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Publications on Welfare

This brief uses data from the 2007 Survey of Employers in the Low-Skill Labor Market to examine the scheduling demands employers place on workers recently hired to fill noncollege jobs and to assess the availability of paid time off, sick leave and other benefits that help workers balance their work and family lives.

This brief uses data from the 2007 Survey of Employers in the Low-Skill Labor Market to describe the role job placement agencies play in helping employers fill noncollege jobs.

This chapter was part of an online effort by the Center for American Progress Action Fund and New Democracy Project to offer expert advice to the new administration as part of its Change for America book project (http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2008/changeforamerica/additionalcontributions.html). Washington’s new leadership, its authors say, should build on the Administration for Children and Families’ assets and focus on the interrelated goals of promoting family economic security and promoting healthy child and youth development. These twin goals can best be achieved through new strate­gic investments, capacity building and innovative partnerships, coordination across offices and departments, and collaboration with states and the private sector.

Housing costs constitute the single biggest expenditure in most family budgets, and many low-income families have difficulty finding housing they can reasonably afford. Although most family-strengthening and community change initiatives recognize the urgency of the housing problems facing low-income families, they often have difficulty figuring out how to constructively address them. Federal housing programs are numerous and confusing, implementation is balkanized, funding falls woefully short of needs, and policy debates often focus on narrow technical issues. This primer demystifies federal rental assistance programs and provides the most current information available on how many (and who) they serve and how their scale is changing. It also summarizes key challenges facing housing policy today and in the coming years—challenges that may create opportunities for federal, state, and local engagement and innovation.

Although the ongoing foreclosure crisis has focused the nation’s attention on housing problems and policies, the struggles of renters have largely been overlooked. A new guide demystifies federal rental assistance programs, providing the latest information on who they serve and how their scale has changed, details on funding flows and federal-state-local-private responsibilities, explanations of how participants are selected, and overviews of challenges facing housing policy.