HUD’s Office of Policy Development & Research has recently published a report detailing the Long-Term Effects from the Original Jobs Plus Demonstration. The Jobs Plus demonstration aimed to increase economic empowerment and mobility for public housing residents through on-site employment services, rent-based work incentives, and supportive work activities. The original Jobs Plus demonstration program operated from 1998 to 2003 at select public housing developments in areas of concentrated underemployment and joblessness in six cities: Baltimore, MD; Chattanooga, TN; Dayton, OH; Los Angeles, CA; St. Paul, MN; and Seattle, WA.
A 2005 analysis by MDRC found that the program produced substantial earnings gains for residents in three of the six sites during the first 4 years of the program. A follow-up study in 2010 found that the initial effects persisted, with residents in the three sites earning 16% more on average than those in comparison sites. This report examines the employment and earnings of public housing residents after 20 years.
Sites that fully implemented the model saw long-term positive employment and earnings effects, but negative effects were observed in sites that did not. The three sites that fully implemented the original Jobs Plus model continued to experience positive effects on adult residents’ earnings and employment between 2017 and 2019, two decades after the program launched.
These findings demonstrate the potential benefits of place-based interventions in areas of concentrated underemployment and joblessness. The authors also suggest that for these interventions to have these long-term benefits, they must be well-implemented at each site.