Social Policy Commons^™

Poverty In Massachusetts By Education Status: Population 25 Years And Older, Randy Albelda, Ferry Cadet, Dinghong Mei

Center for Social Policy Publications

Massachusetts has lower poverty rates compared to the US average. But, like the US, the poverty rate for the people with less than high school graduate far exceed those of higher education level.

Poverty rates differ considerably across Massachusetts’ ten largest cities, ranging from 18.2% in Quincy to 39.6% in Springfield for those with the lowest educational attainment. Cambridge, one of the best-known academic center in the nation, has the highest poverty rate among those with a bachelor’s degree or higher educational level.

Poverty In Massachusetts By Age, Randy Albelda, Ferry Cadet, Dinghong Mei

Center for Social Policy Publications

Massachusetts has lower poverty rates compared to the US average. But, like the US, child poverty rates far exceed those of working age adults (ages 18-64) and those 65 and older.

Child poverty rates differ considerably across Massachusetts’ ten largest cities, ranging from 11.1% in Quincy to 41.0% in Springfield. Boston has the highest poverty rates for those who are 65 and older. Even though most over 65 and older are not employed, this group has lower poverty rates than “working-age” adults in six of the cities. In Boston, Lowell, Lynn, and Quincy, elder poverty rates are higher than those …

Poverty In Massachusetts By Nativity, Randy Albelda, Ferry Cadet, Dinghong Mei

Center for Social Policy Publications

Massachusetts has lower poverty rates compared to US average for both native born and foreign born populations. But, foreign-born poverty rates in Massachusetts are only slightly lower than those for foreign born in the US.

Poverty rates for those born outside the US differ considerably across Massachusetts’ ten largest cities, ranging from 8.3% in Quincy to 28.1% in Springfield. But foreign-born poverty rates do not always exceed those of foreign born. In Brockton, Lowell, New Bedford, Springfield and Worcester those born outside the US were less likely to be poor than the native-born population.

Poverty In Massachusetts By Household Status, Randy Albelda, Ferry Cadet, Dinghong Mei

Center for Social Policy Publications

Household status matters in terms of poverty. People living in married-couples families are much less likely to be poor than those living in non-married households in Massachusetts and the US.

Poverty rates in Massachusetts’ ten largest cities are typically higher than the rates for the state for all households types. Springfield has the highest rates for those in married couples, female-headed families, and males not living with relatives. Lynn has the highest for females not living with relatives. Quincy has the lowest rates among all household statuses.

Poverty In Massachusetts By Gender, Randy Albelda, Ferry Cadet, Dinghong Mei

Center for Social Policy Publications

Massachusetts has lower poverty rates compared to US average. But, like the US, female poverty rates exceed those of males.

Female poverty rates are higher than male poverty rates in Massachusetts' ten largest cities. But, these rates vary widely from 8.2% for males and 9.9% for females in Quincy to 25.6% for males and 29.1% for females in Springfield.

Finding The Right Fit: How Alternative Staffing Affects Worker Outcomes, Françoise Carré, Brandynn Holgate, Helen Levine

Center for Social Policy Publications

This report reviews our findings from two and one-half years of monitoring and evaluating the activities of four alternative staffing organizations (ASOs). ASOs are worker-centered, socialpurpose businesses created by community-based organizations and national nonprofits. These fee-for-service organizations use the model of temporary staffing services to help job seekers who face labor market barriers access work experience and potential employers. They place job seekers in temporary and “temp-to-perm” assignments with customer businesses, charging their customers a wage-based markup fee. This field of practice first emerged in the 1970s and grew rapidly in the 1990s; it now includes over 50 ASOs. Alternative …

Competitive Strategies In The Us Retail Industry: Consequences For Jobs In Food And Consumer Electronics Stores, Françoise Carré, Chris Tilly, Brandynn Holgate

Center for Social Policy Publications

US retail markets are characterized by consolidation, globalization, and the spread of big-box discounters. What do these trends mean for job quality and workers? For compensation, skill content of jobs, and opportunities for promotion? What role do institutions—regulatory, or representative—play in shaping company strategies, and outcomes for jobs as well as workers?

Retail generates a large and growing volume of entry-level jobs and is a rare industry with few educational requirements at entry. It is a highly relevant area of the labor market to examine to understand opportunities for low skill and mid level skill workers.

Findings come from case …

Advancing The Fiscal Health Of Low-Income Families: A Public And Community Health Approach, Doreen Treacy

Center for Social Policy Publications

For decades, health researchers have documented the links between individual and household income/wealth and clinical health outcomes. The research and literature consistently point to both income inequality (i.e. individual household income/wealth as compared to other households in the same state) and individual household income as predictors of diminished health and morbidity. And yet the current framework for providing financial education, disseminating asset building information, and overall responding to the financial health of individuals and households takes no cues from public health and community health best practices. Further, the documented links between financial stress and compromised physical health are compelling enough …

Poverty In The Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Community, Randy Albelda, M.V. Lee Badgett, Alyssa Schneebaum, Gary J. Gates

Center for Social Policy Publications

In 2007, 12.5% of Americans were officially counted as poor by the United States Census Bureau. People from every region, race, age, and sex are counted among our nation’s poor, where ―poor‖ is defined as living in a family with an income below the federal poverty level. In contrast, lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people are invisible in these poverty statistics. This report undertakes the first analysis of the poor and low-income lesbian, gay, and bisexual population. The social and policy context of LGB life provides many reasons to think that LGB people are at least as likely—and perhaps more …

Maturing Subsidized Mortgages: The Next Frontier Of The Expiring Use Crisis, Emily Achtenberg

Center for Social Policy Publications

Over approximately the next decade, close to 17,000 affordable housing units could be lost in Massachusetts as their federally- and state-subsidized mortgages mature, terminating all associated use and affordability restrictions. Most of this housing, developed 30-40 years ago under various federal and state mortgage subsidy programs, is only partially assisted with project-based Section 8 rental subsidy; but 100% of the units are affordable due to budget-based (and tiered) rent restrictions.

To the extent that the properties have Section 8 assistance, the maturing mortgage crisis overlaps with larger crisis of expiring Section 8 subsidy contracts. However, the unique characteristics of this …

Brokering Up: The Role Of Temporary Staffing In Overcoming Labor Market Barriers, Françoise Carré, Brandynn Holgate, Helen Levine, Mandira Kala

Center for Social Policy Publications

Alternative Staffing Organizations (ASOs) are social-purpose businesses created by community-based organizations and national nonprofits to “broker up” job seekers, starting with temporary assignments and forming bridges to better jobs. Funded by the C. S. Mott Foundation, the Alternative Staffing Demonstration examined four ASOs around the country for a three-year research project, with 18 months of close monitoring, exploring, and assessing the ASO model. The Center for Social Policy studied how ASOs structure the services they provide, handle day-to-day management issues, and sell their services. We found the ASO model was variously adapted to generate short-term employment, build work experience, provide …

An End In Itself And A Means To Good Ends: Why Income Equality Is Important, Arthur Macewan

Center for Social Policy Publications

In recent years “poverty reduction” has become the watchword in development agencies, in international lending institutions, and among development economists generally. The focus on poverty reduction reached a high point perhaps with the articulation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and with the extensive analytic work that has accompanied the MDGs. Yet, much of the discussion of poverty reduction and economic development in low and middle income countries has either ignored the issue of income distribution or has tended to view income distribution only in terms of its impact on economic growth.

Poverty and inequality, however, are intimately bound up …

Work-Based Social Support In The United States: Limits And New Possibilities, Heather Boushey, Chris Tilly

Center for Social Policy Publications

The U.S. social policy framework has always relied on private employers to fill in the gaps for workers, rather than the state. U.S. workers have neither a strong social safety net outside of the labor market, nor an extensive social welfare structure supporting the labor market. For the most part, adequate provision of social benefits depends critically on employers’ voluntary adoption of support policies. For example, the U.S. has neither a universal health plan nor a requirement that employers provide health insurance coverage; the U.S. public system of old-age pensions is work-based, and that public system falls short unless supplemented …

America’S Biggest Low-Wage Industry: Continuity And Change In Retail Jobs, Françoise Carré, Chris Tilly

Center for Social Policy Publications

For those concerned with job quality in the United States, the retail industry commands attention. Retail is not only the largest low-wage industry in the country’s economy; it is the largest industry, period. It generates numerous entry level jobs for those with limited formal training. Hourly wages of nonsupervisory workers in retail languish at about three-quarters the national average. Retail is a very important employer of young workers. Its workforce is also disproportionately female. Women are concentrated in particular retail sub-sectors and some minority groups seem to remain employed in retail over time. At the same time, retail jobs—at least, …

Fits & Starts: The Difficult Path For Working Single Parents, Rebecca Loya, Ruth J. Liberman, Randy Albelda, Elisabeth Babcock

Center for Social Policy Publications

With dramatic shifts in the economy in recent years, it has become increasingly difficult for families to move into or stay in the middle class without access to higher education and skills training. Government-sponsored work supports help by providing direct assistance to working families to meet basic needs, such as child care, food, and housing. Yet, many supports do not reach low-wage working families in Massachusetts because of low eligibility thresholds, inadequate funding, limited availability, limited awareness, and numerous barriers to accessing such supports. Even for low-wage workers who do receive key work supports, such as subsidized child care and …

Continuity And Change In Low-Wage Work In U.S. Retail Trade, Françoise Carré, Chris Tilly, Brandynn Holgate

Center for Social Policy Publications

Retail work is undergoing significant change in the United States. To explore these changes, and their impacts in terms of turnover, skill levels, and other key workforce variables, we conducted 18 case studies of retail businesses. We spoke to employees from top corporate executives to frontline employees, visited stores, and reviewed HR statistics. This paper summarizes major findings from the study.

We start by stating the study’s key questions, principal findings from public data sources, and the study design. We then review field findings on patterns in job quality across four dimensions (schedules, compensation, duties, and turnover/training/mobility). We identify two …

Bridging The Gaps: A Picture Of How Work Supports Work In Ten States, Randy Albelda, Heather Boushey

Center for Social Policy Publications

In the United States, it is generally assumed that getting a job is enough to make ends meet. But, in today’s labor market, where nearly a quarter of jobs pay low wages and offer no benefits, this couldn’t be further from the truth for millions of workers and their families. Work supports—programs to assist working families to access basics, such as health care, child care, food, and housing—are supposed to fill in the gaps for families, helping them to afford a safe and decent standard of living. The Bridging the Gaps (BTG) project finds that work supports work for the …

Bridging The Gaps Between Earnings And Basic Needs In Massachusetts: Executive Summary And Final Report, Randy Albelda, Jennifer Shea

Center for Social Policy Publications

In the United States, it is generally assumed that holding a steady job is enough to make ends meet. But, in today’s labor market, where nearly a quarter of jobs pay low wages and offer no benefits, this couldn’t be further from the truth for millions of workers and their families. Most workers do not make ends meet on their wages alone. Upper- and moderate-wage workers are not “selfsufficient” as most receive on-the-job benefits, such as employer-provided health insurance or paid sick days, and are eligible for unemployment or disability insurance if they need it. Workers in low-wage jobs find …

Looking Back And Looking Ahead: Policy Visions From The New Deal And Great Society, Françoise Carré

Center for Social Policy Publications

On April 10 and 11, 2007, the Center for Social Policy convened a conference exploring policy visions from the New Deal and Great Society and their implications for today’s policy thinking. Titled, "Looking Back and Looking Ahead", this conference took place at the University of Massachusetts Boston Campus Center and the John F. Kennedy Library.

The conference was designed as an opportunity for speakers and participants to reflect on the lessons learned from these two watershed eras of policy innovation and their implications for looking forward. Policy actors and experts participated in three panel discussions on the historical context of …

Prevention At Work: Homelessness Prevention Initiative (Hpi) Interim Evaluation Report, January 2004 Through September 2005, Donna H. Friedman, Jennifer Raymond, Consuela Greene, John Mcgah, Elizabeth Brown, Julia Tripp, Helen Levine

Center for Social Policy Publications

This interim report summarizes what has been learned about the processes and outcomes of interventions by HPI grantees in the first 21 months of the initiative, from January 2004 through September 2005. To ground our findings, Section One begins with a discussion of the housing, economic, and policy contexts in the U.S. and the state that impact low-income households. This section focuses on the public and nonprofit sectors these households rely upon for help when their housing circumstances are precarious.

Section Two describes the households served by HPI grantees and their varied circumstances. Section Three offers detail on the prevention …

The Social And Economic Costs Of Employee Misclassification In The Maine Construction Industry, Françoise Carré, Randall Wilson

Center for Social Policy Publications

With this study, a cross disciplinary team of the Center for Construction Policy Research has taken a first and significant step in documenting employee misclassification in the Maine construction industry. This report documents the dimensions of misclassification and its implications for tax collection and worker compensation insurance.

Misclassification occurs when employers treat workers who would otherwise be waged or salaried employees as independent contractors (self employed). Or as one report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labor put it, misclassification occurs “when workers (who should be) getting W-2 forms for income tax filing instead receive 1099-Miscellaneous Income forms."

Transitions At Dta: Homeless Pilot Programs At The Massachusetts Department Of Transitional Assistance (2003-2005), John Mcgah, Amy Carlin

Center for Social Policy Publications

Towards the end of fiscal year 2004, the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA), the state’s welfare department, initiated eight pilot programs to better serve homeless families, to end the state’s reliance on placing families in hotels/motels, and to enable families living in motels to move into stable housing as quickly as possible. These initiatives were created in reaction to the unacceptably high number of motel placements of homeless families (about 600 in 2003). Motels do provide a needed alternative when emergency shelters are full, but they are a political, fiscal and moral liability. In 2004, DTA, in partnership with …

Partners In Prevention: Community-Wide Homelessness Prevention In Massachusetts And The United States, Donna H. Friedman, John Mcgah, Julia Tripp, Michelle Kahan, Nicole Witherbee, Amy Carlin

Center for Social Policy Publications

A central objective of the Homelessness Prevention Initiative (HPI) is to generate information for state policymakers on viable statewide approaches for investing in homelessness prevention. Therefore, to contextualize the policy relevance of HPI evaluation findings and to add to the strength of recommendations, the evaluation team has systematically explored examples of community-wide homelessness prevention efforts already underway in Massachusetts and in other parts of the country.

We selected communities that met the following criteria:

• The prevention network included an entire county, city, region or state.
• Cross-organizational resource-sharing, policies and interventions were in place.
• The collaboration engaged in primary prevention, that …

The Social And Economic Costs Of Employee Misclassification In Construction [Massachusetts Report], Françoise Carré, Randall Wilson

Center for Social Policy Publications

With this study, a cross disciplinary team of the Center for Construction Policy Research has taken a first and significant step in documenting employee misclassification in the Massachusetts construction industry. This report documents the dimensions of misclassification and its implications for tax collection and worker compensation insurance.

Misclassification occurs when employers treat workers who would otherwise be waged or salaried employees as independent contractors (self employed). Or as one report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labor put it, misclassification occurs “when workers (who should be) getting W-2 forms for income tax filing instead receive 1099- Miscellaneous Income forms.”

Impact – Information Management, Public Access, Community Transformation: Final Evaluation Report, Oscar Gutierrez, John Mcgah

Center for Social Policy Publications

In 2000 the Department of Commerce awarded the Lake County (IL) Department of Planning, Building and Development a Technology Opportunity Program (TOPS) Grant to implement Project IMPACT. The project’s goals were “to improve access to and delivery of human services for low-income residents, strengthen community planning and resource allocation, and enhance understanding of data on homelessness that can be gathered and aggregated on local and national levels to accurately capture the scope of the problem and the effectiveness of efforts to ameliorate it.”

The Center for Social Policy (CSP) at the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies, University of Massachusetts …

Hard Numbers, Hard Times: Homeless Individuals In Massachusetts Emergency Shelters, 1999-2003, Tatjana Meschede, Brian Sokol, Jennifer Raymond

Center for Social Policy Publications

Hard Numbers, Hard Times is the fruit of five years of homeless management information systems data collected in homeless emergency shelters serving individuals across Massachusetts. For the first time, comprehensive, reliable statewide data are provided on how many people accessed the system, where people became homeless, what they attributed their homelessness to, how long they stayed in shelter, and where they went when they left. These data are combined with information on demographics, income, special needs and insurance status along with analysis and interviews to provide multiple perspectives on the Massachusetts shelter system.

Emergency Preparedness: A Manual For Homeless Service Providers, Kelly Tobin, Phyllis Freeman

Center for Social Policy Publications

Public attention to "emergency planning" has increased dramatically since 9/11/2001. Out of concern that the population of homeless individuals and families may not have been considered adequately in planning thus far, the Center for Social Policy reviewed what has occurred, sought advice about what would be useful to add to existing material and resources, and proceeded to prepare this Manual. It seemed all too likely that under the already considerable pressure for cities and towns to prepare for threats caused by terrorism, including bioterrorism, that the special characteristics of homeless families and individuals, and of community organizations serving homeless people, …

Technology Goes Home Evaluation – Executive Summary, Donna H. Friedman, Michelle Kahan, Tatjana Meschede, Consuela Greene

Center for Social Policy Publications

Technology Goes Home (TGH) is an innovative program designed to bridge the digital divide by bringing technology into low-income families’ homes. This Boston Digital Bridge Foundation (BDBF) program strives to prepare adults for employment opportunities and to help children improve academic performance by offering computer training and equipment to families in Boston neighborhoods and schools. Classes are offered in groups, with parents and children learning together in order to strengthen families and build community as well as skills. Neighborhood programs are operated in six communities through Neighborhood Technology Collaboratives, coalitions of community-based organizations. These coalitions select participating families, and provide …

Alternative Job Brokering: Addressing Labor Market Disadvantages, Improving The Temp Experience, And Enhancing Job Opportunities, Françoise Carré, Joaquín Herranz, Jr., Dorie Seavey, Carlha Vickers, Ashley Aull, Rebecca Keegan

Center for Social Policy Publications

Alternative staffing is a key form of labor market intermediation worthy of consideration alongside that provided by other community-based job placement programs. Furthermore, an examination of alternative staffing services underscores the essential role that supports to employment play in job-brokering for workers who are disadvantaged in the labor market because these are businesses that tend simultaneously and daily to the two sides of the work relationship (worker-client and customer business). Much can be learned from their experiences about the expertise and resources required to effectively broker jobs for these kinds of workers—expertise and resources that could be necessary if public-sector …

Surviving Against The Odds: Families’ Journeys Off Welfare And Out Of Homelessness, Donna H. Friedman, Tatjana Meschede, Michelle Hayes

Center for Social Policy Publications

Homeless families face complex challenges when making the transition from welfare to the workforce. By focusing on the experiences of homeless families participating in a Boston-based welfare-to-work program, the multimethod, longitudinal study described in this article explored factors contributing to more successful transitions as well as barriers faced by families having a harder time making the transition.

Nearly 90 percent of the families that were studied left a shelter with a housing subsidy and retained it 6 to 12 months later. Successful employment outcomes after exiting a shelter were more evident for families whose head of household was older, two-parent …