 1.57) than comparable children who did not receive housing assistance (1.79 µg/dL; 95% CI = 1.59, 2.01; P < .01). The prevalence ratio for BLLs of 3 micrograms per deciliter or higher was 0.51 (95% CI = 0.33, 0.81; P < .01). Conclusions. Children aged 1 to 5 years during 2005 to 2012 who were living in HUD-assisted housing had lower BLLs than expected given their demographic, socioeconomic, and family characteristics.

This research addresses the question of whether housing assistance provided a perverse incentive for welfare recipients to remain on the rolls following the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996. Merging the 1996 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) with HUD's administrative records provides a unique opportunity to test whether recipients of housing assistance were more likely to stay on the welfare program four years after the enactment of PRWORA. This dataset contains a nationally representative sample of welfare recipients. Quarterly data, including sources of income, were obtained from these families of welfare recipients for four years. Results indicate that in an era of plunging welfare rolls, receipt of housing assistance did not account for those who remained on Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). These data show that housing assistance was not a perverse incentive to remain on welfare in the aftermath of the welfare reform of 1996. Instead, those who failed to exit the rolls four years after TANF was enacted had high obligations to children, lacked prior participation in the labor force, and lacked access to an automobile.

This report presents the results of a study that evaluated the degree of customer satisfaction with PD&R’s research products. It is based on a survey of three types of PD&R customers: people who visited our HUD USER website; people who subscribed to the HUD USER electronic mailing lists; and people who ordered reports from the HUD USER Clearinghouse. Overall, the three groups of PD&R customers expressed similar high levels of satisfaction. The typical pattern of response was that fewer than six percent expressed low levels of satisfaction on any item, while more than 80 percent were highly satisfied and the remaining were mildly satisfied.