The Work Rewards initiative targeted recipients of Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers administered by New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). It was designed to test the effects of alternative strategies to improve adults’ labor-market outcomes and family well-being. Work Rewards comprises two parallel studies.

The first — the Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) study — involves individuals who were receiving housing vouchers from HPD, which operates one of the largest FSS programs in the country. FSS is a case management and asset-building program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and designed to promote economic advancement for low-income families receiving housing subsidies. According to HUD regulations, voucher holders pay 30 percent of their adjusted incomes in rent, with the government making up the difference. An increase in a household’s income therefore normally results in a rent increase. The FSS program’s asset-building component is intended to address this problem by putting these rent increases into escrow on a tenant’s behalf. Tenants are offered case management to help them set employment goals and gain access to job-search, educational, and training assistance, and supportive services. They receive their saved funds when they achieve their FSS goals and graduate from the program.

Eligible HPD voucher holders who volunteered to participate in Work Rewards were randomly assigned by MDRC to two program groups and one control group. Participants assigned to the FSS-only group completed a Contract of Participation and became eligible to begin building escrow savings. Participants who were assigned to the FSS + incentives group were also offered special cash incentives for two employment-related activities (securing full-time work and completing approved educational or training courses). Individuals who were assigned to the control group were not eligible for FSS services or the special incentives.

The second study in Work Rewards, the incentives-only study, tested the effectiveness of work incentives alone. It targeted households receiving vouchers from NYCHA. Sample members recruited for this study were randomly assigned to two groups: a program group, whose members were offered the special work incentives, and the control group, whose members were not offered any incentives.

The workforce-related incentives were included in both the FSS study and the incentives-only study to test whether the offer of a more immediate financial incentive promoting work would help counteract the potential effects of the rent rules governing housing vouchers. Because voucher holders pay more in rent when their incomes increase, the rent rules can act as a disincentive to boosting earnings. The FSS program’s escrow component is intended to address this problem through savings. The special workforce incentives, in contrast, offered a more immediate reward for boosting earnings through sustained full-time work and for acquiring knowledge and skills that might improve tenants’ earnings in the future. The special workforce incentives were offered for two years, and were paid every two months starting in September 2008.