This paper examines the role of car access (including but not limited to car ownership) in facilitating employment among recipients under the current welfare-to-work law. In 1996, Congress enacted the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which dramatically altered this nation’s social policy. TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) replaced the old AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) program, but the transformation went well beyond renaming the welfare system. Instead of providing an entitlement, the legislation’s goals are ending welfare dependency and promoting economic self-sufficiency through employment. New regulations limit cash support, place a time limit on benefits, mandate strong work requirements, and delegate the implementation to the states and local agencies. As a result of these reforms, hundreds of thousands of recipients are entering the labor market, but their ability to find a job remains unanswered. Successful restructuring of the welfare system requires implementing agencies to eliminate as many barriers as possible. Many recipients are severely disadvantaged by limited education and work experience, but the obstacles are not confined just to human-capital deficiencies. Moreover, time limits have shifted strategies from training and schooling to placing individuals in a job as quickly as possible.

This policy brief is part of a series on the socioeconomic status of American Indian and Alaska Natives (AIANs) in the Los Angeles metropolitan region, home to the largest urbanized AIAN population in the country. This brief presents findings on the factors that determine educational, employment, and housing outcomes for AIAN adults in the Los Angeles metropolitan area relative to outcomes for non-Hispanic whites (NHW). The analyses are based on individual-level data and econometric models to estimate the independent impacts of observable causal factors.

Public opinion surveys can play an important role in decision making as they gather information that complements data from standard sources such as the Decennial Census and Current Population Survey. This Information Sheet presents findings from a recently completed survey of Southern California residents (those living in the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura). The information from the survey can help better inform elected officials about the public’s concerns and priorities, such as the issue of job outsourcing. Our main finding is that only a minority of Southern Californians report working for a firm that practice outsourcing. The proportion varies with the characteristics of the firms but not with the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents.

The research demonstrated innovative methods for using GPS-enhanced travel and activity monitoring to measure, analyze, and verify highly resolved travel patterns of low-income households for multiple modes and days. Previous studies suggest the travel of low-income households varies significantly from more affluent households, but our understanding of how low-income residents navigate the urban landscape throughout the day is limited since they are less likely to respond to travel surveys and, when they participate, are more likely to underreport travel. The Harbor Communities Time Location Study (HCTLS) addressed these limitations through targeted sampling and the integration of traditional activity/travel diary methods with portable GPS monitoring and follow-up prompted recall interviews to verify patterns revealed in simultaneous diary-GPS monitoring. In early 2008 we monitored 10-14 days of travel of 51 residents of Wilmington and western Long Beach, port-adjacent low-income communities impacted by high levels of congestion and pollution due to goods movement activities. Results provide valuable insights for transportation planners and policy makers into the travel modes and patterns of low-income households and the rate at which they seem to underreport travel and activities on travel/activity diaries.