Income, Food, Housing

POSC 459 — Social Welfare Politics and Policy
Week 7 · Monday, October 5

Howard, Who Cares, chs. 5–7

Today

  1. Your households: A, B, and C
  2. Income: built for workers
  3. Food: built on need
  4. Housing: built on a waiting list
  5. The source and claims memo, due Friday

This week and next
Wed 10/7 Medicaid and the states. Grogan and Andrews; Howard (2007) ch. 8
Fri 10/9 Source and claims memo due 11:59 p.m.
Mon 10/12 Midterm review
Wed 10/14 Midterm, in class. Bring a blue book

Three households, two screeners

Household Income Rent
A Single parent, kids 4 and 9 $27,300 $1,800
B Married couple, child 6 $40,000 $2,200
C CSUF student, 21, no kids $10,296 $900

What did yours get?

What the screeners said

EITC (tax year 2025) CalFresh
A $6,315 May qualify. About $557 a month
B $2,801 May qualify. About $304 a month
C $0 May qualify. Up to $306 a month

Dollar estimates for CalFresh are mine. The screener only says "may qualify."

What the IRS told you

Households A and B: 17 of you ran the EITC Assistant.

Screener result Households
The right credit: $6,315 or $2,801 3
"Income is over the limit": $0 11
A small credit: $910 or $1,131 3

14 of 17 eligible households left with the wrong answer.

The question that decided it

Screener Deciding questions Never asked
IRS Children? Age 25 to 64? Earned income? Rent. Need
Robin Household size? Monthly income? Work. School

Howard's four questions

Who qualifies?

Who pays?

Who delivers?

Is it enough?

Howard 2023, drawing on Joan Tronto's phases of care

Income: start with a job

  • 8 million poor Americans worked in 2018
  • More than two-thirds of them part-time
  • Nearly one-third of the labor force: under $12 an hour
  • A typical payday loan: 382% a year

Howard 2023, ch. 5

The three programs aimed at the poor

Who Reach Benefit
TANF Very poor families with children 3 million people Under half the poverty line
EITC Low-wage workers, mostly parents 27.5 million tax filers About $3,200, family of four
SSI Aged, blind, disabled poor 9 million About $550 a month

Howard 2023, ch. 5. Figures for 2017–2019

TANF depends on your state

Income ceiling for a family of three, per month (2018):

Alabama Michigan Typical state Rhode Island
$268 $815 $840 $1,277

Poor families on cash welfare: 68% in 1996 → 22% in 2018

Howard 2023, ch. 5

The heavy lifting is social insurance

Lifted out of poverty
Social Security 18 million older Americans
TANF Fewer than 250,000 children

Child poverty 16.2% · elderly poverty 9.7% (official, 2018)

Howard 2023, ch. 5

Income: who pays?

Program type Paid by
Means-tested (TANF, EITC, SSI) Income taxes. Mostly the affluent
Social insurance Payroll taxes. Every worker

"The rich take care of the poor, whether they intend to or not."

Income, in one line

Cash follows work.

Not working, no children, no work history: very little

Food: need, not work

SNAP (2019): 36 million people a month · about $1.40 a meal

Who gets SNAP
Children 44%
Seniors 14%
Disabled adults 10%
Able-bodied adults, no dependents 7%

Howard 2023, ch. 6

Food: charity and business are in the net

  • Feeding America: 200 food banks, 60,000 pantries and kitchens
  • 40 million people, about 100 meals each a year
  • Walmart: $11 billion in SNAP sales (2018)
  • 250,000 retailers take SNAP

Howard 2023, ch. 6

Food: is it enough?

14.3 million households food insecure (2018): one in nine

  • Most of them are above the poverty line
  • 44% get nothing from SNAP, WIC, or school meals
  • Black households 21.2% · Hispanic 16.2% · White 8.1%

Howard 2023, ch. 6, table 6.1

Housing: the expensive one

Renter households under $15,000
Spend over half their income on housing 70%

For every 100 extremely low-income households:

38 affordable, available units · California: 23

Howard 2023, ch. 7

Housing: help is rationed

Program Size
Public housing 1 million units · $7 billion
Vouchers (Section 8) 2 million vouchers · $20–25 billion
Tax credit for developers (LIHTC) About 100,000 units a year · $10 billion

About 5 million households helped. Most who qualify get nothing.

Howard 2023, ch. 7

Housing: who gets the big subsidy?

Homeowner tax breaks
Mortgage interest and property tax deductions $100 billion a year before 2017
Share to filers under $40,000 (2019) Under 1%

Net worth at 65+, lowest income quartile:

Owner $105,000 · Renter $1,000

Howard 2023, ch. 7

Housing: is it enough?

  • 567,715 homeless on one night (2019)
  • More than a quarter of them in California
  • Black Americans: 13% of the population, 40% of the homeless
  • 79 million adults in shared households

Howard 2023, ch. 7, table 7.1

Three parts of one net

Income Food Housing
Who qualifies Workers Anyone in need In need, if there's money
Who pays Workers; the affluent The affluent The affluent
Who delivers Agencies, the IRS Grocers, charities, schools Landlords, developers
Enough? 38 million poor 14.3 million households insecure 70% of the poorest renters pay over half

Howard 2023, chs. 5–7

Due Friday: source and claims memo

One page, two columns

Column A Column B
What I can support What I am still assuming
Claim + the source you read Claim you believe but have not checked
  • At least six claims in all
  • One or two sentences: what you still need to find
  • 5% · Canvas · Fri 10/9, 11:59 p.m.

The memo: talk it through first

Attach proof of one conversation. Any of these counts:

  1. Policy Brief Scaffold in PapyrusAI: download the transcript
  2. Writing Center: the confirmation email
  3. Me: office hours, or email your draft columns

AI: Yellow. A source an AI found goes in Column B until you read it.

Try one now

Column A: one claim about your program from today, with Howard as the source

Column B: one thing you believe about your program and have not checked

3 minutes, with a neighbor

By 2:15 you should be able to say

Cash follows work. Food follows need. Housing follows the budget.

Wednesday: Medicaid, and what happens when the states decide