52006200 Families and Social Policy September 7 2006

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5200/6200Families and Social
PolicySeptember 7 2006
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This week.

• Policy Evaluation and Politics
• Ellwood, D.  1988.  "Values the Helping
  Conundrums." Poor Support, C 2. New York Basic
  Books, Pp. 14-44. WEBSITE
• Urban Institute, Federalism after Katrina how
  social programs respond http//www.urban.org/Uplo
  adedPDF/311344_after_katrina.pdf Internet
• Galster, G.  1996.  "The Challenges for Policy
  Research in a Changing Environment." The Future
  of the Public Sector Series No. 7. Urban
  Institute.
• http//www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/pub_07.pdf
• Dye, Thomas R. (2005) Policy Evaluation
  Finding Out What Happens After A Law Is Passed.
  READER
• Book Reportspassing list around
• Case for marriage, linda waite
• Promises to keep, kathryn Edin
• Would be week 11
• Today
• Politics, values, and why and how we should we
  help

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WHAT IS AMERICAN FEDERALISM?

• sharing of power between the states and the
  national governmenthas been a major issue
  throughout U.S. history.

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WHY IS AMERICAN FEDERALISM IMPORTANT?

• Protection against oppression
• Diversity in policy ideas
• Spreads the power around
• Policies are more responsive to local conditions

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Values underpinning Federalism

• Individual autonomy vs. dependence.
• Work as Virtue workfare vs. welfare.
• Primacy of the family promote marriage.
• Sense of community sympathy for others.
• Two dominant ideals
• democracy freedom and equality
• capitalism freedom and private property
• Creates a tension that defines the American
  political culture
• Leads to sharp ideological divisions with
  American society

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Applying these values to Social Policy leads to
three helping conundrums (a problem without a
visible solution)
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The Security-Work Conundrum

• how to provide a safety-net with undermining the
  incentive to work.
• Research supports the disincentivehow to
  reverse?

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The Assistance Family Structure Conundrum

• Welfare should not encourage FHH, but they do
  need more help
• Research a very tenuous/weak rship between
  assistance family structure, but still we
  worrywhy?

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The Targeting vs. Isolation Conundrum

• targeting the poor should not lead to social
  isolation and immobility. (food stamp cards)
• Geographic and economic reintegration are key
  ideaswhat are the impediments? (mixed housing)
• When we target the failuresare we ignoring the
  successes?

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Applying the Conundrums..

• What about aid to the poorwhat should we do?
  How do we navigate these conundrums?
• What about an example.

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KatrinaExtent of Damage
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Landfall

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The Water is Rising
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Flooding the French Quarter
A city built below sea level is sustained by a
complex system of dams serving as a buffer
against storm surges and the wetlands of the
Mississippi Delta.
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Boats travel flooded streets
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New Orleans Superdome
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Camping on I-10
Oil slicks in the water
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Leaving the Superdome
Walking out on I-10
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Is this the USA?
Thousands of residents from New Orleans gather at
an evacuation staging area along Interstate-10 in
Metarie, La., on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005. AP
Photo/Dave Martin
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School buses flooded in New Orleans
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Boat Jam on the road
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Stranded on Rooftops
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Louisiana State Troops
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Evacuation
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To the helicopters
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U. S. N. S. Comfort
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Rooftop Rescues Continue
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Searching for survivors
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Foreign Aid to U.S.
Members of the Mexican Navy help distribute water
U.S. Navy sailors assigned to the amphibious
assault ship USS Bataan and Mexican marines carry
a log as they remove debris
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Applying the Conundrums..

• Work Security conundrum
• The Targeting vs. Isolation Conundrum

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• What will be the impact of the largest
  displacement of people in U.S. since the Civil
  War?

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Why was the impact of Katrina SO BAD

• Concentrated Poverty
• Nearly 50k poor new orleanians lived in nhoods
  where the poverty rate exceeded 40 percent
• NOLA ranked 2nd among large U.S. cities in
  concentrated poverty
• Racial Issues
• Flooded area contained 80 of city minority
  population vs 54 of white population
• The MHH income of AA in the city was just half
  that of whites21,461 versus 40,390
• Neighborhood Issues
• Nhoods didnt appear by accident (clustering
  public housing, subsidized metro sprawl, lack of
  affordable housing)
• Economic Health of Gulf States
• States have to contribute to federal-state
  program. LA ranked very low before Katrina in
  raising revenue. So especially hard hit by a
  crisis
• States cannot operate in a budget deficit but fed
  can

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What the Gov didfed allocations equal 109
billion

• Housing
• 275k homes destroyed in LA and 650k people
  displacedmost went to other places in LA, and
  then TX
• FEMA and HUD helped for 18 months (what about
  people who needed services pre katrina?)
• Income Replacement
• 19k businesses destroyed over 500k filed claims
  for UI
• State should pay UI but didnt have
  capacityother states helped
• 500 mil appropriated from federal unemployment
  fund
• Health Care
• New needs on top of existing needs/charity
  hospitals destroyed. Medicaid filled important
  gaps
• Medicaid waivers in host states compensated by
  feds not states
• Cash Assistance
• New TANF needs within affected states and
  increased coverage by host states/TANF is block
  granted so amounts are fixed.
• Gov released contingency funds to affected and
  host states without penalty (70 million)

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Why the Government Response was Problematic

• Cross jurisdictional complexity
• Evacuees move across state lines-states not set
  up to accommodate. Complex fed/state sharing
  challenged
• Short term solutions to long term problem
• FEMA V HUD use suggest perception of short term
  needsnot true. Medicaid waivers for 5 months
  for full fed funding not enough
• Lack of clarity
• Slow to define federal responsemade uncertainty
  worse. Lots of blaming
• What is the appropriate fed role?
• Not just the feds job but fed important part of
  smooth response. Need better vision about
  federal response to disaster

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Future?

• How to rebuild?

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What have we Learned?

• We need to clearly define what is a sig scale
  disaster to trigger fed support.
• We need to have a plan for delivering aid prior
  to disaster
• Problems in delivering services even when we all
  agree on the need and deservedness
• Is there a limit to our prosocial behaviors?
• Ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure
• Invest in infrastructure
• Invest in communities in harms way
• Dont be complacent about concentrated poverty
• Race and class continue to be important factors
  in shaping families response to need

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Discuss.