7 Year Follow Up of Public Housing Jobs-Plus Program Shows Positive Results in Three Locations.

A just published March 2010 policy brief from the MDRC (Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation) HERE, focused on three communities that had fully implemented a Jobs-Plus program, showed that residents had continued gains in earnings over a 7 year study period. This was a follow up to an earlier 2005 MDRC study HERE of all Jobs-Plus sites, including Seattle, that showed mixed results.

From the 2010 Policy Brief:

the Jobs-Plus model in those [three] locations caused a 16 percent increase in average annual earnings over the full seven years (an average gain of $1,300 per year) for non disabled, working age public housing residents. Moreover, the earnings gains, which were large while Jobs-Plus operated, continued during each of the three years after the demonstration ended. And during both the program and post program periods, the effects were found for many different kinds of residents.....
The annual cost of operating the on-site features of a Jobs-Plus program (services, rent incentives, and community support for work) is in the range of $1,800 per person.

A MDRC project website with more materials about Job-Plus program is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.