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Project Description

New city and state welfare programs include decisions about benefit levels, eligibility criteria, work requirements, time limits, etc.

Project duration: Jan 1997 - Dec 2001

Sites studied include New York, New York

Sample Characteristics and Sites Studied

2250 households (1500 households with children and 750 households of all types) in New York City and in New York City suburbs.

Recent Findings in Brief

03/21/01: Devolution, Welfare Reform, and Wellbeing Study: New York City Social Indicators Study: Pulling Ahead, Falling Behind

• In this two-year period, life improved in the city on many dimensions. In comparison to 1997, more families had some financial assets and at least moderate affluence, more considered their neighborhoods to be good and safe, fewer were crime victims, and more were satisfied with life in the city and with city services in 1999. But there was little improvement on indicators of distress and disadvantage. The same proportion of families were poor and had zero or negative assets in both years. The proportion of families living in poor quality and overcrowded housing did not change. And the proportion experiencing economic hardship may have grown.
• Disparities between the "haves" and the "have nots" in the city remained wide in 1999. Families who were poor, who were headed by an immigrant adult, or who had children, continued to lag their more advantaged counterparts in financial and economic resources, living conditions, and satisfaction with life in the city. Between 1997 and 1999, inequality grew between the "haves" and the "have nots" of the city on several dimensions. The gap between the rich and poor narrowed on some important dimensions, such as crime and neighborhood satisfaction, while it grew wider on indicators of wealth, financial hardship and satisfaction with the city. The gap between immigrants and non-immigrants grew wider on nearly all dimensions of economic and financial well-being, quality of life, and satisfaction. The gap between families with and without children also grew wider on most social indicators.

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