License to Drive: Getting Welfare Recipients from the City to the Jobs

Monica Oui Frazer

Georgetown University Law Center; Class of 2000; B.A., University of Colorado, 1997

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 dramatically changed our nation's welfare system, establishing a lifetime limit on welfare benefits and requiring that individuals find work within months of receiving benefits. This makes finding employment critical to poor individuals. At the same time, job growth is moving from inner cities to suburban areas. Linking inner-city welfare recipients with these suburban jobs is key to the success of welfare reform. The primary problem with making this link is the transportation barrier, as few welfare recipients have access to cars. Although public transportation and reverse commuting strategies help them get to higher paying suburban jobs, mass transit routes offer limited hours and service, making suburban jobs and night shifts difficult. Reverse commuting strategies have had success, but are necessarily small-scale and do not address emergency or errand transportation. This Note advocates individual car ownership as a critical part of successful transportation strategies, allowing individuals to function in our highway-dominated society. Job and housing access would increase, travel time would decrease, and employers would appreciate the reliability of their workers' transportation. By giving welfare recipients assistance to obtain and maintain their own cars, our welfare system can truly shift from long-term dependency to long-term self-sufficiency.

Vol. VII, No. 1, p. 1

 

Revised July 16, 2003 (MD)