Impact of Welfare Reform
(1997, 1998, 1999)
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 of 1996 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.
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.
Download Report Unraveling the Safety Net: 1997 and Welfare Reform (focuses on the cuts in benefits of legal immigrants) 1997.
Download Report From Welfare to Worse? Children, Welfare Reform, and Local Realities (focuses on early effects of welfare reform and future effects) 1998.
Download Report Cracks in the System: Conversations with People Surviving Welfare Reform (focused on TANF recipients and their barriers to employment) 1999.