Missouri

Report

Findings From the Family Self-Sufficiency Evaluation

July, 2021
Nandita Verma, Stephen Freedman, Betsy L. Tessler, Barbara Fink

The federal Family Self-Sufficiency program works with Housing Choice Voucher recipients to foster economic self-sufficiency and boost assets through case management and an escrow account for participants’ increased earnings. This three-year report examines program implementation, participants’ engagement, and impacts on employment, government benefits receipt, and material and financial well-being.

Growing up in high-poverty, highly segregated neighborhoods can limit the future prospects of young children. But low-income families with children often lack sufficient resources and face other systemic barriers to choosing freely what neighborhoods they live in. The federal government’s Housing Choice Voucher Program, which subsidizes rent for some low-income...

Issue Focus

How Place-Based Employment Programs like Jobs Plus Can Help During the COVID-19 Pandemic

July, 2020

Employment programs situated within public housing developments are facing multiple challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With routine operations disrupted by shelter-in-place orders, programs like Jobs Plus can find creative ways to keep their doors open and their clients engaged.

Report

Ongoing Implementation Experiences

November, 2019
Nandita Verma, Betsy L. Tessler, David H. Greenberg, Edith Yang, Sophia Sutcliffe, Michael D. Webb, William M. Rohe, Atticus Jaramillo, Amy T. Khare, Emily K. Miller, Mark L. Joseph

Households receiving federal rental subsidies struggle to become self-sufficient. Jobs Plus provides grants to public housing agencies to offer tenants employment-related services, rent-based work incentives, and community support for work. This report examines a second round of Jobs Plus implementation, including evolving program operations, challenges, resident participation, and technical assistance.

Report

Early Findings From the Family Self-Sufficiency Program Evaluation

March, 2019
Nandita Verma, Stephen Freedman, Betsy L. Tessler, Stephen Nuñez, Barbara Fink

This first national randomized controlled trial of the Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program — the main federal strategy to help housing voucher recipients make progress toward economic mobility — examined program implementation, participants’ engagement, and impacts on labor force participation and benefits receipt in the first 24 months of this five-year program.

Report

Highlights from the Jobs Plus Pilot Program Evaluation

September, 2017
Betsy L. Tessler, Nandita Verma, Jonathan Bigelow, M. Victoria Quiroz Becerra, Kristin P. Frescoln, William M. Rohe, Michael D. Webb, Amy T. Khare, Mark L. Joseph, Emily K. Miller

Jobs Plus promotes employment among public housing residents through employment services, rent rule changes that provide incentives to work, and community support for work. Within the first 18 months, all nine public housing agencies in this evaluation had begun structuring their programs, building partnerships, and implementing the model’s core components.

Report

Findings from the Project Rise Implementation Evaluation

October, 2015
Michelle S. Manno, Edith Yang, Michael Bangser

Project Rise offers education, a paid internship, and case management to young adults who lack a high school credential and have been out of work and school for at least six months. Participants, who were attracted more by the educational instruction than by the internship, substantially engaged with the program.

Report

Two-Year Impact Report

May, 2015
Andrew Wiegand, Jesse Sussell, Erin Jacobs Valentine, Brit Henderson

RExO increased the number and types of services received by participants and improved their self-reported labor market outcomes as well. But there is little evidence it had any impacts on recidivism or other outcomes. Further, the impacts on employment, while statistically significant, are quite small in practical terms.

Brief

The Early Experience of Project Rise

October, 2013
Michael Bangser

Project Rise seeks to reconnect “disconnected” young people — those out of work and lacking a high school degree — with education, work, and social support. This policy brief provides an overview of Project Rise and its evaluation, descriptions of its participants, and lessons drawn from its early operating experiences.

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