As the rains from Hurricane Florence finally move out to sea this week, the long recovery process from such a devastating natural disaster has just begun. Families and communities impacted by last year’s Hurricanes Harvey and Irma are still in recovery mode, and many people continue rebuilding their homes, communities, and lives. This blog post from the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response highlights available resources, including the Disaster Distress Helpline. Further, there are suggestions about how one can be engaged to support in recovery efforts; the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters are a great starting place. The blog also notes how to prepare yourself and your family for the next disaster and its aftermath, as well as how to learn about disaster recovery.

Recent data from the American Community Survey shows that child poverty declined 1.1 percentage points from 2016 to 2017, which is now within half of a percentage point of pre-recession levels. This gap is driven mainly by rural poverty, because urban child poverty has declined below recession levels for the first time. Rates are lowest in the Northeast and in the suburbs but remain highest in the South and in cities. Although child poverty shows promising trends, these measurements use the official poverty rate, which is only one measure of economic hardship. For graphs and maps showing more data on child poverty, visit the Carsey School of Public Policy to download this data snapshot.

This report presents findings from an OPRE evaluation of New York City’s Young Adult Internship Program (YAIP) that strove to provide subsidized employment and support services for disconnected youth. Implementation and short-term impact studies were previously conducted, so this report details longer term impacts and performs a cost analysis. While the program initially led to strong employment and earnings gains for participants, the results faded after 30 months and participants did not transition into education, employment, military, or training programs at higher rates than the control group. At $5,431 per participant, this intervention is on the lower end of the spectrum of similar programs, which can range from $4,200 to $10,000 per group member. The authors concluded that “light-touch employment and personal development services” are insufficient to translate into sustained employment and earning outcomes, and that future programs should pay more attention to transitioning their participants from subsidized work to long-term unsubsidized employment.

System modeling is an effective tool to understand the way homeless people navigate the variety or systems and programs in an area, which can ultimately lead to more efficient and cost-effective service provision. A report from The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness details steps involved in system modeling for homeless services, including listing desired aspects of a homeless services program, estimating the population size, reviewing existing data on which programs are being accessed and for how long, identifying intervention combinations that will lead to permanent housing, and using those figures and interventions to develop an ideal model to distribute resources effectively. By taking a broad look at the state of existing programs, using actual data to make utilization projections and assumptions, and reviewing new data periodically to ensure resources remain efficiently distributed, system modeling can be a powerful way to combat homelessness. This article also discusses a case study where system modeling in Indianapolis helped reduce homelessness for youth and young adults.

On September 12, the U.S. Census Bureau released new economic data for 2017. Median household income increased from 2016 by 1.8 percent to $61,372, and the poverty rate simultaneously declined 0.4 percent to 12.3 percent. This fall does not represent a significant change from the previous year, but poverty is down 2.5 percent in total over the past three years. The Supplemental Poverty Measure, which takes governmental programs designed to aid low-income families into account, also did not change significantly and currently is 13.9 percent for 2017. For income and poverty delineations by age, race, educational status, and other demographic factors, visit the Census website.

Data from the 2017 American Community Survey were released in September, which can supplement recent Census data on poverty and income measurements to give a more robust picture of poverty in the United States. A post by Brookings summarizes the findings chiefly around disparities in rural and metropolitan poverty. Urban poverty continues to decline in aggregate, but fewer regions are experiencing that drop as compared to 2016. Overall, though, cities are experiencing accelerating rates of poverty reduction and changing twice as fast as stagnating suburban poverty reduction rates. Although poverty is still higher in cities, these trends contribute to a narrowing suburban-urban poverty gap due to both steeper rates of decline in cities and shallower rates of decline in the suburbs. The post also emphasizes how the American Community Survey can provide a more nuanced view of the uneven economy as compared to the Census data alone.

This report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation provides research and data on the vulnerable population of 18- to 24-year-old parents and offers potential programs and policy suggestions to serve the needs of this cohort effectively. Young parents face the challenges of unfinished psychological development, economic and housing instability, minority-based discrimination, and lack of access to social safety net benefits. To combat these obstacles, the report recommends investing in education and employment opportunities; creating programs geared toward financial stability and income retention during their child’s early years; providing stress-reducing services like parenting workshops, mental health services, and affordable child care; and focusing on keeping families together.

On October 17, Mathematica Policy Research will discuss the historical trends of the work activity of people with disabilities, as well as new insights from three studies on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) recipients. Background on the employment landscape since the Great Depression, coupled with an analysis of changes in work activities of SSDI recipients from 2005 to 2015, will contextualize the arena of disability work and insurance to inform policymakers about the obstacles to employment that this population faces.

The Urban Institute was contracted by a Washington State housing authority to evaluate its 2013-2016 Student and Family Stability Initiative that provided supportive housing and employment to homeless or vulnerable families with elementary-aged children. Case management for those willing to work was combined with short-term financial assistance for housing-related costs, like searching or moving expenses. The program successfully raised participants’ income and promoted housing stability and income gains after the program ended, but also had high attrition rates. Households that opted out, failed to find housing, or failed to complete the program because they fell out of touch with case managers represent areas for programmatic improvement. The program may be more cost-efficient than providing long-term assistance like Housing Choice Vouchers, but it was difficult to understand how well the housing pilot program worked.

This 2013 toolkit from the National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families provides information for individuals on increasing awareness of domestic violence, recognizing child maltreatment, and applying healthy relationship education into partner services and practices. This information provides a basic approach to creating a safety net and improving recognition skills of abusive situations. The toolkit includes a section of beneficial handouts and resources for dispersal in programs and the community.