Coordinating Transportation Services for Low-Income
Workers
Background
Many families making the transition from welfare to
work face transportation challenges. These
families, many of which do not own personal vehicles, often cannot find
suitable transportation to and from home, work, child care, and other
destinations. Public
transportation may not be adequate in some areas, and an increasing number of
new jobs are located in suburban areas that are inaccessible to many urban
workers.
States can use several funding sources to improve
transportation services for needy families, including Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families (TANF), Welfare-to-Work grants, and Job Access and Reverse
Commute grants. For more
information on financing strategies, see the Welfare Information Network (WIN)
publication “Transportation: The Essential Need to Address the ‘To’ in
Welfare to Work,” available at http://www.welfareinfo.org/transitneed.htm.
Or, see the Community Transportation Association of America publication
“Building Mobility Partnerships: Opportunities for Federal Funding,”
available at http://www.ctaa.org/ntrc/ctap/pubs/funding/home.shtml.
Although funding for transit
programs is critical, the strategies used to address transportation challenges
are equally important. For
example, transit agencies can increase the supply of transportation; welfare
agencies can develop solutions with explicit ties to employment;
multiple agencies can coordinate to provide or enhance transportation
services. In some ways, service
coordination is the most difficult strategy because it requires cooperation
among agencies that traditionally do not work together.
Yet service coordination may be the most cost-effective strategy.
This Resources
for Welfare Decisions presents resource contacts, publications, and
innovative practices related to service coordination as a means to address
transportation barriers among low-income workers. For more information on coordinating transportation services,
see the WIN web pages at http://www.welfareinfo.org/transport.htm
and http://www.welfareinfo.org/coordination.htm.
Resource
Contacts
American Public Transit Association, 202/898-4000; or
visit http://www.apta.com/aptainfo/profile.htm.
Case Western Reserve University, Center on Urban
Poverty and Social Change, http://povertycenter.cwru.edu/cupsc.htm.
Several transportation studies in Cuyahoga County are available on this
web site.
Center for Community Change, 202/342-0567; or visit http://www.communitychange.org
Community Transportation Association of America,
Technical Assistance, contact Charlie Dickson, 202/661-0208.
National Association of Counties, contact Gary
Gortenberg, 202/942-4287; or visit http://www.naco.org
National Transit Resource Center at the Community
Transportation Association of America, contact Janet McGlynn, 202/628-1480 or
800/527-8279; or visit http://www.ctaa.org/ntrc
This association provides publications, peer support, and advice
and assistance for transportation providers, planners, and passengers.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, contact
Dianne McSwain, Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, 202/401-5926
U.S. Department of Transportation, Job Access and
Reverse Commute Initiative, contact Doug Birnie, 202/366-1666; or visit http://www.fta.dot.gov/wtw
Volpe Center, 617/494-2000, http://www.volpe.dot.gov
This innovative, federal fee-for-service organization within the U.S.
Department of Transportation is an internationally recognized center of
transportation and logistics expertise.
Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network,
703/385-3200; or visit http://www.calib.com/peerta
The network provides guidance and instruction to states on promising practices
for moving welfare and low-income families toward self-sufficiency.
Welfare-to-Work Partnership, 202/955-3005; or visit http://www.welfaretowork.org
This national, nonpartisan, nonprofit effort of the business community
seeks to help move people off of public assistance and in to jobs in the
private sector.
Publications and
Electronic Resources
American Public Transit Association, Access to Jobs
Task Force. 1999 Access-to-Work Best Practices Survey Summary Report, Part 1.
Washington, D.C.: American Public Transit Association, October 1999.
Available at http://www.apta.com/govt/other/99wtwnet.htm
Coordinating Council on Access and Mobility.
Planning Guidelines for Coordinated State and Local Specialized
Transportation Services (Draft). Washington,
D.C.: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of
Transportation, July 26, 2000. Available
at http://www.ccamweb.org/planning_guidelines.html
Gum, Erica. The
Road to Work: Welfare to Work Transportation Solutions.
Washington, D.C.: Welfare to Work Partnership, 1999.
To order, contact the Welfare to Work Partnership at
publications@welfaretowork.org
Reichert, Dana.
Meeting the Challenge of Welfare
Reform: Programs with Promise. Washington,
D.C.: National Conference of State Legislatures, 1998.
Denver, Colo. Available at
http://www.ncsl.org/statefed/welfare/transch.htm
Sweeney,
Eileen, Liz Schott, Ed Lazere, Shawn Fremstad, Heidi Goldberg, Jocelyn Guyer,
David Super, and Clifford Johnson. Windows
of Opportunity: Strategies to Support Families Receiving Welfare and Other
Low-Income Families in the Next Stage of Welfare Reform.
Washington, D.C.: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, March 30,
2000. Available at http://www.cbpp.org/1-12-00wel.htm
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Updated Joint Guidance Regarding the Ways in which TANF,
Welfare-to-Work, and Job Access Funds Can Be Used to Help States and
Communities Provide Transportation Services to Eligible Individuals.
Washington, D.C., May 26, 2000. Available
at http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/ofa/pa002.htm
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Residents on the Move: Transportation and Neighborhood Networks Centers.
Washington, D.C., 2000. Available
at http://www.hud.gov/nnw/nnwfs004.html
U.S. General Accounting
Office. Welfare Reform: Implementing DOT’s Access to Jobs Program in its First
Year. Washington, D.C.,
November 1999. Available at http://www.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=gao&docid=f:rc00014.txt.pdf
What States and Localities Are Doing
Delaware:
The Delaware Division of Social Services and the Delaware Departments of
Transportation, Labor, and Economic Development collaborate to develop and
implement transportation services. These
services include Career Directions™ (see http://www.oolmi.net/Career_Directions.asp),
an interactive mapping site that provides information about Delaware’s
employers, licensed child care facilities, public transportation, adult
training sites, and public and private schools. They also include off-hour transportation services;
transitional transportation services in areas not served by public transit;
van pools operated by Delaware Housing Authority sites in rural areas; Cars
for Careers, a vehicle ownership program in rural areas; a Night Owl service;
and reverse commuting routes to suburban industrial sites.
Delaware funds these services with TANF block grant funds, Job Access
funds, and state funds. For more
information, contact Joyce Pinkett, Delaware Division of Social Services,
302/577-4880, ext. 117, or jpinkett@state.de.us
Kentucky: The Human Service Transportation Delivery Network
is a collaborative effort between the state and 15 regional transportation
brokers that involves workforce development boards, employers, and private
transportation providers. The
initiative combines the resources of government agencies and public-and
private-sector providers and provides accessible, cost-effective
transportation in all areas of the state for TANF and Medicaid recipients.
Its results include simplified trip scheduling, safer, more reliable
vehicles, and drivers trained in passenger assistance for the state’s 16
local service regions. For more information, contact Todd Short, 502/564-7536 or
todd.short@mail.state.ky.us
Nebraska:
One community of 35,000 residents has been successful in developing a
community-based pubic transportation system administered by the local
community action agency. Called
R.Y.D.E. (Reach Your Destination Easily), the program provides affordable
public transportation to enable riders to get to medical appointments, jobs,
stores, and schools, to seek employment, and to engage in recreational
activities. R.Y.D.E. operates
door to door utilizing a central dispatch location.
It is the first brokered transportation system in Nebraska, with the
local community action agency assuming the lead coordination role. For more information, contact Dennis Ellis, program
specialist, 402/471-6792 or dennis.ellis@hhss.state.ne.us
New Jersey:
The New Jersey Departments of Transportation and Human Services are
collaborating with New Jersey Transit on the WorkPass program.
The program aims to make accessible and reliable transportation
available to individuals making the transition from welfare to work.
Work First New Jersey agencies and other social service organizations
save money by purchasing transit passes for considerably less than the current
per diem transportation allowance received by participants.
New Jersey also has a Get a Job, Get a Ride program for participants
leaving public assistance for employment.
This program facilitates that transition by providing free transit
passes for the first month of employment to entry-level employees.
For more information, contact Carole Duffy, NJ Transit, 973/491-7112 or
cmnccad@newjerseytransit.com
North
Carolina:
North Carolina has several initiatives to respond to the transportation
needs of Work First recipients and other low-income families.
- The North Carolina Departments of Transportation and Health and
Human Services are piloting a rural vanpool program in six economically
distressed counties. Each
pilot county has formed a local Job Access Stakeholders Committee that
includes elected officials and representatives from human services
agencies, transit systems, businesses, workforce development agencies,
economic development agencies, the Employment Security Commission, and
community colleges.
- Since April 1998, the North Carolina Department of Transportation
has been allocating a total of $1 million to the state’s 100 counties.
These funds are used to support the employment transportation needs
of former Work First recipients who are working and are no longer eligible
to receive cash assistance and other low-income individuals in the
community with employment-related transportation needs.
For more information, contact Kathy McGehee, human
services transportation coordinator, 919/733-3055 or Kathy.McGehee@ncmail.net
WIN Staff
Contact:
Michelle Ganow, 202/628-5790 or mganow@financeproject.org
The Welfare Information Network is supported by grants from the Annie E.
Casey Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the David and Lucile
Packard Foundation, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Administration for
Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the
U.S. Department of Labor.
Reauthorization
As
the reauthorization of TANF approaches, WIN is developing a series of
reauthorization web pages. We
welcome your suggestions regarding pressing reauthorization issues (i.e.
sanctions, timelimits, child only cases) that WIN should focus new web pages
on. The pages will describe
emerging issues and links to policy analyzes, statistical data, and other
information that will help policy makers and advocates in developing and
evaluation alternative policy proposals.
Send suggestion to Michelle Ganow at mganow@financeproject.org
Resources