This IASP research brief documents the implementation of a pilot rapid re-housing program for homeless families in Massachusetts’ South Shore. Data include in-depth interview with families, their providers and program administrators, HMIS data, and survey data. While most stakeholders agree that rapid-rehousing is a much better strategy for most homeless families over living in a shelter or motel, key findings detail the economic challenges families in this program face and their anxiety about the short-term nature of the rental subsidies. Of the families who exited the program by summer 2011, only 25% were able to retain their housing without a subsidy. Another 23% transitioned to a permanent subsidy, 18% doubled up with families and friends, and 8% returned to a shelter.
IASP received a university partnership grant from HHS’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) to research how the NH Office of Minority Health and Refugee Affairs (OMHRA) can better assist and enable NH health care employers develop a more diverse workforce through new strategies in recruitment, retention and advancement. IASP’s Study of Employment and Advancement of Racial, Ethnic and Linguistic Minorities is a companion grant to OMHRA’s Health Profession Opportunity Project with its goal of expanding employment opportunities for low-income populations and racial, ethnic and linguistic minorities over the next five years in health care occupations.
The latest research in the Living Longer on Less series illustrates the critical importance of Medicare in bolstering the economic security of seniors. Using the innovative Senior Financial Stability Index, past IASP reports have shown that overall economic insecurity among seniors has risen dramatically in recent years. Yet, out-of-pocket health expenses remain relatively stable for most seniors, due almost entirely to the protection Medicare provides against the ever-increasing costs of health care in the U.S. This brief shows that dismantling Medicare by changing its fee-for-service structure into an annual premium support or voucher payment, as has been proposed recently by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan and others, will dramatically undermine the already tenuous financial status of seniors. Under Rep. Ryan’s proposal, only 18% of seniors would have adequate resources to meet their basic needs for the remainder of their lives, and only 3% would be health secure with the rest spending over 10% of their monthly incomes on out-of-pocket health costs.
In an article in the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Winter 2012 publication of Communities & Banking, Hannah Thomas, Research Associate at IASP, illustrations how neighborhoods are interested parties in foreclosures yet have no legal redress to lessen the impact of foreclosed properties on neighborhood well-being.
Aimed at helping low-income families save and build assets, Compass Working Capital’s Financial Stability and Savings Program is an innovative variation on HUD’s Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program. IASP’s report analyzes the implementation strategies and early outcomes of this pilot program. First year results demonstrate great promise for future program replication. Effective outreach and marketing have increased FSS program participation by almost 200% in the city of Lynn, MA. The Compass program’s financial education and coaching are helping participants develop asset building strategies and encourage employment that has resulted in over one-third of participants beginning to accrue savings in an escrow account.
Nearly half (47%) of all senior single women in America do not have adequate retirement resources to meet even their most basic needs for the remainder of their lives, and this number is rising. This distressing statistic is among the findings from a report released today by IASP and Demos, the latest in the Living Longer on Less series. This report finds that rising housing expenses, fixed and inadequate household budgets, and very low levels of retirement assets are contributing to rapidly rising economic insecurity among senior single women. Single women are especially vulnerable to economic insecurity in retirement due to the limited lifetime asset building capacity many women face, driven by the persistent wage gap, high levels of part-time work and ineligibility for retirement benefits, as well as extended periods out of the labor force due to family care-giving duties.
In only four years, seniors at risk of outliving their resources increased by nearly 2 million households. Using the Senior Financial Stability Index, economic insecurity among senior households increased by one-third, rising from 27% to 36% from 2004 to 2008. This steady and dramatic increase was in progress even before the full force of the Great Recession hit. This webinar, hosted by the National Council on Aging (NCOA), explores the findings of IASP's two recent studies on this issue: From Bad to Worse: Senior Economic Insecurity on the Rise and The Crisis of Economic Insecurity for African-American and Latino Seniors. Speakers include IASP Research Director Dr. Tatjana Meschede (lead author), as well as Ramsey Alwin, Director of NCOA's Economic Security Initiative.
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IASP Research Director Tatjana Meschede was a featured participant in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of University Partnerships (OUP) Empowerment Series "The Key to Unlocking Homelessness in America: Emerging Trends in HUD-Sponsored Research" webinar.
New research from IASP and Demos reveals crisis levels of economic insecurity among current African-American and Latino seniors. The latest report in the “Living Longer on Less” series, “The Crisis of Economic Insecurity for African-American and Latino Seniors,” found that 52% of African-American and 56% of Latino Seniors do not have adequate retirement resources to meet their basic needs throughout their expected life-spans. Driven by extremely low levels of asset wealth and high housing costs, most seniors of color are struggling financially during their elder years. Forced to rely on adult children and public programs just to get by, these distressing statistics both exacerbate and are a by-product of the growing racial wealth gap.
In Part Two of NPR's report, IASP Director Tom Shapiro discusses children's savings accounts as tools for narrowing the racial wealth gap.
IASP Director Tom Shapiro discusses the racial wealth gap on NPR's Morning Edition
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