This study, from the Center for Housing Policy, found that the average working family residing in a city spends 57 percent of their annual income on transportation and housing costs. Low-to-moderate income working families are being forced to reside further outside city centers due to housing costs, but families are spending as much or more on transportation costs than they are saving on housing costs.

This resource from the Urban Institute describes data from the National Health Interview Survey -- Disability Supplement including statistics around people's abilities to perform various activities and their health conditions. Additionally, it includes information on how the data can be used to aid people with disabilities through support services, including transportation, social activities, vocational rehabilitation, and housing.

From California's Welfare Policy Research Project, this study was charged with investigating barriers to employment and services accessibility among TANF recipients in San Joaquin County, California. The following potential barriers were surveyed: physical and mental health, family violence, substance abuse, adequate child care, transportation, low education, poor English-language skills, and few work skills. The data is used to address which barriers affect full- and part-time employment among 400 respondents.

The Brookings Institution released a paper that evaluates the well-being of single mother families. This policy brief uses consumption data on single mother families in the 1990s, which shows that consumption in housing costs, child care, food, and transportation increased for this group of women. Therefore, post-welfare reform, the material circumstance of single-mothers increased, seemingly because more mothers are employed.

The ACF Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network coordinated this workshop on behalf of the ACF Region VII office. The network is a contract from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA). The contractors for the Network are AFYA, Inc. and Caliber Associates. The purpose of this two-day technical assistance event was to identify the transportation challenges of participating states, examine other state’s initiatives that have addressed these challenges, identify available resources, and explore next steps to address these challenges. Additional topics included the Transportation Equity Act of the 21st Century (TEA-21) and the wealth of resources available via the National Transit Resource Center, operated by the Community Transportation Association of America.

The ACF Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network coordinated this workshop on behalf of the ACF Region IV office. The network is a contract from the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA). The contractors for the network are AFYA, Inc. and Caliber Associates. The purpose of this two day technical assistance event was to identify the participating states’ transportation priority challenges, to examine other state’s initiatives that have addressed these challenges, to identify available resources, and to explore lessons learned that participants could use as a background for formulating next steps to address these challenges. Additional topics addressed included TEA-21 (Transportation Equity Act of the 21st Century), the role of Head Start, and the wealth of resources available via the National Transit Resource Center (operated by the Community Transportation Association of America).

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network conducted this workshop in collaboration with the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC). The purpose of the event was to provide and share information on Welfare-to-Work (WTW) transportation and related issues. Furthermore, the workshop provided a forum for discussing the effectiveness of current initiatives, which provide the foundation for solutions to as yet unresolved transportation dilemmas. Specific topics addressed included building upon existing resources; providing affordable, accessible, and reliable transportation to all urban, suburban, and rural areas; coordination between transportation, workforce development, and human service agencies to overcome transportation barriers, and combining resources to achieve these objectives.

The ACF Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network coordinated this presentation as part of the Arkansas Transitional Employment Assistance (TEA) Coalition Conference in collaboration with the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS). TEA is Arkansas’ TANF program. The conference was hosted by the Arkansas DHS and the State TEA Program Advisory Council. The purpose of this three-day conference was to provide a forum for hundreds of community leaders involved in local TEA Coalitions throughout the state to exchange ideas, make announcements, and hold discussions related to developing services and support for families in their service areas. Topics addressed included transportation, childcare, job training and development, health issues, housing, volunteer issues, and funding development issues. This summary highlights the main points from the transportation workshop presentations and subsequent discussions ensuing from them. The focus of these workshops was to discuss coordinating client transportation services at the local level.

The Welfare Peer Technical Assistance (TA) Network, funded by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) provided technical assistance in support of this meeting. The meeting was coordinated by the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (NH DHHS) and the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NH DOT). The purpose of the meeting was to begin to develop a strategy and formulate a framework for coordination that improves and/or increases mobility options for various populations of transportation users throughout the State.