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Social Services and Welfare

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Essay

Supportive Housing Reduces Homelessness—and Lowers Health Care Costs by Millions

Jun 27, 2018

Los Angeles County has moved some of its most chronically homeless and vulnerable residents into permanent housing. Providing them with social services and health care has dramatically reduced their use of emergency rooms and other services, saving taxpayers millions of dollars.
Essay

A Novel Approach to Helping People Returning from Prison

Oct 30, 2019

Many services try to address the needs of individuals returning from prison, but they're often designed without much input from the very people who need the services. A group of county agencies, service providers, and former prisoners collaborated to identify ways to improve reentry services in Los Angeles.

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Commentary

After COVID-19: Prevent Homelessness Among Survivors of Domestic Abuse

Without assistance, domestic violence survivors—typically women and children—are more likely to be forced into homelessness. Now could be the best time to invest in programs that can help victims get out of unsafe living arrangements and into safe and stable housing before a second wave of COVID-19 cases pushes more families into unsafe environments.

Jul 2, 2020
Commentary

Defund the LAPD? Garcetti Budget Proposal Takes a Step in That Direction

Calls to “defund the police” have grown common and urgent in the wake of police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and numerous other Black Americans. Research and community activists agree: Public safety can be improved by investing more public dollars in a social safety net, and less in policing and incarceration, in Los Angeles.

Jun 30, 2020
Journal Article

Journal Article

Provision of Social Services and Health Care Quality in US Community Health Centers, 2017

Some community health centers provide social services on-site and this was associated with better performance on measures of health care quality.

Jun 25, 2020
Commentary

Long-Term Furloughs During COVID-19 Hold Risks for Employee Health and Well-Being

Governments around the world have offered furlough schemes to try to delay employers from making any restructuring decisions during the pandemic. The aims of such programs are laudable. But they may come with unintended consequences.

Jun 15, 2020
Commentary

Emergency COVID-19 Aid Helps College Students with Food and Housing

COVID-19 has expanded the pool of cash-strapped college students, but many were already struggling before the pandemic. The crisis could draw attention to food and housing insecurity among college students, and give college leaders a chance to consider how to address these needs more systematically over the long term.

May 26, 2020
Report

One-Stop Social Services Efforts May Improve Community College Outcomes

Students participating in programs that provide a comprehensive range of support services are more likely to persist in attending community college.

Apr 29, 2020
Commentary

The Role of Faith-Based Organizations During the Pandemic

Maintaining social and spiritual connections in the midst of COVID-19 are not the only challenges facing communities of faith. Congregations play critical roles in providing social services within communities. How can their services, such as food assistance, be delivered safely?

Apr 16, 2020
Commentary

Emergency Homeless Services During the COVID-19 Crisis

The recently passed $2 trillion stimulus package includes a suite of measures designed to support households that are affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. But policymakers may want to consider what protections the package offers to a particularly high-risk group: people experiencing homelessness.

Apr 7, 2020
Commentary

The Public Charge Rule's Likely Hazard to Our Nation's Health During COVID-19

The Public Charge rule makes immigrants who receive Medicaid and other publicly-funded benefits potentially ineligible for green cards, and, in some cases, subjects them to deportation. Fear and reluctance to seek assistance among immigrants is likely to worsen during the COVID-19 epidemic.

Apr 6, 2020
Essay

Supportive Housing Can Help Keep People with Mental Illness Out of Jail

Hundreds of thousands of people with serious mental illnesses cycle in and out of American jails every year. In Los Angeles, some of them are getting diverted into a supportive housing program where they can get the treatment they need. And the results are promising.

Feb 27, 2020
Research Brief

Research Brief

Estimating the Costs and Benefits of LifeSet

RAND researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of the costs and benefits of LifeSet, Youth Village's program for transition-age youth, as implemented and evaluated in Tennessee.

Feb 10, 2020
Report

Report

Assessing the Costs and Benefits of LifeSet, the Youth Villages Program Model for Transition-Age Youth

The report presents a rigorous retrospective analysis of the costs and benefits of LifeSet, a program that provides case management and other services for young adults aging out of the foster care system, based on a prior impact evaluation.

Feb 10, 2020
Report

Report

Evaluation of the SB 1041 Reforms to California's CalWORKs Welfare-to-Work Program: Updated Findings Regarding Policy Implementation and Outcomes

This report offers further findings from the evaluation of the Senate Bill (SB) 1041 reforms to the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids program, with a focus on ongoing implementation of SB 1041 and updates on participant outcomes.

Jan 24, 2020
Blog

How Americans Get the News, Iran, Caregiving: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on how Americans consume the news, U.S.–Iranian relations, how federal disability payments help caregivers, and more.

Dec 13, 2019
News Release

Federal Disability Payments Encourage More Caregiving Assistance from Family Members

Federal disability benefits can lead to increases in other support for beneficiaries, such as in-kind assistance from adult children. They also increase the likelihood that children are paid for their in-kind assistance and enable children who provide that assistance to reduce the amount that they work.

Dec 10, 2019
Journal Article

National Trends in Food Insecurity and Congregation-Based Food Provision Between 1998 and 2012

The objective of this study is to investigate the extent to which congregation-based food provision fluctuated with national food insecurity prevalence for the overall population, and for subgroups vulnerable to this condition.

Oct 15, 2019
Research Brief

Research Brief

Options for funding the NHS and social care in the UK: How the UK general public would prefer extra funds to be raised

What is the publicly preferred way to raise additional funds needed to meet growing demand for health and social care. Options are taxation, insurance, or user charges. We analyse the preferences of the UK general public using a choice experiment.

Oct 7, 2019
Report

Report

Los Angeles County Office of Diversion and Reentry's Supportive Housing Program: A Study of Participants' Housing Stability and New Felony Convictions

Los Angeles County is home to the largest jail system in the world and an acute homelessness problem. This report presents generally favorable early interim findings about an initiative that provides housing coupled with case management.

Jul 25, 2019
Report

Results of the Co-Design of Services for Health and Reentry (CO-SHARE) Study

Individuals returning to the community from jail often face difficulties accessing services that improve reentry and reduce recidivism. RAND reviewed a pilot study in Los Angeles County, the Co-Design of Services for Health and Reentry (CO-SHARE), that encouraged returning individuals and service providers to collaborate on improving health and reentry services.

Jul 24, 2019

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RAND Topic:
Social Services and Welfare

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