The Implications of Current Welfare Reform Proposals for the Housing Assistance System

This Essay assesses proposals to reform welfare from the perspective of effects on housing assistance. The focus is on the two welfare reform proposals that have received the most attention during late 1994 and early 1995: the Clinton Administration\u27s Work and Responsibility Act (WRA and the Republican Party\u27s Personal Responsibility Act (PRA). This analysis is limited to the provisions in each bill regarding time limits, eligibility restrictions, and work requirements for AFDC recipients, and estimates how the housing assistance system would be affected if these provisions were in effect today. This analysis focuses on two types of impacts: effects on the composition of housing assistance recipients, and budgetary effects on government subsidies for housing