Reports

Community Voices Heard has been researching poverty and the governmental structures dealing with poverty extensively since our inception. We have published reports and drafted proposals describing what changes are necessary for a more fair and equal society. The links below will direct you to copies of these reports and proposals.

Time Limits or Time Bomb? Assessing New York City Welfare as the Five-Year Time Limits Approach

In December of 2001, over 76,000 New York State families receiving public assistance were set to reach their five-year time limits on federal public assistance. Of these, over 40,000 were based in New York City. An additional, 26,232 New York City families were to reach their time limits by September 2002. From October 2000 to March 2001, Community Voices Heard administered a survey to 595 individuals at over 30 welfare centers around the City, in an effort to evaluate the services and information they were receiving in advance of the time limits.

Wages Work! An Examination of New York City’s Parks Opportunity Program (POP) and Its Participants

The Parks Opportunity Program (POP) is the largest public sector paid transitional jobs program in the country. When initiated in March of 2001, the POP Program, along with other Transitional Jobs Programs in New York City, represented a significant shift away from forcing welfare recipients to perform unpaid workfare assignments (known as WEP) toward paying people a wage for working in city agencies on a transitional basis.

The Revolving Door: Research Findings on NYC's Employment Services and Placement System and Its Effectiveness In Moving People

This report documents the results of a comprehensive examination of the Employment Services and Placement (ESP) System, a key program developed and administered by the Human Resources Administration (HRA) to further its work-first approach. The renewal contracts, established by the start of 2003, allocated up to $130 million for program services over three years – estimating that the program would service almost 80,000 people in that time period.

Parks Opportunity Program (POP) External Monitoring Report

This report shares results from Community Voices Heard’s ongoing monitoring of the Parks Opportunity Program (POP), the largest paid transitional jobs program in New York City. The research documents the experiences of Job Training Participants (JTPs) who participated in POP in FY04 and FY05.

Failure to Comply: The Disconnect Between Design and Implementation in HRA's WeCARE Program

In early 2005, the NYC Human Resources Administration (HRA) implemented the Wellness, Comprehensive Assessment, Rehabilitation and Employment (WeCARE) Program to determine which public assistance recipients and applicants have multiple and complex barriers to employment and provide them with specialized services that were not available under HRA’s previous support and training programs.

Missing the Mark: A Report on NYC’s Back to Work Program & Its Effectiveness In Meeting Employment Goals for Welfare Recipients

This report, released in November 2008 as a follow-up study to The Revolving Door (2005), explores HRA’s Back to Work (BTW) Program, focusing on how it compares to the Employment Services and Placement (ESP) Program and what impact the program changes have and on clients and vendors. The BTW Program was designed to serve both applicants and recipients of public assistance – providing assessment, case management, and job development services.

Democracy (In)Action Report Finds NYCHA Violates Federal Regulations on Public Housing Resident Participation

CVH released a report, "Democracy (In)Action: How HUD, NYCHA and Official Structures Undermine Resident Participation in New York City Public Housing," which finds that the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is violating federal regulations (referred to as the 964 regs) that ensure residents’ participation in policymaking. To make matters worse, the U.S.

Bad Arithmetic: The Failure of New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) Recovery Funds to Create Jobs for Local Residents

Last year CVH members successfully pushed Congress to include $423 million in the national recovery package for NYCHA to make much needed repairs to public housing and provide job opportunities for residents. In order to save public housing developments and prevent the demolitions that have happened in most other cities across the country, it is critical that these recovery-funded repairs happen; and with 30,000 NYCHA residents unemployed and looking for work, it is also critical that residents have access to job and training opportunities.

A Report Card for the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)

On August 8th, 2011 the Community Voices Heard (CVH), in partnership with the Community Development Project (CDP), CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, Families United for Racial and Economic Equality (FUREE), Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), and Mothers on the Move (MOM), released a new report titled “A Report Card for the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA): Residents’ Evaluation of NYCHA and Recommendations for Improvement.” The report is the result of a year-long, citywide, participatory research project.

Building the Workforce: The Implementation of a Statewide Transitional Jobs Program

This Policy Memo documents the experience of New York State counties in administering a $25 million Statewide Transitional Jobs Program funded by recovery act dollars. Forty-nine counties created nearly 3,000 paid positions for welfare recipients. Although some of the counties faced challenges with implementation, the positive impacts of the program were clear and the vast majority of counties wanted to continue implementing the program should funding permit.