Jobs-Plus Community Revitalization Initiative for
Public Housing Families
Summary:
Jobs-Plus is a welfare-to-work demonstration aimed at significantly
increasing the employment rate among public housing residents.
Purpose:
Jobs are a key element in the elimination of persistent poverty.
The Jobs-Plus demonstration provides intensive, employment-focused
services targeting every able-bodied, working-age resident
at a public housing development in each of five cities: Baltimore,
Chattanooga, Dayton, Los Angeles, and St. Paul. (Seven cities
were initially chosen to participate in the demonstration,
but two, Cleveland and Seattle, subsequently dropped out).
The Jobs-Plus program implemented in each city was locally
designed using three broadly conceived elements: (a) “best”
practices in preparing residents for and linking them with
jobs; (b) work incentives through the manipulation of rent
rules for public housing; and (c) enhanced community supports
for work.
Sponsors of Jobs-Plus felt that neither of these elements
alone could be reasonably expected to enable sites to succeed
in meeting the goals of Job-Plus. However, they felt that
the successful implementation of all three simultaneously
had the potential to create a synergy among them that could
lead to results that exceed the sum of the individual parts
and surpass the accomplishments of the past. Finally, the
demonstration was designed and implemented in a collaboration
among the local housing authority, residents of the developments,
the local welfare agency, the local workforce development
agency and other relevant partners. The initiative is also
a response to new national policies, such as time-limited
welfare and cuts in public housing subsidies that endanger
the ability of public housing residents to pay rent.
Type of Assistance:
Each housing authority received a $200,000 grant—which
was matched at least 2 to 1 at the local level--for the direct
costs of Jobs-Plus implementation and related research activities.
The Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC), a
New York-based, nonprofit organization with expertise in the
evaluation of employment and welfare-to-work strategies, provided
technical assistance to the sites to help them design and
implement their plans. MDRC is evaluating the long-term impacts
of different sites' approaches to assisting residents to find
and maintain jobs, changes in the employment rate of residents,
and changes in the quality of life in the development. MDRC
receives funds from HUD, the Rockefeller Foundation, along
with other public agencies and philanthropies, for its activities
under Jobs-Plus. MDRC will complete the evaluation in 2004.
Eligible Customers:
All working-age residents in the selected public housing developments
are eligible to participate in the demonstration. They will
benefit from employment income and related community services
to support their employment. Collaborations among public housing
residents, public housing authorities, and agencies including
local welfare departments, the education and training community,
and social service agencies will receive technical assistance
to coordinate their programs to better serve residents.
Eligible Activities:
Eligible activities include job training, job clubs, access
to education, transportation and child care assistance, case
management and other services to aid in obtaining and maintaining
jobs.
Application:
Jobs-Plus is a subset of the Moving-to-Work Demonstration.
No new applications are being accepted for Jobs-Plus.
Technical Guidance:
Jobs-Plus is authorized under Section 204 of P. L. 104-134,
Omnibus Consolidated and Recissions and Appropriations Act
of 1996. It was announced in the Federal Register FR-4123-N-01.
It is administered by HUD's Office of Policy Development and
Research.
For More Information:
Jennifer A. Stoloff at (202) 708-3700, extension 5723 is the
program officer at HUD headquarters.
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