Promoting Work in Public Housing the Effectiveness of Jobs-Plus
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PROMOTING WORK IN PUBLIC HOUSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF JOBS-PLUS FINAL REPORT Howard S. Bloom James A. Riccio Nandita Verma March 2005 mdrc BUILDING KNOWLEDGE TO IMPROVE SOCIAL POLICY ■ Promoting Work in Public Housing The Effectiveness of Jobs-Plus Final Report Howard S. Bloom James A. Riccio Nandita Verma with Johanna Walter March 2005 Jobs-Plus Funding Partners U.S. Department of Housing and The Rockefeller Foundation Urban Development The Joyce Foundation U.S. Department of Health and The Annie E. Casey Foundation Human Services The James Irvine Foundation U.S. Department of Labor Surdna Foundation, Inc. Northwest Area Foundation The Stuart Foundation BP Washington Mutual Foundation Dissemination of MDRC publications is also supported by the following foundations that help finance MDRC’s public policy outreach and expanding efforts to communicate the results and implications of our work to policymakers, practitioners, and others: The Atlantic Philanthropies; the Alcoa, Ambrose Monell, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Ford, Grable, and Starr Foundations; and the Open Society Institute. The findings and conclusions in this report do not necessarily represent the official positions or policies of the funders. For information about MDRC and copies of our publications, see our Web site: www.mdrc.org. Copyright © 2005 by MDRC. All rights reserved. Overview 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 Com- munity Revitalization Initiative for Public Housing Families (Jobs-Plus, for short) sought to achieve these goals at selected public housing developments in six cities: Baltimore, Chatta- nooga, Dayton, Los Angeles, St. Paul, and Seattle. Jobs-Plus was conducted as a research dem- onstration project from 1998 to 2003 with sponsorship from a consortium of funders, led by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Rockefeller Foundation. The program — which was targeted to all working-age, nondisabled residents of selected public housing developments and implemented by a collaboration of local organizations — had three main components: employment-related services, rent-based work incentives that allowed resi- dents to keep more of their earnings, and activities to promote neighbor-to-neighbor support for work. This final report on MDRC’s evaluation of Jobs-Plus describes the program’s impacts, that is, the difference it made for residents in Jobs-Plus developments in comparison with resi- dents living in similar developments who did not receive the program. Key Findings • Four of the six study sites built substantial Jobs-Plus programs — although it took over two years to accomplish. • 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. This im- pact was sustained over time at three of the sites but disappeared at the fourth when its resi- dents were displaced by a federal HOPE VI renovation project. There was no program ef- fect on earnings at the two sites that did not fully implement Jobs-Plus. The effects of Jobs- Plus on employment were positive at the sites that substantially implemented the program but were smaller and less consistent than the effects on earnings. • The large positive earnings effect of Jobs-Plus in the stronger implementation sites held for a wide range of residents defined in terms of their gender, race or ethnicity, age, past em- ployment, past welfare receipt, past duration of residence, and future resident mobility. Most striking were the especially large impacts for immigrant men. • Welfare receipt by residents dropped precipitously after Jobs-Plus was launched, but this decline was not related to Jobs-Plus. • The positive effects on individual earnings were more likely to translate into more earnings across the housing development as a whole in sites where fewer residents moved out. How- ever, these effects did not spark changes in overall social conditions or quality of life in the developments. These and other findings in the report offer important lessons to policymakers and program ad- ministrators about how to increase the economic self-sufficiency of public housing residents. iii Contents Overview iii List of Tables and Figures vii Preface xiii Acknowledgments xv Executive Summary ES-1 1 The Origin and Goals of Jobs-Plus 1 Concentrated Poverty and Public Housing 2 The Jobs-Plus Model 6 Recruiting and Selecting Sites 9 Evaluating Jobs-Plus 11 The Remainder of This Report 18 2 The Residents and Their Communities 19 Characteristics of the Surrounding Communities 19 Characteristics of the Jobs-Plus Developments and Residents 23 Work, Welfare, and Community Life When Jobs-Plus Was Launched 26 Comparability of the Program and Comparison Developments 30 Summary and Conclusions 31 3 The Implementation Experience 33 Launching Jobs-Plus 34 Variation in the Sites’ Efforts to Operate a Quality Program 36 Scope of Services, Incentives, and Supports for Work 45 Residents’ Participation in Jobs-Plus 50 Services and Incentives for Residents of the Comparison Developments 57 Estimates of the Service Difference: Jobs-Plus Versus the Comparison Developments 59 Summary and Conclusions 63 4 Work and Welfare Impacts on Public Housing Residents 67 Measuring Program Impacts 68 The Impact of Jobs-Plus on Residents’ Work 69 The Impact of Jobs-Plus on Residents’ Welfare Receipt 101 Summary and Conclusions 106 5 Work and Welfare Impacts on Public Housing Developments 107 Basic Issues: Why Mobility Matters 107 Analytic Approach: Measuring Development Outcomes Over Time 108 v The Impact of Jobs-Plus on Work in Developments 109 The Impact of Jobs-Plus on Welfare in Developments 119 Summary and Conclusions 125 6 Jobs-Plus and Changes in the Quality of Life at Public Housing Developments 127 Expectations for Community Change 127 Cautions Regarding These Findings 129 Measuring Quality-of-Life Changes 131 Findings on Quality-of-Life Changes 137 Summary and Conclusions 150 7 The Lessons and Implications of Jobs-Plus 151 Appendixes A: Supplementary Tables for Chapter 2 169 B: Supplementary Tables for Chapter 3 175 C: Baseline and Follow-Up Surveys of Residents 201 D: Estimating the Impacts of Jobs-Plus on Work and Welfare 215 E: Supplementary Table and Figures for Chapter 4 237 F: Supplementary Figures for Chapter 5 249 References 255 Earlier MDRC Publications on the Jobs-Plus Initiative 261 vi List of Tables and Figures Table Page 1.1 The Jobs-Plus Model 7 1.2 Cities and Housing Developments in the Jobs-Plus Impact Study 13 2.1 Selected Characteristics of Targeted Residents Aged 21 to 61 Living in the Jobs-Plus Developments in 1998 24 2.2 1998 Baseline Survey (Household Heads): Selected Characteristics of Residents of the Jobs-Plus Developments 27 3.1 Highlights of the Sites’ Experiences in Operating Jobs-Plus 39 3.2 Move-Out Rates for the 1998 Cohort of Residents of the Jobs-Plus Developments 51 3.3 Selected Measures of Jobs-Plus Participation for Targeted Residents in the 1998 and 2000 Cohorts 53 3.4 2003 Follow-Up Survey (Household Heads): Use of Services and Incentives by Residents of the Jobs-Plus Developments and Their Comparison Developments, Five Sites Combined (Excluding Seattle) 61 3.5 Overall Ranking of Sites’ Implementation of Jobs-Plus 64 4.1 Pooled Average Annual Outcomes for Earnings, by Site Combination and Follow-Up Period (1998 Cohort) 73 4.2 Pooled Average Annual Outcomes for Quarterly Employment Rates, by Site Combination and Follow-Up Period (1998 Cohort) 76 4.3 Average Annual Effects of Jobs-Plus on Earnings from 2000 to 2003: 1998 and 2000 Cohorts for Each Site 88 4.4 Average Annual Effects of Jobs-Plus on Earnings for the Stronger Implementation Sites Combined, by Subgroup (1998 Cohort) 89 4.5 Average Annual Effects of Jobs-Plus on Earnings and Quarterly Employment Rates from 2000 to 2003 for the Largest Demographic Subgroups in the Stronger Implementation Sites (1998 Cohort) 95 5.1 Comparison of Individual-Level and Development-Level Effects of Jobs-Plus on Average Annual Earnings from 2000 to 2003, by Site 116 5.2 Quarterly Employment Rates for Working-Age, Nondisabled Residents at Each Jobs-Plus Development 120 vii Table Page 5.3 Quarterly Welfare Receipt Rates for Working-Age, Nondisabled Residents at the Jobs-Plus Developments, by Site 124 6.1 Quarterly Earnings and Employment Rates for the Jobs-Plus Developments at Key Points in Time 130 6.2 Survey Measures for the Quality-of-Life Change Analysis 133 6.3 Summary of Quality-of-Life Changes in the Jobs-Plus Developments from 1998 to 2003 138 6.4 Estimates of Quality-of-Life Changes in the Jobs-Plus Developments from 1998 to 2003 139 6.5 Summary of Differences in Changes Over Time in Quality-of-Life Measures: Jobs-Plus Versus Comparison Developments, 1998 to 2003 146 6.6 Estimates of Differences in Changes Over Time in Quality-of-Life Measures: Jobs-Plus Versus Comparison Developments, 1998 to 2003 147 7.1 Summary of Impacts on Earnings of Welfare-to-Work and Other Employment Interventions 153 A.1 Selected Population Characteristics of the Census Tracts in Which the Jobs- Plus and Comparison Developments Are Located (2000 Census) 170 A.2 Selected Housing Characteristics of the Census Tracts in Which the Jobs-Plus and Comparison Developments Are Located (2000 Census) 171 A.3 Selected Characteristics of Targeted Residents Aged 21 to 61 Living in the Jobs-Plus Development or Its Comparison Development(s) in 1998, by Site 172 B.1 Baltimore: Comparison of Local Context, Services, and Incentives at the Jobs-Plus Development and Its Comparison Developments 176 B.2 Chattanooga: Comparison of Local Context, Services, and Incentives at the Jobs-Plus Development and Its Comparison Developments 178 B.3 Dayton: Comparison of Local Context, Services, and Incentives at the Jobs- Plus Development and Its Comparison Developments 180 B.4 Los Angeles: Comparison of Local Context, Services, and Incentives at the Jobs-Plus Development and Its Comparison Development 182 viii Table Page B.5 St.