Misconceptions And Conflicting Goals Create A Plan
Designed For Failure. 
Summarizes many of the
conflicts within the new welfare
legislation. We made an honest effort to reduce it in size but, no one could
figure what to cut. Just go ahead, print it and read it at your leisure. Be
warned, it is hard to put down once you start and you might driven to take
action after understanding the consequences of the pending changes. (Franci
Collins 4/02/97)
Employer Incentives in Welfare Reform. Describes some of the key pitfalls
for both employers and welfare recipients who are seeking jobs. Potential solutions are outlined.
(Franci Collins 7/08/97)
Declines in Food Stamp and Welfare Participation: Is There a Connection?
Urban Institute Report by Sheila R. Zedlewski and Sarah Brauner Food stamp caseloads have been
declining almost as rapidly as the cash assistance caseloads. Between the August 1996 passage of
federal welfare reform and September 1998, 6.2 million persons left food stamps (25% of the caseload).
During the same period, 4.4 million persons left cash assistance (36% of the caseload). While declines
were expected in Food Stamp Program (FSP) participation as a result of the strong economy and federal
reforms that scaled back the FSP, these factors do not adequately explain the unprecedented decline in
the food stamp program rolls.
One Year After Federal Welfare Reform: A Description of State Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF) Decisions as of October 1997."
(May 28, 1998) By L. Jerome Gallagher, Megan Gallagher, Kevin Perese, Susan Schreiber and Keith Watson.
It is available on the Urban Institute website in html format.
LINC Project.
LINC Project is the electronic crossroads where the members, leaders, and organizers of low income
organizations confronting the shredding of our social safety net can connect, gather and exchange
information and have their organizing efforts represented.
The
Worst Thing Bill Clinton Has Done. Peter Edelman, a former high Clinton
Administration official with responsibility for social policy, resigned his
office last year rather than be a party to the President's signing of a "welfare-reform"
bill. Here he speaks out for the first time. (3/97)
Matching Savings Gives Poor a Leg Up.
UPI article describes how Individual
Development Accounts are finally becoming a recognized way out of poverty.
Several demonstration projects are described.
Welfare Repeal: The Impact of H.R. 3734 on Homelessness in America.
Detailed analysis posted by National Coalition for the Homeless.
Barriers Faced by Welfare Recipients in the Transition to Work.
1998 study conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, examines the following barriers: lack of
specialized child care, disability, domestic violence, financial emergencies, housing instability,
lack of health insurance, mental illness, substance abuse, and inadequate transportation. The report
also looks at a category called "multiple barriers."
Walking the Lifelong Tightrope – Negotiating Work in the New Economy.
Details the growing inequality for workers within the New Economy which is taking the country by storm
right now. It is an “hourglass economy”, marked at one end by growth in highly paid professional jobs
and at the other by an increase of low wage, part time, and contingency jobs. Published by Working
Partnerships USA and the Economic Policy Institute.
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Franci@CristalVerde.com