Family self-sufficiency programs - An evaluation of program benefits and factors affecting participants' success

Since the mid-1980s, family self-sufficiency programs have been set up in over 1,000 cities and counties across the United States. These programs are aimed at helping public-housing residents and Section 8 tenants, who often have very little or no wage income, become economically self-sufficient and move into private housing. Though much has been written about the potential of such programs, research examining their benefits is virtually nonexistent. This article seeks to partly fill this void. The research reported here examined data on 135 participants of the City of Rockford, Illinois's Family Self-Sufficiency program. Using logistic regression techniques, the effects of several factors on program completion were explored. The author reports that Rockford's Family Self-Sufficiency program graduates derived significant economic and housing benefits, and that race did not seem to affect graduation while other factors, such as age and the number of skills acquired in the program, seemed to.