The Importance of Place in Welfare Reform: Common Challenges for Central Cities and Remote-rural Areas

for their constructive suggestions on an earlier draft of this report. They bear no responsibility for remaining shortcomings. The views expressed in this discussion paper are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the trustees, officers, or staff members of The Brookings Institution. ABSTRACT Single-mother families' success in moving from welfare to work under the 1996 federal welfare reform law appears to depend on where they live. Evidence suggests that single mothers in central cities and remote-rural areas face some common challenges to entering the paid workforce and moving out of poverty, but few studies to date have examined how outcomes differ within metropolitan and rural areas. This paper reviews existing literature and analyzes new data to determine how welfare and economic outcomes vary across the geographic continuum. It finds that while work among single mothers in central cities and remote-rural areas increased during the 1990s, their real earnings actually declined. Single mothers in central-metro and remote-rural counties were also more likely than their counterparts elsewhere to have been poor and on public assistance for extended periods of time during the 1990s. Policymakers debating the reauthorization of the 1996 law could help states meet the common challenges facing welfare participants in cities and remote rural areas by: (a) preserving state flexibility in implementation to address the particular needs of urban and rural populations; (b) providing dedicated funding for transitional jobs programs that help long-term recipients acquire the basic skills to find and retain employment; (c) promoting better access to transportation options for low-income city and rural workers who are isolated from job opportunities; (d) making targeted workforce investments in communities with limited job opportunities; and (e) collecting more timely information on the spatial distribution of welfare participants and the places where leavers find work.