Welfare Reform: Is Self Sufficiency Feasible without Affordable Housing? 2 Michigan Law and Policy Review 1997

2 Mich. L. & Pol'y Rev. 43 (1997)
Welfare Reform: Is Self Sufficiency Feasible without Affordable Housing?

handle is hein.journals/mlpr2 and id is 47 raw text is: WELFARE REFORM: IS SELF SUFFICIENCY
FEASIBLE WITHOUT
AFFORDABLE HOUSING?
Peter W. Salsich, Jr. *
INTRODUCTION
Two presidential actions during the height of the 1996 election
campaign dramatized the inevitable link between federal housing and
welfare policies. Both involved the approval of major domestic legisla-
tion, but as Jason DeParle of The New York Times Magazine observed,
one action was attended to with presidential flair, the other was hardly
noticed.1 Within a few weeks of each other, President Clinton signed
sweeping welfare reform legislation2 which substituted a block grant3 for
a 60-year-old federal entitlement program,4 and a housing appropriations
bill which, among other cuts, reduced the number of possible new
recipients of Section 8' certificates and vouchers to zero.6
In addition to the end of entitlement, other key provisions of the
new welfare law include a requirement that parents or caretakers of
children receiving assistance engage in work within 24 months of
receiving assistance7, and a limit of five years on the total time that such
* McDonnell Professor of Justice in American Society, Saint Louis University School of
Law. The valuable assistance of Judith DeVeydt and Sandra Suarez, J.D.'s expected from
Saint Louis University, 1998, and Kathy Nachtweih of the Law School staff is acknowledged
with appreciation.
1. Jason DeParle, Mugged by Reality, N.Y. TIMES MAG., December 8, 1996, at 64; Jason
DeParle, Slamming the Door, N.Y. TimES MAG., Oct. 20, 1996, at 52.
2. Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, Pub. L.
No. 104-193, 110 Stat. 2105 (1996).
3. Block Grants for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, No. §§ 101-115, (striking
sections 401-417 of Part A of Title IV of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. 601-617 (1994)
and adding new sections 401-417, 419, 1108).
The end of individual entitlement is emphasized by a provision that the block grant
statute shall not be interpreted to entitle any individual or family to assistance under any
State program funded under this part. Section 103, § 401(6), (codified at 42 U.S.C.
§ 601(6)).
4. The Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program was enacted in 1935.
Aug. 14, 1935, ch. 531, title IV, § 401, 49 Stat. 627.
5. Section 8 is the popular name for a major housing assistance program begun in 1974
which provides rental subsidies to private landlords on behalf of low-income tenants. 42
U.S.C. 1437(f) (1995).
6. Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Indepen-
dent Agencies Appropriations Act of 1997, Pub. L. No. 104-204, 110 Stat. 2874 (1996).
7. Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, sec. 103,
§ 402(a)(1)(A)(ii) (to be codified at 42 U.S.C. § 602(a)(1)(4)(ii)).

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