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Low-Wage Workers & Communities
  Community Initiatives  
     
    The Double Bind of Redevelopment
Camden During Receivership
Working Paper
    2009. David Greenberg, Nandita Verma, and David C. Seith.

This working paper gives a broad overview of redevelopment efforts under the first term of state receivership in Camden, New Jersey. It concludes that attempts to build public capacity to revitalize cities may need to be complemented by efforts to build civic capacity, or the ability to solve problems in coordination with major partners.
 
    Toward Growth and Equality
A Framework for Monitoring Outcomes for Residents and Housing Markets in Camden and the South Jersey Region
    2009. David C. Seith and Zawadi Rucks

This paper offers a framework for tracking the extent to which demographic, labor, and housing market conditions are moving in or out of alignment with a range of goals for redevelopment in Camden, New Jersey.
 
    Helping Public Housing Residents Find and Keep Jobs
A Guide for Practitioners Based on the Jobs-Plus Demonstration
How-to Guide
    2008. Susan Blank and Donna Wharton-Fields with Susan Neuffer.

This guide contains practical advice on implementing a program model — known as the Jobs-Plus Community Initiative for Public Housing Families (Jobs-Plus) — aimed at helping public housing residents find and keep jobs.
 
    Civic Engagement in Camden, New Jersey
A Baseline Portrait
    2007. Robert Lake, Kathe Newman, Philip Ashton, Richard Nisa, and Bradley Wilson.

This report, from the Camden Regional Equity Demonstration Project, documents the challenges in fostering meaningful and effective civic engagement in an ambitious redevelopment initiative.
 
    Subsidized Housing and Employment
Building Evidence About What Works to Improve Self-Sufficiency
Working Paper
    2007. James A. Riccio.

This working paper argues for building a stronger base of evidence in the housing-employment policy arena through an expanded use of randomized controlled trials.
 
    Jobs-Plus: A Promising Strategy
Presented Before the Subcommittee on Federalism and the Census, House Committee on Government Reform
Congressional Testimony
    2006. James A. Riccio.

MDRC’s study of Jobs-Plus, an employment program for public housing residents, offered the first hard evidence that a work-focused intervention based in public housing can effectively boost residents’ earnings and promote their self-sufficiency. Congress may wish to consider introducing Jobs-Plus in additional housing developments across the country.
 
    Raising Hope with Jobs-Plus
Promoting Work in Seattle Public Housing During a HOPE VI Redevelopment
    2005. Nandita Verma, James A. Riccio, and Howard S. Bloom, with Johanna Walter.

Early success for this ambitious employment program for public housing residents in Seattle was disrupted by a federal HOPE VI grant to tear down and revitalize the housing development.
 
    Promoting Work in Public Housing
The Effectiveness of Jobs-Plus
    2005. Howard S. Bloom, James A. Riccio, Nandita Verma with Johanna Walter.

Jobs-Plus, an ambitious employment program inside some of the nation’s poorest inner-city public housing developments, markedly increased the earnings of residents in the sites where it was implemented well.
 
    Resident Participation in Seattle’s Jobs-Plus Program
    2004. Edward B. Liebow, Carolina Katz Reid, Gabrielle E. O'Malley, and Scott Marsh: Environmental Health and Social Policy Center, Seattle WA and Susan Blank: Consultant, MDRC.

Seattle Jobs-Plus — part of an MDRC national research demonstration designed to promote employment among public housing residents — succeeded in engaging a majority of residents, many of whom were immigrants from diverse parts of the world, in work-related services or supports.
 
    Implementing Financial Work Incentives in Public Housing
Lessons from the Jobs-Plus Demonstration
    2004. Alissa Gardenhire-Crooks, with Susan Blank and James A. Riccio.

This report examines how public housing authorities in six cities implemented one of the most innovative features of the Jobs-Plus demonstration: using incentives plans to keep rents lower than they would have been under existing rules as a way to encourage and reward work among public housing residents.
 
    Mobilizing Resident Networks in Public Housing
Implementing the Community Support for Work Component of Jobs-Plus
Working Paper
    2004. Linda Yuriko Kato.

The “community support for work” component of Jobs-Plus relies on outreach workers from public housing developments to help extend Jobs-Plus’s reach in public housing communities.
 
    Participating in a Place-Based Employment Initiative
Lessons from the Jobs-Plus Demonstration in Public Housing
    2003. Linda Yuriko Kato.

From the Jobs-Plus initiative, this report describes efforts to build participation among public housing residents in a program that offers services and financial incentives designed to promote work.
 
    Final Report on the Neighborhood Jobs Initiative
Lessons and Implications for Future Community Employment Initiatives
    2003. Frieda Molina and Craig Howard.

Drawing upon the experiences of the lead community organizations during the initiative’s implementation phase, this third and final NJI report explores the feasibility and effectiveness of NJI’s novel approach to neighborhood revitalization.
 
    Jobs-Plus Site-by-Site
Key Features of Mature Employment Programs in Seven Public Housing Communities
    2003. Linda Yuriko Kato with Stan L. Bowie, Alissa Gardenhire, Linda Kaljee, Edward B. Liebow, Jennifer Miller, Gabrielle O'Malley, Elinor Robinson.

Aiming to significantly increase employment and economic self-sufficiency among public housing residents since its inception in 1997, the Jobs-Plus Community Revitalization Initiative for Public Housing Families created and operated on-site job centers at each of seven public housing developments in six cities across the nation.
 
    Staying or Leaving
Lessons from Jobs-Plus About the Mobility of Public Housing Residents and Implications for Place-Based Initiatives
    2003. Nandita Verma.

This paper begins to fill a void in the understanding of residential mobility in low-income communities by examining intended and actual out-migration patterns of a cohort of residents of five public housing developments.
 
    Children in Public Housing Developments
An Examination of the Children at the Beginning of the Jobs-Plus Demonstration
    2002. Pamela Morris, Stephanie Jones with Jared Smith.

Children who live in public housing are commonly thought to be at greater risk of experiencing academic and behavioral problems than other low-income children, but this paper is among the few to explore empirically the characteristics and circumstances of these children.
 
    The Employment Experiences of Public Housing Residents
Findings from the Jobs-Plus Baseline Survey
    2002. John M. Martinez.

Tapping a deep pool of survey data to learn about residents' connections to the labor market, this report dispels some widespread misconceptions. For example, it finds that even in places with high rates of joblessness, many public housing residents have work histories that are extensive and varied, albeit typically in unstable, low-wage jobs.
 
    Using Place-Based Random Assignment and Comparative Interrupted Time-Series Analysis to Evaluate the Jobs-Plus Employment Program for Public Housing Residents
    2002. Howard S. Bloom, James A. Riccio.

 
    The Special Challenges of Offering Employment Programs in Culturally Diverse Communities
The Jobs-Plus Experience in Public Housing Developments
    2002. Linda Yuriko Kato.

Through extensive ethnographic interviews with staff and residents of two Jobs-Plus housing developments in Seattle and St. Paul, this report explains how a range of social and personal issues characteristic of largely immigrant public housing residents can render conventional employment and support services ineffective.
 
    Structures of Opportunity
Developing the Neighborhood Jobs Initiative in Fort Worth, Texas
    2002. Tony Proscio.

 
    Making Work Pay for Public Housing Residents
Learning from the Jobs-Plus Demonstration
Policy Brief
    2002. James A. Riccio, Steven Bliss.

 
    Making Work Pay for Public Housing Residents
Financial-Incentive Designs at Six Jobs-Plus Demonstration Sites
    2002. Cynthia Miller, James A. Riccio.

 
    Promoting Employment in Public Housing Communities
Learning from the Jobs-Plus Demonstration
Policy Brief
    2001. James A. Riccio, Steven Bliss.

 
    Building New Partnerships for Employment
Collaboration Among Agencies and Public Housing Residents in the Jobs-Plus Demonstration
    2001. Linda Y. Kato, James A. Riccio with Jennifer Dodge.

 
    The Neighborhood Jobs Initiative
An Early Report on the Vision and Challenges of Bringing an Employment Focus to a Community-Building Initiative
    2001. Frieda Molina, Laura C. Nelson.

 
    Welfare, Housing, and Employment
Learning from the Jobs-Plus Demonstration
Policy Brief
    2001.

 
    Jobs-Plus Site-by-Site
An Early Look at Program Implementation
    2000. Edited by Susan Philipson Bloom with Susan Blank.

 
    Building a Convincing Test of a Public Housing Employment Program Using Non-Experimental Methods
Planning for the Jobs-Plus Demonstration
    1999. Howard Bloom.

 
    Mobilizing Public Housing Communities for Work
Origins and Early Accomplishments of the Jobs-Plus Demonstration
    1999. James A. Riccio.

 
    A Research Framework for Evaluating Jobs-Plus
A Saturation and Place-Based Employment Initiative for Public Housing Residents
    1998. James A. Riccio.

 
    Lessons from the Field on the Implementation of Section 3
    U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
1996. Maxine Bailey and Suzanne Lynn, with Fred Doolittle.

 
    Tenant Management
Findings from a Three-Year Experiment in Public Housing
    1981. Mary Queeley, Janet Quint, Suzanne Trazoff.

 
    Tenant Management
An Historical and Analytical Overview
    1979. William Diaz.

 



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