Impact of Welfare Reform
Organization of the NorthEast
Howard Area Community Center
(11/1/1996 - 8/30/1999)
On August 22, 1996, President Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, and in doing so, fundamentally changed the nature of our country's social welfare system. In response to this unraveling of the social safety net, Loyola University's Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL), and Policy Research Action Group (PRAG), joined in collaboration with two community-based organizations, Howard Area Community Center (HACC) and Organization of the NorthEast (ONE), to study the potential adverse impact of welfare policy changes on different types of public benefit recipients in the Chicago neighborhoods of Uptown, Edgewater and Rogers Park. This collaboration was motivated by the partners' grave concerns over how low-income individuals and families would survive when faced with the termination of life-sustaining public benefits, and how the communities would cope with increased impoverishment and diminished funds.
CURL, ONE and HACC produced three separate reports looking specifically at different at risk populations. The first report, Unraveling the Safety Net: 1997 and Welfare Reform (CURL, 1997), focused on cuts in the benefits of legal immigrants. The second study, From Welfare to Worse? Children, Welfare Reform, and Local Realities (CURL, 1998), examined some of the early effects of welfare reform and provided some compelling revelations as to the future of those under the umbrella of welfare. Cracks in the System: Conversations with People Surviving Welfare Reform (CURL, 1999) highlights how people manage to live in light of a succession of policy changes. This report considered families who are TANF recipients (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, formerly known as Aid to Families with Dependent Children or AFDC). Cracks in the System examined the barriers to employment which hamper the attempts of TANF recipients to become self-sufficient and explores how TANF recipients negotiate the transition from welfare-to-work.
Research was collected through in depth interviews, focus groups, analysis of census data and observations of public meetings. These Reports were used by ONE and HACC to advocate for additional state funding for immigrants and were instrumental in successfully attaching $10 million to the Illinois state welfare budget in the late 1990’s.
Reports:
From Welfare to Worse? Children, Welfare Reform, and Local Realities
Cracks in the System: Conversations with People Surviving Welfare Reform
Research Team:
P. Nyden, CURL
D. Rose, Graduate Fellow, Sociology
R. Hoskins, Graduate Fellow, School of Social Work
S. J. Knoy, Organization of the NorthEast (O.N.E)
J. Mumm, Organization of the NorthEast
D. Dobmeyer, Poverty Issues, Dateline Illinios
C. Payne, Graduate Fellow, Psychology
E. Gumz, Social Work, Loyola University
H. Rose, Law, Loyola University
K. Ebert, Undergraduate Student
S. O Donoghue, Graduate Fellow, IPS/School of Social Work
S. Hill, Graduate Fellow, Psychology
L. Fung, Undergraduate Student
G. Mojarro, Undergraduate Student
S. Mooter, Undergraduate Student
S. Policarpio, Undergraduate Student
P. Imbrogno, Undergraduate Student
H. Meyers, Undergraduate Student
B. Godlewski, Undergraduate Student
J. Eggmeyer, Undergraduate Student
A. Baker, Undergraduate Student
E. Chung, Undergraduate Student
L. Sanchez, Undergraduate Student
E. Lee, Undergraduate Student
C. Bernd, Undergraduate Student
A. de Santiago, Undergraduate Student
O. Aguilar, Undergraduate Student
J. Brito, Undergraduate Student
T. Morawiec, Undergraduate Student
J. Davis, Undergraduate Student
M. Vignon, Undergraduate Student
A. Warno, Undergraduate Student
Community Partners: