Homeless families struggle with a variety of structural and psychosocial issues, including severe poverty, unemployment, and exposure to interpersonal violence and trauma. Historically, the full range of homeless families’ needs has not been routinely assessed. The Assessment Checklist for Homeless Family Providers was created by the Bassuk Center to address this situation and assist service providers in conducting comprehensive, evidence-based assessments of the families they serve. The checklist covers the following eight domains that have been proven to be relevant to the care of homeless families: family demographics, immediate safety needs, housing and homelessness, self-sufficiency, service use, parent functioning, child development, and use of standardized screening instruments.

This brief from the Family Welfare Research & Training Group profiles cash assistance cases in Maryland that were designated as “child under one cases” and eligible for the federal Age of Youngest Child (AYC) exemption, which permits single parents to abstain from work requirements for up to 12 months while caring for an infant. Overall, the clients from these cases were substantially younger than the typical cash assistance client in Maryland, many of them were new to the cash assistance program, just over half had been employed before receiving benefits, and the typical parent only used the exemption for 7 months.

The resources and services available through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program are critical to ending family homelessness. State and local TANF programs can provide access to critical work opportunities and support services for families experiencing homelessness. This resource from the Heartland Alliance provides an overview of TANF, examples of where state and local TANF programs have been leveraged to support homeless families, and recommendations to ensure that TANF resources are leveraged effectively to support homeless families.

This report from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) summarizes key findings from the implementation of the adapted version of the Reducing the Risk comprehensive sex education program in the Barren River and Lincoln Trail District Health Departments in Kentucky. In both districts, health educators delivered the program in relatively low-income, mostly rural high schools. The report describes the supports established to help health educators as they implemented the curriculum; adherence to the implementation plan; and the level of youth engagement with the curriculum.

In this study, published by the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, caseworkers provided information regarding a mother’s number and quality of social supports and whether an infant was removed from her care. Analyses indicated that infants were less likely to be removed from the mother’s care when caseworkers viewed maternal social supports as positive. This association was strongest when the caseworker identified only positive supports, with no contacts defined as non-positive. Mothers who were assessed to have no intimate relationship or a low level of commitment were nearly twice as likely to have their children in foster care compared to mothers assessed to be in a mid-to-high level of committed relationship. Results suggest that caseworkers’ distinctions between positive and non-positive social networks influence removal decisions. (author abstract)

The social impact bond (SIB) uses private funds to pay for a social, educational, or health program. Then if the program achieves predetermined results, the government repays investors, plus a return. This paper from MDRC looks at the successes and failures of current SIBs and presents lessons learned for moving forward.

The Brookings Institution released a paper that documents the characteristics of the 46.7 million Americans who were living in poverty in 2014. The authors used data from the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement that were collected in March 2015. This data presents information about who lives in poverty, including characteristics of the working-age poor.

This report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities discusses the concept of “churn,” when the periodic review of public benefits eligibility leaves benefits-eligible households without benefits temporarily, and forces them to reapply. Churn costs benefit recipients and state agencies both time and money, so reducing churn is beneficial for all involved parties. The report uses the experience of states involved in the Work Support Strategies project to discuss lessons learned about churn and potential methods for reducing churn.

This report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities discusses how enhanced federal Medicaid matching funds made available because of the Affordable Care Act can be used for technology and services improvements to eligibility systems that are shared between Medicaid and other health and human services programs. The report discusses states that have used this opportunity to make systems improvements, including specific examples of initiatives and discussion of common themes between state efforts. Most states in the report have worked on improving client portals, enhancing call center technology, streamlining document imaging and management, and introducing mobile tools for consumer use.

This webpage from the Urban Institute includes several publications related to the Work Support Strategies (WSS) initiative evaluation. Topics include changes in joint Medicaid/CHIP and SNAP participation rates, using technology to improve delivery of benefits, and using behavioral economics to inform the integration of human services and health programs.