How Do States' Safety Net Policies Affect Poverty?
Safety net policies can dramatically reduce poverty.A full assessment requires use of a Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) that adds near-cash benefits and tax credits to cash income, deducts necessary...
View ArticleIs the Safety Net Catching Unemployed Families?
The vast majority of unemployed families received some help from core safety net programs in 2009.Among those experiencing unemployment, receipt of unemployment benefits doubled between 2005 and 2009....
View ArticleHow Employment Constraints Affect Low-Income Working Parents' Child Care...
A multiyear qualitative study finds low-income families seeking dependable child care are hampered by unsteady work, fluctuating wages, and unreliable transportation. Given many low-wage workers'...
View ArticleHow Contextual Constraints Affect Low-Income Working Parents' Child Care Choices
A multiyear qualitative study describes how low-income parents view their supply of child care, how they learn about their options, and barriers to access. Common impediments include nonstandard...
View ArticleWelfare Reform What Have We Learned in Fifteen Years?
Welfare has changed dramatically since Temporary Assistance for Needy Families replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children in 1996. TANF can be characterized by shrinking real benefits, strategies...
View ArticleFifteen Years After Welfare Reform Took Hold, How Well Does the Program Work?
Eight briefs examine barriers to employment among parents on TANF, the circumstances of single mothers with no earnings or cash welfare, reasons for the high share of child-only TANF cases, how TANF...
View ArticleWelfare-to-Work: Results are Better than Red Tape
In our research at the Urban Institute, state officials express frustration that caseworkers must spend too many hours tracking paperwork rather than pushing people toward employment, Olivia Golden and...
View ArticleTANF at 16: What Do We Know?
This week marks the 16th anniversary of the landmark welfare reform legislation that created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and terminated the Aid to Dependent Families with...
View ArticleStrengthening TANF for States and Needy Families
This brief offers specific recommendations to address four problems with TANF. First, too few needy families receive TANF help, with significant variation across states. Second, TANF did not respond...
View ArticleChild Poverty and Its Lasting Consequence
One in six newborns were born poor over the past 40 years, and nearly half remained poor half their childhoods. These persistently poor children are nearly 90 percent more likely than never-poor...
View ArticleChild Poverty and Its Lasting Consequence: Summary
Nearly half of children born to poor parents remained poor half their childhoods. Black children are especially disadvantaged: two-thirds of poor black newborns are persistently poor. Children who are...
View ArticleHousing and Schools: Working Together to Reduce the Negative Effects of...
How has the recession and its resulting family instability impacted childrens residential and school mobility? Officials from housing, homeless, and school programs discussed the full spectrum of...
View ArticleThe Composition of Children Enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP: Variation over...
In 2010, Medicaid and CHIP covered over a third of all children in the U.S., over a fifth of white children, and more than half of all Hispanic and black children. Full implementation of the Affordable...
View ArticleThe Composition of Children Enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP: A Summary
In 2010, Medicaid and CHIP covered over a third of all children in the U.S., over a fifth of white children, and more than half of all Hispanic and black children. Full implementation of the Affordable...
View ArticleRacial and Ethnic Differences in Access to Care and Service Use for Children...
By 2010, Medicaid and CHIP covered 36 percent of all children and over half of all Hispanic and black children. Generally, the Hispanic, black, and white children served by Medicaid and CHIP appear to...
View ArticleHow Health Care Reform Can Help Children and Families in the Child Welfare...
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), enacted in March 2010 and taking full effect in January 2014, increases the number of people who have access to health insurance, simplifies insurance enrollment, and...
View ArticleNonstandard Work Schedules and the Well-being of Low-Income Families
Forty percent of full-time workers toiling outside the traditional daytime weekday schedule bring home paychecks that put them in the lowest wage quartile, an Urban Institute analysis shows. Among all...
View ArticleNonstandard Work Schedules and the Well-being of Low-Income Families
In 201011, 28 percent of lower-income workers, and 20 percent of all workers, worked most of their hours between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. or on weekends. The occupations and industries with the most...
View ArticleEconomic Insecurity in Children's Lives: Changes Over the Course of the Great...
Given the high stakes for children living in economically insecure families, it is important to document how many children are living in such circumstances, how economic insecurity has changed over the...
View ArticleThe Negative Effects of Instability on Child Development: A Research Synthesis
Children thrive in stable and nurturing environments where they have a routine and know what to expect. But a large number of children face instability at some point in their lives. They experience...
View ArticleThe Negative Effects of Instability on Child Development: Fact Sheet
Children thrive in stable and nurturing environments where they have a routine and know what to expect. Yet a large number of children face instability at some point in their lives. They experience...
View ArticleHow Economic Insecurity in Children Changed Over the Course of the Great...
Given the high stakes for children living in economically insecure families, it is important to document how many children are living in such circumstances, how economic insecurity has changed over the...
View ArticleA Demographic Snapshot of Disconnected Low-Income Men
In 2008-10, 16.5 million civilian men nationwide age 18-44 lived in families with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level; 15 million of these men lacked college degrees. Low-income men...
View ArticleThe Health of Disconnected Low-Income Men
This brief examines the health insurance coverage and health status of disconnected low-income men from 2008 to 2010, focusing primarily on mens connections to health care providers and systems. Less...
View ArticleLow-Income Men at the Margins: Caught at the Intersection of Race, Place and...
A large number of US men of prime working age are neither gainfully employed nor pursuing education or other training, suggesting a potentially significant disconnection from mainstream economic and...
View ArticleImprisonment and Disenfranchisement of Disconnected Low-Income Men
Incarceration rates have risen over time and vary by race and ethnicity, reflecting changes in federal and state crime policies over the past few decades. In 2011, African American men were six times...
View ArticleSummary of an Urban Ethnographers' Symposium on Low-Income Men
The Urban Institute, with funding from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, US Department of Health and Human Services, convened a symposium to explore the state of...
View ArticleEducation and Employment of Disconnected Low-Income Men
This brief explores the education and employment outcomes of disconnected low-income men in 200810. These men have lower education levels than higher-income men. Among low-income men, Hispanics are...
View ArticleChild-Related Benefits in the Federal Income Tax
The federal income tax system provides substantial benefits to families with children. In 2013, the Tax Policy Center estimates that five major child-related tax benefits the earned income tax credit...
View ArticleInnovations in NYC Health and Human Services Policy: Homelessness Prevention,...
The Bloomberg administration's efforts to improve New York City's homeless services included creating a new homelessness prevention model, overhauling the shelter intake and eligibility process for...
View ArticleInnovations in NYC Health and Human Services Policy: Street Homelessness and...
Under the Bloomberg administration, New York City built a system for moving chronically homeless individuals off the streets and into permanent housing by restructuring the contracts for homeless...
View ArticleInnovations in NYC Health and Human Services Policy: Teen Pregnancy Prevention
Since 2005, New York City has undertaken several initiatives to reduce the citys unintended teenage pregnancy rate, aiming to change the context of decisions to engage in sexual activity and to use...
View ArticleInnovations in NYC Health and Human Services Policy: Young's Men's Initiative
The New York City Young Men's Initiative is dedicated to reducing the inequities in adult success between young men of color and other young people in New York City. YMI has brought attention to the...
View ArticleInnovations in NYC Health and Human Services Policy: Procurement and Shared...
Nonprofit organizations are a vital partner to government in the delivery of human services. Through government contracts, nonprofits deliver a broad range of essential services to local residents....
View ArticleInnovations in NYC Health and Human Services Policy: Strengthening Nonprofits...
Like most cities, New York City counts on government, business, and nonprofit organizations to work together to create supportive, safe, and productive environments. Although building and sustaining...
View ArticleInnovations in NYC Health and Human Services Policy: Food Policy
In his 12 years as mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg made food policy a top priority. His administration's innovative programs focused on increasing awareness of and access to healthy food,...
View ArticleChildren of Immigrants: 2011 State Trends Update
From 2006 to 2011, the number of children age 0 to 17 with at least one immigrant parent grew by 1.5 million children, from 15.7 to 17.2 million. They account for nearly one-quarter of all children in...
View ArticleMixed Results from Public Supports for Low-Income, Unemployed Parents
How effectively do federal supports help children and families, especially low-income ones, during times of parental unemployment? A new report looked for answers by tracking seven programs during the...
View ArticlePublic Supports When Parents Lose Work
This brief tracks how seven public benefit programs responded to the increased needs of families during the Great Recession, with a focus on the types of support available to children whose parents...
View ArticlePublic Supports When Parents Lose Work: A Fact Sheet
This fact sheet summarizes a paper that uses Current Population Survey data to track how seven public benefit programs responded to the increased needs of families during the Great Recession, focusing...
View ArticleExplaining Changes in Child Poverty Over the Past Four Decades
Child poverty ratcheted up from 1975 to 1993, then fell sharply until the 2001 recession, when child poverty began to rise again. Changes in family structure drove changes in child poverty 1975 to...
View ArticleWealth in America: Policies to Support Mobility
What role can policymakers play in helping families rebuild their balance sheets after the Great Recession and in helping young families, families of color, and those with less education who were...
View ArticleHow Does Unemployment Affect Family Arrangements for Children?
This study analyzes whether and how the event of a job loss in families with children changes family arrangements. Comparing outcomes for children whose parents become unemployed with children whose...
View ArticleWhat Happens to Housing Assistance Leavers?
To assess whether federal housing assistance can encourage asset building and self-sufficiency, we need to know why families leave housing assistance and how they fare on their own. As a group, housing...
View ArticleDesigning a Home Visiting Framework for Families in Public and Mixed-Income...
Though young children in public and mixed-income housing are exposed to some of the deepest poverty and developmental and educational risks in the United States, they are usually out of reach of many...
View ArticleRacial/Ethnic Differences in Uninsurance Rates under the ACA
This report is the first state-level projection of ACA coverage gains for racial/ethnic groups. Absent ACA coverage provisions, Latinos, blacks, and American Indian/Alaska Natives are overrepresented...
View ArticleExpanding Economic Opportunity for Young Men and Boys of Color through...
Young men of color have long experienced lower earnings and higher unemployment compared to young white men. Many factors have contributed to these negative outcomes: persistent discrimination, hiring...
View ArticleUnderstanding the Environmental Contexts of Boys and Young Men of Color
The environments in which children grow up profoundly shape their socio-emotional health and development and set the stage for future success. This essay provides a framework for understanding how...
View ArticleReducing Harms to Boys and Young Men of Color from Criminal Justice System...
Boys and young men of color are overrepresented in all aspects of the juvenile justice and criminal justice systems, at considerable cost to those involved, their families, and their communities. This...
View ArticlePromoting Healthy Families and Communities for Boys and Young Men of Color
Boys and young men of color are at risk for poor health and developmental outcomes from birth through young adulthood. Many risks flow from a lack of economic resources and residence in segregated...
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