Poverty and Homelessness Factors: Safety Net

Public benefits tend to phase out gradually as earned income rises, and often, the loss of one benefit is met with the gain of another, such as the case for health care and childcare, which smoothes the transition as earned income rises. In some cases, the gain in benefit is through the tax code, which means families must file for taxes and may not receive the benefit until after filing.??

Housing and childcare are the most significant living expenses for families. Programs that support these expenses — the CalWORKs childcare component and Section 8 Housing Vouchers — provide the largest benefits for eligible families. Unfortunately, the Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) is currently rationed with very long waiting lists — only one in four eligible households receive a voucher nationally. Therefore, most families do not receive enough resources from the safety net to cover their expenses.??

Although the social safety net is available to support families, families and case managers are confronted with a disjointed set of federal, state, and local programs. Understanding the eligibility and estimated benefits of each, especially as income changes, is very difficult.?

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