Promoting Work in Public Housing. The Effectiveness of Jobs-Plus. Final Report

Can a multicomponent employment initiative that is located in public housing developments help residents work, earn more money, and improve their quality of life? The Jobs-Plus Community Revitalization Initiative for Public Housing Families (Jobs-Plus, for short) sought to achieve these ambitious go...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inMDRC
Main Authors Bloom, Howard S, Riccio, James A, Verma, Nandita, Walter, Johanna
Format Report
LanguageEnglish
Published 01.03.2005
Subjects
Community Involvement
Employment Programs
Income
Program Effectiveness
Public Housing
Quality of Life
Urban Areas
Welfare Recipients
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Can a multicomponent employment initiative that is located in public housing developments help residents work, earn more money, and improve their quality of life? The Jobs-Plus Community Revitalization Initiative for Public Housing Families (Jobs-Plus, for short) sought to achieve these ambitious goals in difficult environments. Operated as a special demonstration project in selected housing developments in six U.S. cities, Jobs-Plus was sponsored by a consortium of public and private funders led by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Rockefeller Foundation. MDRC, a nonprofit social policy research firm, managed the demonstration and evaluated the program. This final MDRC report on the initiative assesses the program?s success in achieving key outcomes for residents and their housing developments. It analyzes the program?s effects -- or "impacts" -- on residents? employment rates, average earnings, and welfare receipt by comparing the outcomes for residents of the Jobs-Plus developments with the outcomes for their counterparts in similar ?comparison? developments that did not implement the program. (Because housing developments were allocated randomly to the Jobs-Plus or comparison group, their outcomes provide an especially rigorous basis for estimating program impacts.) The report also examines changes in social and material conditions at the developments. Four of the six study sites built substantial Jobs-Plus programs. Once Jobs-Plus was in place at the four sites, it markedly increased the earnings of residents (including those who eventually moved away) relative to the comparison group. The following are appended: (1) Supplementary Tables for Chapter 2; (2) Supplementary Tables for Chapter 3; (3) Baseline and Follow-up Surveys of Residents; (4) Estimating the Impacts of Jobs-Plus on Work and Welfare; (5) Supplementary Table and Figures for Chapter 4; and (6) Supplementary Figures for Chapter 5. (Contains 44 tables & 30 figure