Policy Brief Examines Self-Sufficiency Programs

Policy Brief Examines Self-Sufficiency Programs

In a future marked by limits on welfare receipt and shrinking Federal funding, initiatives that can help large numbers of public housing residents overcome barriers to employment and reenter the economic mainstream will become a critical component of public housing operations. HUD USER's third Urban Policy Brief reviews HUD-sponsored self-sufficiency programs and assesses the impact of these and similar programs on the ability of very low-income families to support themselves without welfare. Of particular interest are HUD's Family Self-Sufficiency Program, which currently is underway in housing authorities across the country, and the Gateway Transitional Families Program in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Research cited in the Brief finds that integrated supportive, educational, and vocational services can help those who receive Federal housing assistance to make positive progress toward employment. Available evidence suggests, however, that the gap between employment and self-sufficiency remains wide. In their first few years out of the programs, HUD self-sufficiency graduates tend to earn near the minimum wage, but in 1995 full-time employment at the minimum wage yielded an income about $3,400 below the Federal poverty level for a single parent with two children. Due to the limitations of most available research, the long-term earnings potential of self-sufficiency graduates remains uncertain.

Nonetheless, HUD and Congress are implementing fundamental changes in public housing, such as allowing housing authorities to hold down rents for wage-earning residents and sponsoring service-enriched environments for residents, designed to make housing assistance act as a "platform to self-sufficiency."

This and other HUD USER Urban Policy Briefs offer informative overviews of ideas and research on important topics in housing and urban development. Single copies of Urban Policy Brief No. 3: Promoting Self-Sufficiency in Public Housing are available free from HUD USER.

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