The Food Stamp Program and Supplemental Security Income

The Food Stamp Program (FSP) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are important parts of national public assistance policy, and there is considerable overlap in the populations that the programs serve. About half of all SSI recipients reside in FSP recipient households. This article uses Social Security administrative data and the Food Stamp Quality Control samples for federal fiscal years 2001-2006 to study the prevalence of food stamp receipt among households with SSI recipients, the contribution of FSP to household income, and the importance of various FSP features in contributing to the well-being of recipient households. The prevalence of FSP participation among households that include SSI recipients is estimated to have grown steadily over the entire 2001-2006 period, rising from 47.4 percent in 2001 to 55.6 percent in 2006. This growth has occurred across all age groups of SSI recipients. The FSP contribution to household income has grown as well. In 2001, FSP increased the income of the households of SSI/FSP recipients by 13 percent; by 2006 the increase was 16.8 percent. Almost 80 percent of the food stamp recipient households that include SSI recipients receive increased benefits because of excess housing costs. In 2006, 44 percent of SSI recipients lived in households that did not receive food stamps. Given available information, it is difficult to gauge the FSP eligibility of nonparticipating households and, therefore, to assess the potential benefit of outreach efforts. Currently available measures of FSP take-up probably overstate participation among eligible households that include SSI recipients, and there is some evidence that enhanced state promotion of the FSP raises participation among households with SSI recipients. We conclude with recommendation for review and renewal of collaboration between the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (the agency responsible for administering the FSP) and the Social Security Administration in ensuring that eligible SSI recipients utilize FSP benefits.     

The Origins of the Rental Assistance Demonstration Program and the End of Public Housing

The Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) Program is designed to address a $26 billion public housing capital needs backlog. New investment is leveraged by converting public housing to project-based assistance, with ownership transferred to nonprofit and private entities. In other words, RAD is expediting the end of the country’s 80-year-old public housing program. While this may seem like a dramatic policy shift, there is actually little about RAD that is new. This investigation of RAD’s origins reveals it to be the coalescence of existing programs, established policies, and longstanding trends multiple decades in the making. This in turn helps explain why RAD has expanded so quickly and why its expansion is likely to continue. There exists a great need for more research on and monitoring of RAD’s implementation, and for a reassessment of the policy priorities that produced both the program itself and the problem it attempts to solve.     

Rental Housing Assistance and Health: Evidence From the Survey of Income and Program Participation

Interest in the health impacts of renter housing assistance has grown in the wake of heated national discussions on health care and social welfare spending. Assistance may improve renters’ health by offering (a) low, fixed housing costs; (b) protection against eviction; and (c) access to better homes and neighborhoods. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation and econometric analysis, I estimate the effect of receiving assistance from the public housing or Section 8 voucher programs on low-income renters’ reported health status and spending. Assisted renters spent less on health care over the year than unassisted low-income renters did, after controlling for other characteristics. This finding suggests that assisted housing leads to health benefits that may reduce low-income renters’ need to purchase health services. Voucher holders’ lower expenditures are influenced by their low, fixed housing costs, but public housing residents’ lower expenditures are not explained by existing theory.     

The Evolution of Development Assistance

The form and objectives of development assistance have been evolving over the last decades. The objectives were determined by the changes of the development doctrines. In the late 1940s, the aid for recovery and reconstruction dominated in the world aid architecture. Then, donor countries supported state led initiatives and activities in recipient economies. Besides, foreign aid was directed to social sectors like education and health. In the 1980s and 1990s, donors provided aid for market reforms has arose in developing countries.     

Future Prospects for Public Housing in the United States: Lessons From the Rental Assistance Demonstration Program

This article provides an overview of the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program in the United States and examines its early implementation from its start in 2013 through April 6, 2016. RAD was devised to address the physical deterioration of public housing and secure a more stable funding stream. It requires public housing authorities to shift properties out of the public housing program into a different subsidy program (project-based Section 8) which enables them to obtain mortgages on more favorable terms and to secure tax-credit investment. The program is currently limited to 185,000 housing units. As of April 6th, the program was fully subscribed, and had generated more than $2 billion in new investment. Extrapolating from the early results, RAD has the potential to yield more than $15 billion for fund the redevelopment and renovation of public housing.     

社会救助制度变革方向

从英国最早颁布的<伊丽莎白济贫法>至今,国外社会救助制度已经走过了四百多年的历史.在这过程中,社会救助制度随着各国经济、政治、文化理念的发展而不断得到改革和完善.我国目前正处于经济转轨、社会转型阶段,社会救助制度正经历着从传统走向现代的过程.了解国外社会救助制度改革趋势,有益于进一步明确我国社会救助制度未来发展的价值取向,为形成具有中国特色的社会救助模式提供一定的借鉴和启示.     

Achieving Economic Self-Sufficiency Through Housing Assistance: An Assessment of a Self-Sufficiency Program of the Housing Authority of Champaign County,Illinois

ABSTRACT

This study examines the early impact of a Local Self-Sufficiency (LSS) program of the Housing Authority of Champaign County (HACC), Illinois, on recipients’ total annual household income and earnings, and employment. In 2013, HACC, through LSS, mandated work requirements for households with working-age, able-bodied adult members and imposed sanctions on those who did not meet the program requirements. We find that, between 2012 and 2014, the LSS program led to an average increase of $2,283 in earnings for an individual household. In aggregate, this allowed HACC to serve an additional 98 (9%) LSS-eligible households for a year. Also, LSS-eligible households experienced an increase in the employment–adult ratio by 11.6 percentage points. The LSS program also had a larger impact for more economically disadvantaged households with no prior work history.     

Noncitizens and the Supplemental Security Income program

The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, established by the Social Security Amendments of 1972 (Public Law 92-603), was designed to provide cash assistance to needy aged, blind, and disabled citizens, and noncitizens lawfully admitted for permanent residence or permanently residing under color of law. Since then, this means-tested program has undergone many legislative changes that affect the eligibility status of noncitizens. This article, presented in three parts, discusses the legislative history of noncitizen eligibility, and details relevant laws enacted since the program's inception; provides current data on the trends and changes of the noncitizen population; and describes the larger population of foreign-born SSI recipients, of which the noncitizens are a part. Data on the number of SSI recipients born abroad but who had become citizens before applying for SSI payments were not previously available. Analytical data are from the Supplemental Security Record (SSR) matched to the Social Security Number Identification (Numident) file.     

促进县域创新体系的路径探析

县城经济的发展在我国城乡统筹中有着重要的地位和作用.当前我国县域经济发展中还存在一些亟待解决的问题,应加大县域体系创新力度,促进县域经济又好又快发展.     

流浪精神病人救助管理困境与对策分析

近年来流浪精神病人问题日益引起重视,同时暴露出诸多问题,如政策法律不完善、各职能部门职责不明确、救助经费不足、预防及出口无法落实等。针对救助管理存在的问题及管理措施提出相关看法如下:从国家层面,完善法律政策,将流浪精神病人的救助管理工作纳入法制化轨道;从社会层面,建立权责明晰的社会救助体系;从医院层面,加强救助管理能力建设,重视住院流浪精神病人管理工作;坚持源头治理和彻底治理,创新流浪精神病人救助管理新思路,重点解决好流浪精神病人的预防和出口问题。     

A 10-year review of the Supplemental Security Income program

January 1, 1974, marked the beginning of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program for the aged, blind, and disabled, and also marked the end of a 14-month period of preparation that began on October 30, 1972, when President Nixon signed into law the Social Security Amendments of 1972 (Public Law 92-603). As a way of marking SSI's 10th anniversary, it seems appropriate to review the development of the program since its enactment and compare the program's performance with its original goals and expectations. This article looks at the SSI program in the context of the program's goals as set out by Congress and discusses the legislative changes--and the motives behind those changes--since its implementation. Statistical data are examined to determine whether the program is accomplishing what it was designed to do, and whether, as a result of legislation or because of changes in the characteristics of the recipient population, trends are developing that may have a future impact on the program.     

A Matter of Fairness: The Equity of Urban General Assistance

General assistance is the "safety net" of the welfare system, γet, most general assistance programs reflect the goals of cost containment more clearly than the goal of equity. Data from a 1982 survey of general assistance programs provide the basis for a causal analysis. The substantial variation across states seems based on willingness to provide services, rather than need. State welfare commitment is the most influential explanation on general assistance coverage, although per capita income, percent metropolitan, political culture, and percent unemployment also have some effect. Perhaps centralization at the federal level will provide equitable coverage; however, the current political environment makes such an outcome unlikely without major changes in public opinion.     

A study of Supplemental Security Income awardees

Since its enactment in 1974, the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program has had a stable caseload of about 4 million recipients. Hidden by this unchanging total is the fact that nearly 9 million persons were served by the program from 1974 to 1986. This study explores some SSI program dynamics by following a group of SSI awardees for a period of 4 years from the initial receipt of award in 1981. Many of these awardees had previous contact with the program either through a previous award or a denial. About 60 percent of the awardees were eligible at the end of the 4-year period. Most persons who became ineligible did so within the first 6 months after the award.     

Affordable Homeownership: The Incidence and Effect of Down Payment Assistance

Using data from a panel study of low- and moderate-income homeowners, we assess the determinants of the use of several types of down payment assistance and the effect of using assistance on mortgage performance. Although we find differences in reliance on types of assistance, we find no difference in mortgage performance between those who used assistance and those who did not. Based on these findings, we urge caution in imposing down payment requirements that disproportionately restrict access to mortgage credit.     

World Bank Technical Assistance: The Relational Dynamics of Policy Movement

The World Bank has been widely critiqued as a global governance actor capable of coercing and persuading its developing member countries to accept its policy recommendations. This article contributes to academic discussion by drawing upon the policy transfer and policy mobilities literatures to analyse the World Bank's two main pillars of technical assistance (TA): TA components (advisory services contained within lending operations) and stand‐alone TA projects (loans and credits that solely finance TA). Beginning from the constructivist position that ‘development’ is a social construct, the article argues that relational dynamics between TA provider and recipient affect the perception of the legitimacy of policy norms transferred from the ‘international’ to the ‘domestic’. The value added of the article is thus that policy legitimacy is not simply conferred by whether advice is technically sound but moreover through the social and political interactions—the relationship—between TA provider and recipient. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Use and Efficacy of Capacity‐Building Assistance for Low‐Performing Districts: The Case of California's District Assistance and Intervention Teams

The theory of action upon which high‐stakes accountability policies are based calls for systemic reforms in educational systems that will emerge by pairing incentives for improvement with extensive and targeted technical assistance (TA) to build the capacity of low‐performing schools and districts. To this end, a little discussed and often overlooked aspect of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) mandated that, in addition to sanctions, states were required to provide TA to build the capacity of struggling schools and Local Education Agencies (LEAs, or districts) to help them improve student achievement. Although every state in the country provides some form of TA to its lowest performing districts, we know little about the content of these programs or about their efficacy in improving student performance. In this paper, we use both quantitative and qualitative analyses to explore the actions taken by TA providers in one state—California—and examine whether the TA and support tied to California's NCLB sanctions succeeds in improving student achievement. Like many other states, California requires that districts labeled as persistently failing under NCLB (in Program Improvement year 3, PI3) work with external experts to help them build the capacity to make reforms that will improve student achievement. California's lowest performing PI3 districts are given substantial amounts of funding and are required to contract with state‐approved District Assistance and Intervention Teams (DAITs), whereas the remaining PI3 districts receive less funding and are asked to access less intensive TA from non‐DAIT providers. We use a five‐year panel difference‐in‐difference design to estimate the impacts of DAITs on student performance on the math and English language arts (ELA) standardized tests relative to non‐DAIT TA during the two years of the program intervention. We find that students in districts with DAITs perform significantly better on math California Standards Tests (CSTs) averaged over both treatment years and in each of the first and second years. We do not find evidence that students in districts with DAITs perform higher on ELA CSTs over the combined two years of treatment, although we find suggestive evidence that ELA performance increases in the second year of treatment relative to students in districts with non‐DAIT TA. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions that explore the association between specific activities fostered by DAITs and changes in districts’ gains in achievement over the two years of treatment show that DAIT districts that report increasing their focus on using data to guide instruction, shifting district culture to generate and maintain high expectations of students and staff, and increasing within‐district accountability for student performance, have higher math achievement gains over the course of the DAIT treatment. In addition, DAIT districts that increase their focus on ELA instruction and shift district culture to one of high expectations have higher ELA achievement gains than do DAIT districts that do not have a similar focus. © 2012 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

The Effects of Cash Management Assistance by States to Local Governments

In 1985 North Carolina's Local Government Commission (LGC) began a program to evaluate the percentage portfolios of the funds invested and the diversity of the investment governments and public authorities. The LGC established state's local five evaluation criteria and notified the governments and authorities of deviations from the five investment norms. This article discusses what was reported to the LGC and changes in invested funds occuring after LGC's evaluation. Principal findings include: cities over 10,000 population and counties in general are investing a high percentage of their funds; small-sized cities and public authorities tend to avoid the higher yielding, but more complex to purchase, instruments: and most governments and authorities experienced a considerable increase in the percentage of funds invested after review by the LGC. Based on the marked increases in funds invested, other states should consider helping local governments and public authorities with cash management.