Scaling Up a Place-Based 

Employment Program: 

Highlights From the Jobs Plus 

Pilot Program Evaluation

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development | Office of Policy Development and Research 
Scaling Up a Place-Based 

Employment Program: 

Highlights From the Jobs Plus 

Pilot Program Evaluation 

Prepared for

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Office of Policy Development and Research

Prepared by

Betsy L. Tessler

Nandita Verma 

Jonathan Bigelow

Victoria Quiroz-Becerra

MDRC

Kirstin P. Frescoln 

William M. Rohe 

Michael D. Webb

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Amy T. Khare

Mark L. Joseph 

Emily K. Miller

Case Western Reserve University
ii

Acknowledgments

The evaluation team is indebted to many people who made this report possible. In particular, we 

are grateful for the coordination, support, and contributions of the Jobs Plus program staff, housing 

authority officials, and other partner staff who are working to make Jobs Plus a reality in the nine 

Jobs Plus pilot locations. We are grateful to the staff members who coordinated site visits and 

made time to share their experiences and impressions with the evaluation team. These staffers 

include, but are not limited to, Lori D’Alleva and Rachel Goodman from the Boston Housing 

Authority; Chris Campbell, Tomico Evans, and A. Fulton Meachem from the Charlotte Housing 

Authority; Lorne C. Green, Judith Hill, and Mary Howard from the Chicago Housing Authority, 

and Carrie Pullie from Metropolitan Family Services in Chicago; LaShawna Adams-Mitchell, 

Jeffery K. Patterson, Renee Hill Robinson, and William A. Willis from the Cuyahoga Metropolitan 

Housing Authority; Gilda Jackson and Cheryl Rivers from the Houston Housing Authority; Marcia 

Lewis and Luretha Phillips from the Memphis Housing Authority, and Dennis Head from Urban 

Strategies Memphis HOPE; Glenda Edwards Goh, Crystal Hall, and Yvonne Thomas from the 

City of Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority; Cheryl Lovell and Christopher White 

from the St. Louis Housing Authority, and Montina Hollins from the St. Louis Agency on Training 

and Employment, or SLATE; and Michelle Haab from the Syracuse Housing Authority, and 

Michael Pasquale from the Center for Community Alternatives in Syracuse.

The evaluation team benefited from the expert guidance and support provided by staff in the 

Office of Policy Development and Research at HUD, especially Nathan Bossie and Anne 

Fletcher. Ronald Ashford and Jayme Brown of HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing were 

helpful by sharing insights into HUD’s work to scale up Jobs Plus and reviewing this report, and 

HUD’s program officers—Jerryl Bennett, Anice Chenault, Len Clay, Sandy Norcom, and 

Kymian Ray—provided support and guidance. The authors are grateful to Jeffrey Lubell and 

colleagues at Abt Associates Inc. for helpful feedback on the report and guidance on the 

performance management data available for this project. 

At MDRC, David Greenberg directed the early stage of the evaluation, guided the design of the 

evaluation activities, and participated in field research and analysis. Aurelia Aceves and Makenzi 

Sumners, with assistance from Emma Saltzberg, contributed to the design of the fieldwork, 

conducted site visits, and analyzed the sites’ early implementation experiences that are captured 

in this report. James Riccio and Alexandra Pennington provided helpful input into early drafts. 

Makenzi Sumners led the preparation of report exhibits and provided general research support. 

Ali Tufel edited the report and provided valuable input on early drafts.

At the National Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities, Taryn Gress provided general 

research support. At the Center for Urban and Regional Studies, Chris Bendix, Austin 

Chowdhury, and Sydney Corn assisted with qualitative data analysis, and Andy Berner provided 

proofreading assistance. 

Finally, we extend our deep appreciation to the residents who participated in the study and gave 

generously of their time to share their program experiences with us.

Disclaimer

The contents of this report represent the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views 

or policies of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development or the U.S. government.
iii

Contents 

Executive Summary .........................................................................................................................v 

Introduction ......................................................................................................................................1 

Jobs Plus and Its Evolution ........................................................................................................2 

About the Evaluation .................................................................................................................8 

Report Structure .......................................................................................................................10 

Staffing, Technical Assistance, and Partnerships ..........................................................................11 

Staffing the Program ................................................................................................................11 

Development of Program Services ..........................................................................................12 

Internal Coordination and Program Infrastructure ...................................................................13 

Technical Assistance Structure ................................................................................................14 

Collaboration and Partnerships ................................................................................................15 

Considerations for Staffing, Technical Assistance, and Building and Maintaining 

Partnerships ........................................................................................................................19 

Delivery of the Jobs Plus Employment Component ......................................................................21 

Goals of the Jobs Plus Employment Services ..........................................................................22 

Conceptualizing Employment Services ...................................................................................23 

Employment Services Provided ...............................................................................................24

Early Program Participation and Employment Outcomes .......................................................25 

Employment-Related Challenges and Support Services ..........................................................25 

Career-Focused Employment Services and Advancement ......................................................27 

Considerations for Future Work on Employment Services .....................................................28 

Implementation of the Jobs Plus Earned Income Disregard ..........................................................30 

Design and Goals of the Jobs Plus Earned Income Disregard .................................................30 

Findings From Early Implementation ......................................................................................31 

Considerations for Future Implementation of the Jobs Plus Earned Income Disregard ..........35 

Implementing Community Support for Work................................................................................37 

Defining Community Support for Work ..................................................................................37 

Key Findings From Early Implementation of Community Support for Work ........................39 

Considerations for Ongoing Community Support for Work ...................................................48 

Looking Forward ...........................................................................................................................49 

Appendix A ....................................................................................................................................50 

References ......................................................................................................................................51 
iv

List of Exhibits

Tables 

1 Selected Characteristics of Sites in the HUD Jobs Plus Pilot Program Evaluation .............8 

2 Support Services Available at Jobs Plus Pilot Evaluation Sites ........................................27 

3 Financial Empowerment Activities at Jobs Plus Evaluation Sites .....................................35 

4 Typology of Roles Demonstrated by Coaches at Jobs Plus Pilot Evaluation Sites ...........40 

5 Characteristics of Community Coaches at Jobs Plus Pilot Evaluation Sites .....................41 

A.1 Public Housing Authorities Selected To Operate Jobs Plus, by Funding Year .................50 

Figures 

1 The Evolution of Jobs Plus ..................................................................................................5 

2 Public Housing Authorities and Developments in the Jobs Plus Pilot Evaluation ..............7 

3 Share of Residents Able To Work Enrolled in JPEID, From Program Inception 

Through September 2016 ...................................................................................................32 

Box

1 Key Dates for This Early Startup Report on Jobs Plus ........................................................9 
v

Executive Summary

Public housing developments are among the most economically challenged communities in the 

United States. In fact, many public housing residents face substantial personal and other 

challenges, all of which could be barriers to employment and advancement. Jobs Plus aims to 

help address this problem by providing employment services, offering earned income 

disregards―so that earnings increases are not counted when determining rent―and building 

community support for work.

1

The original Jobs Plus demonstration,

2 which was the subject of a rigorous evaluation, found 

that program operators faced many daunting implementation challenges. The Jobs-Plus 

developments that fully implemented the model (three of the six demonstration sites) saw the 

program boost annual earnings.3 Having achieved these positive results, Jobs Plus was 

replicated through the Social Innovation Fund (SIF) of the Corporation for National and 

Community Service in 2011 in the Bronx, New York, and in San Antonio, Texas.4 The City of 

New York expanded Jobs Plus to seven additional locations in 2013. In 2015, the U.S. 

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded $24 million to nine public 

housing authorities (PHAs) to operate the model as part of its Jobs Plus Pilot program, with 

funding ranging from $1.9 million to $3 million to each of the sites, along with their leveraging 

additional resources through cost sharing or matching. To date, HUD has awarded 

approximately $62 million to 24 PHAs to implement Jobs Plus.

The first nine public housing authorities to be awarded 4-year grants—from April 2015 to March 

2019—are the subject of an implementation study. The grantees include housing developments 

operated by PHAs in Boston, Massachusetts; Charlotte, North Carolina; Chicago, Illinois; 

Cuyahoga County, Ohio; Houston, Texas; Memphis, Tennessee; Roanoke, Virginia; St. Louis, 

Missouri; and Syracuse, New York. These sites were selected because their proposals 

demonstrated strong partnerships, ties to community organizations, and experience running adult 

education, workforce, and economic self-sufficiency programs to meet the needs of public 

housing residents.5 The developments in these nine sites represent a wide diversity in terms of 

size, geographic location, and the degree of employment in these communities. They range in 

size from 240 to more than 1,500 residents who are working age and able to work, and their

employment rates range from 21 to 49 percent.

To begin documenting HUD’s expansion, or scale-up, of Jobs Plus, this first report looks at the 

early startup phase from April 2015 to October 2016 for the first cohort of nine sites, when their 

programs were in operation for roughly 1 year. Past iterations of Jobs Plus have shown that 

 

1 The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Rockefeller Foundation, and MDRC conceived the 

original Jobs Plus demonstration in the mid-1990s. See Bloom, Riccio, and Verma (2005) for a detailed description of the 

original Jobs Plus model and its results based on a random assignment evaluation. Longer-term results are available in 

Riccio (2010). For a complete list of MDRC publications on Jobs Plus, see www.mdrc.org/project/jobs-plus-communityrevitalization-initiative-public-housing-families#related-content. 2 The original model was named Jobs-Plus (with a hyphen), but the current program being replicated by HUD is referred 

to as Jobs Plus (without the hyphen). This report uses the current treatment, Jobs Plus, for all iterations of the program. 3 Riccio (2010).

4 The Social Innovation Fund targets public-private funds to expand effective solutions across three issue areas: economic 

opportunity, healthy futures, and youth development and school support.

5 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (2014).
vi

programs often needed 1 to 2 years to reach operating scale. In the original demonstration, the 

model development and implementation process took about 2 years, and its replication during the 

SIF intervention underwent a startup period of about 9 months, with improvement often noted 

over time. 

Sites in the current Jobs Plus Pilot were given 6 months to start up operations and begin serving 

residents. The report examines their experiences launching Jobs Plus and the progress they made 

getting staff in place, building partnerships, delivering services, and structuring the program on 

the ground during this initial roll-out period. These early insights and observations may help 

inform the sites, HUD, and other stakeholders on practices that may be worth emulating and 

obstacles that may be encountered, as HUD continues to build and strengthen the intervention. 

Program Model

Jobs Plus is a place-based program that is rooted and operationalized in a specific locale, to serve 

the needs of that particular population. The program is designed to help people living in public 

housing increase their levels of employment and earnings. 

At its core, Jobs Plus is structured around three mutually reinforcing parts, all of which focus on 

improving residents’ employment, earnings, and well-being: 

1. Employment-Related Services and Activities. This component can include help with job 

searches, coaching to help residents adjust to the world of work, referrals to educational and 

training courses, subsidized supported work positions to help especially hard-to-employ 

residents make the transition to the world of work, and a range of support services (such as 

childcare) that make it easier for residents to work. Additionally, as a place-based initiative 

aiming to serve everyone in the housing development, the employment services are also 

intended to help people, who are already employed or who eventually become employed, 

stay in their jobs, advance to better jobs, and become reemployed if they lose their jobs. The 

program provides some services onsite, at a job center in the housing development, while 

others are available in the broader community. In contrast to the original demonstration, 

HUD’s current Jobs Plus Pilot program places more emphasis on employment services and 

training that lead to advancement and career opportunities over time. 

2. Rent-Based Financial Incentives To Help “Make Work Pay.” To counter the extent to 

which higher earnings from work result in increases in rent, which could discourage work, 

the Jobs Plus rent-based incentive allows for families to see a higher net financial return from 

work. HUD’s Jobs Plus Pilot program includes the Jobs Plus Earned Income Disregard 

(JPEID), which offers a 100-percent disregard of incremental earned income for the entire 

period of the program and is available to all residents of the Jobs Plus development. 

3. Community Support for Work. Inspired by a growing recognition of the importance of 

social networks and social capital, this component seeks to strengthen social ties and 

activities among residents to support job preparation and work efforts. Examples of mutual 

support could include everything from sharing information about available jobs to carpooling 

to work to watching after each other’s children during different job shifts. Another function 

of the community support for work component is to propagate the message that “work pays” 

and that “employment goals are attainable,” thereby creating an environment where the 

theme of work is more pervasive than it had been previously.
vii

As a self-sufficiency initiative, a distinctive facet of Jobs Plus is its attempt to operate this 

multicomponent model at saturation levels within the target public housing developments—that 

is, not just target a small share of residents but, rather, everyone who lives in the development 

and is of working age and able to work. By bringing together the three mutually reinforcing 

components of the model, Jobs Plus seeks to boost employment levels in public housing 

communities that have high rates of joblessness, support those who are already working, and 

help those who become employed to stay employed. 

Moreover, unlike other employment programs, the Jobs Plus employment services are uniquely 

situated to reap the benefits of being part of a place-based initiative, which could potentially 

include opportunities for staff to know the context in which participants live, to know their 

families, and to have informal interactions at the housing developments. Additionally, by being a 

place-based initiative, Jobs Plus offers the potential to provide continued support after residents 

find work. Whereas many traditional employment programs only provide assistance through job 

placement or perhaps provide retention services for up to 90 days after employment, Jobs Plus 

participants are eligible for program support as long as they live in the development (until the 

end of the Jobs Plus grant). 

HUD’s current Jobs Plus Pilot program has made slight changes to the original model in an effort 

to incorporate lessons learned and adapt to new contexts and circumstances. One feature of the 

original demonstration that was not replicated in the current version was the “mandatory collaborative,” a feature of the model promoting governance, accountability, and support and that was

intended to craft, fund, and operate this comprehensive initiative. Mandatory collaboratives in 

the original Jobs Plus sites included local public housing authorities, resident representatives, 

local human services agencies, and local workforce development agencies, which worked 

together and were accountable to one another. In the HUD replication, sites are encouraged to 

build local partnerships and develop governance structures to manage the collaboration with 

partners. 

Evaluation

In 2015, HUD selected MDRC to lead the implementation evaluation of the scale-up effort. 

Jointly with the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of North Carolina at 

Chapel Hill and the National Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities at Case Western Reserve 

University, the evaluation team is documenting the efforts of the first cohort of Jobs Plus 

grantees, including how they have begun to operationalize and implement Jobs Plus in their 

particular settings, the partnerships they have established, how their programs have matured over 

time, and the extent to which they have achieved saturation; that is, the extent to which all 

eligible residents living in the developments are exposed to and receive employment services, 

rent incentives, and community support for work (CSW). The evaluation will also examine 

participation outcomes and the cost of implementing Jobs Plus. The diverse characteristics of the 

sites offer a good opportunity to further understand the program’s operation in different 

environments. The evaluation will end in 2018.

The findings and observations in this first report are meant to characterize the early 

implementation experiences of the programs. The report draws on site visits and interviews that 

the research team conducted between August and October 2016, roughly 16 to 18 months after 

the grantees were selected to operate Jobs Plus. Programs had been in operation for roughly one 
viii

year—some a bit more, some less—at the time of the site visits. Quantitative data included in 

this report were reported to HUD by the sites from April 2015 through September 2016.

Key Findings

Within the first 18 months of followup, all nine sites had begun structuring their programs, 

building partnerships, and implementing the core components of the Jobs Plus model. While they 

continued to make refinements, the early implementation experiences of the nine Jobs Plus 

grantees suggest the following key findings.

Developing Partnerships

• All sites had begun to develop partnerships to implement Jobs Plus; however, they varied in 

terms of the types of partners involved, their roles in delivering Jobs Plus services, the value 

that they brought to the program, the formality of the partnerships, and the level of ongoing 

engagement of the partner organizations. 

Partnerships are critical to running a successful Jobs Plus program, since each partner brings its 

own area of expertise to the program, and the program requires an array of partners to work with 

residents who may have multiple needs and barriers to employment. In addition to tapping into 

existing relationships, sites sought new organizations as partners to deliver services to residents. 

Some structured formal agreements with their partners and others kept the arrangements 

informal. Given the program’s focus on employment, most sites had developed partnerships with 

their local Workforce Investment Boards and education, training, and support services 

organizations but had not yet put in place direct relationships with employers and businessrelated organizations; this connection with the business community is even more important for 

the Jobs Plus programs that had yet to employ job developers, which would have been another 

way to connect with employers.

Delivery of Employment Services

● Employment services were more generic and not especially tailored to meet the specific 

needs and skills of individual participants. In addition, although staff are interested in 

preparing participants for career-path jobs, they have found this goal difficult to achieve.

All sites provide general pre-employment services such as job-readiness assessments, résumé 

writing assistance, and interview preparation. Job search assistance is offered in a variety of 

ways that can be found in most employment programs. In some sites, case managers post job 

lists in the main office so that residents can scan the list. When asked, case managers provide 

assistance with job searches, but for the most part participants conduct their own job searches. 

In this early period, a few sites had developed strong relationships with their workforce 

development agencies, but most sites had yet to begin working with job developers—either 

hired by the program or through partnerships—or otherwise engage employers to help identify 

career-path jobs or in-demand industries; rather, job searches tend to be for any jobs that are 

available, regardless of pay or career opportunity provided. Site-reported data covering July 

2015 through September 2016, the early implementation period, indicate moderate levels of 

participation in employment services and relatively low levels of reported employment gains. 
ix

JPEID Implementation

• The JPEID has served to generate resident interest in Jobs Plus and getting residents 

connected to program services. However, many sites found it challenging to implement this 

component.

By disregarding any additional earned income from the rent calculation, the JPEID provides a 

generous financial incentive to “make work pay.” Staff responded positively to the JPEID and 

its potential to help recruit program participants, to motivate them to increase their earned 

incomes, and to help them make progress toward self-sufficiency. Staff, however, struggled 

with various aspects of implementing the JPEID component of Jobs Plus. They expressed 

confusion over how residents enroll to receive JPEID and which income sources are subject to 

the JPEID exemptions. Additionally, several sites struggled to develop data systems to track and 

report JPEID outcomes and to get the “buy-in” of property managers, who were critical to its 

implementation. In early 2017, HUD released extensive guidance to address many of these 

concerns. In addition, to address sites’ enrollment concerns, HUD sanctioned automatic enrollment for all residents at the site, dropping the requirement to enroll in JPEID and Jobs Plus 

separately. The ongoing implementation research will look at the extent to which the sites 

embrace this option. 

Community Support for Work

• Grantees launched various types of discrete CSW activities, but most expressed a need for 

more clarity about what counts as CSW. 

Community support for work intends to create “sustained support for work during and beyond 

the period of the Jobs Plus program” (HUD, 2014)—in other words, creating an environment 

where there is mutual support among residents to help each other become employed and stay 

employed. Despite the language that clearly describes the goals of CSW in HUD’s Notice of 

Funding Availability, expectations for exactly how to implement this component have been less 

clear. This elusiveness has contributed to a challenging dynamic in which most sites are 

grappling with how to define CSW activities. HUD, Jobs Plus PHAs, and other stakeholders are 

working to more clearly define the efforts to implement CSW and come to a clear agreement on 

how to operationalize and effectively measure outcomes. In early 2017, HUD released new 

guidance on what counts as a CSW activity.

• As intended, some sites are beginning to take a “universal” approach to implementing CSW, 

one that requires the commitment and engagement of all staff, residents, and partners (and 

not the sole responsibility of particular Jobs Plus staff members). 

One facet of CSW is its central role in contributing to the Jobs Plus goal of saturation by infusing 

the entire public housing development with messages about the importance of work, the 

availability of employment, and the opportunity for support in obtaining it. Many sites had been 

relying on community coaches—residents of the developments hired to promote Jobs Plus and a 

“culture of work” and to facilitate mutual support—to carry this out. Over time, some sites began 

to operationalize CSW as an effort to establish a more holistic approach to surrounding residents 

with formal and informal supports. Conceived in this way, CSW becomes more universal, in that 

it is built into everything that everyone does and touches all aspects of the community, rather 

than being the responsibility of only certain members of the Jobs Plus staff. A recent HUD CSW 
x

policy overview document for grantees also reflects this same orientation: “CSW is something 

that engages the entire public housing community” (HUD, 2016).

In addition, sites reported logistical challenges as they relate to operationalizing this component. 

Issues of trust and personal barriers also have surfaced that keep participants from engaging in 

activities related to Jobs Plus. For example, the perception of the community coaches as 

employees of the PHA (or a contracted organization) sometimes presented difficulties when it 

came to their ability to build trust or relationships with other residents.

Technical Assistance

• Overall, site program staff voiced the need for more frequent and concrete guidance and 

clearer program standards to guide their implementation of Jobs Plus.

In addition to funding the program, HUD provides technical assistance and support to sites, holds

sites accountable for good performance, and ensures that sites are compliant with the grant 

requirements. HUD also provides feedback so sites can make corrections and continuous 

improvements to their program delivery. HUD staff provide some of this assistance directly, 

along with modest support from a technical assistance subcontractor. HUD liaisons make inperson visits and coordinate remotely with sites to support planning activities, to troubleshoot 

contractual or operational issues, and to offer general advice. The liaisons also hold standing 

monthly check-in meetings with sites by telephone, and HUD uses conferences and periodic 

webinars to provide guidance to the sites. While most sites reflected positively on their 

relationships with HUD liaisons and program management staff and appreciated the creativity 

and flexibility afforded by HUD during the startup phase, they also noted significant gaps in 

HUD guidance during the early startup phase. 

HUD provided guidance in January 2016 encouraging, but not requiring, sites to dedicate 4 to 5 

percent of their budgets to procure the services of technical assistance providers to help them 

effectively implement the Jobs Plus program. The final report will describe the way in which, if 

at all, sites sought out technical assistance and engaged providers.

Recommendations 

The findings discussed in this executive summary suggest the following recommendations for 

program managers, practitioners, and HUD to consider: 

• Sites might benefit from deeper, earlier, and more frequent technical assistance that is 

focused squarely on helping to strengthen implementation quality. 

Some sites struggled to operationalize the more technical aspects of the model—for example, the 

JPEID—and to conceptualize CSW. Given some of the complexities, early stages of 

implementation of these Jobs Plus components might have benefited from timelier, more 

frequent, and more direct technical assistance guidance and support.

• To meet HUD’s goal that Jobs Plus be demand-driven—that is, informed and shaped by 

employers’ needs for individuals with certain skills to fill available jobs—sites ultimately 

need input from employers and business-oriented organizations that can help them 

understand which industries and occupations are in local demand. Although some sites 

receive this kind of input and information, many do not, and room exists for improvement at 

all sites.
xi

This information could then help guide residents toward a focus on occupations for which they 

are more likely to be hired, hopefully at a better wage than what one site called “survival jobs” 

—entry-level jobs without much promise of advancement. To achieve this objective, sites would 

be best served by hiring job developers who have or can develop the necessary relationships with 

employers or by deepening their relationships with the local Workforce Investment Boards and 

workforce agencies, which can serve as intermediaries with employers, as well as a link to 

training, or both.

• Sites should strive to minimize residents’ confusion about enrolling in the JPEID. This effort 

requires that sites ensure that they are ready to implement JPEID and that property managers 

both understand and endorse it. They might also identify messaging about work incentives 

that appeal to those who are working and those who are not. 

HUD’s provision for automatic enrollment, which was not yet in place at the time of the field 

research visits, offers one way to simplify the JPEID enrollment process. Jobs Plus staff should 

also ensure that JPEID messaging is both consistent and accurate. One way to do this is to 

designate certain individuals—perhaps the community coaches—as lead messengers for JPEID 

and provide them with additional training on the disregard. Staff reported that some residents, 

who were working before the launch of Jobs Plus, feel the JPEID is unfair to them, as their 

baseline rents were set higher than rents for those who began working after enrolling in Jobs 

Plus. Staff should clarify that those who are already working can still benefit if they increase 

their earnings through working more hours or increasing their wage rates, which may also be an 

incentive to get training to help them do so.

• HUD, Jobs Plus sites, and other stakeholders could enhance implementation by working 

collaboratively to define CSW efforts and coming to clear agreement on how to 

operationalize and measure outcomes effectively. 

In line with the current direction that HUD offers, staff, residents, and partners should consider 

CSW through a universal lens, engaging a wider range of people to contribute to CSW efforts. 

Stronger resident engagement in the planning and execution of CSW efforts may be necessary 

to achieve sustained support for work within public housing communities beyond the grant 

period. Finally, creating bridges between residents and new social networks and career 

opportunities needs to be more concretely operationalized through strategic innovations. For 

example, in addition to bringing resources from the broader community into public housing 

developments, more opportunities should be sought for residents to engage in activities outside

of the developments—for example, to attend offsite job fairs, workshops, and classes—where 

they can hopefully meet and network with people connected to employment.

The focus of this initial report is on elevating overall early startup experiences in the HUD Jobs 

Plus Pilot program evaluation, rather than exploring individual site-level experiences in depth. 

The second and final report for the evaluation, scheduled for mid-2018, which will look at the 

nine programs through late 2017, will describe longer-term implementation and how the 

programs mature over time, the extent to which they saturate the communities, and whether or 

not they take full advantage of the opportunities afforded them by being place based. The final 

report will also examine the costs of the initiative and draw lessons for future scale-up of the 

program. 
1

Introduction

Public housing developments are among the most economically challenged communities in the 

United States. In fact, many public housing residents face substantial personal and other 

challenges, which could be barriers to employment and advancement. To help address this 

problem, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Rockefeller 

Foundation, and MDRC conceived Jobs Plus in the mid-1990s.6 The model encourages 

economic mobility by providing employment services, offering rent-based work incentives—so 

that earnings increases are not counted when determining rent—and building community support 

for work (CSW).

First put into practice in six cities from 1998 to 2003, Jobs Plus was replicated through the Social 

Innovation Fund (SIF) of the Corporation for National and Community Service in 2011 in the 

Bronx, New York, and in San Antonio, Texas.7 The City of New York expanded Jobs-Plus to 

seven additional locations in 2013. In 2015, it became part of federal housing policy when HUD 

launched another variation of the model to increase employment and earnings among public 

housing residents. Each replication effort made slight changes to the original model in an effort 

to incorporate lessons learned and adapt to new contexts and circumstances.

In 2015, HUD awarded $24 million to nine public housing authorities (PHAs)—or the first 

cohort of grantees—that were selected to operate the model as part of HUD’s Jobs Plus Pilot 

Program, a scale-up and replication effort of the original Jobs Plus model.8 This report 

summarizes the startup experiences of those first nine sites. The early experiences of this cohort 

of HUD grantees are important, because they can be instructive to current and future housing 

authorities that operate this program.9 The original demonstration, which was the subject of a 

rigorous evaluation, found that program operators faced many daunting implementation 

challenges, and only the Jobs Plus developments that fully implemented all the components of 

the model saw the program boost annual earnings (Riccio, 2010).

To begin documenting HUD’s expansion—or scale-up—of Jobs Plus, this first report looks at 

the early startup phase, from April 2015 to October 2016, for the first cohort of nine sites and

when their programs were in operation for roughly 1 year. The report examines their experiences 

launching Jobs Plus and the progress made getting staff in place, building partnerships, 

delivering services, and structuring the program on the ground during this initial roll-out period.

These early insights and observations may help inform the sites, HUD, and other stakeholders on 

practices that may be worth emulating and obstacles that may be encountered as HUD continues

 

6 The original model was named “Jobs-Plus” (with a hyphen), but the current program being replicated by HUD is 

referred to as Jobs Plus (without the hyphen). This report uses the current treatment, Jobs Plus, for all iterations of 

the program. 7 The Social Innovation Fund targets public and private funds to expand effective solutions across three issue areas: 

economic opportunity, healthy futures, and youth development and school support.

8 See Bloom, Riccio, and Verma (2005) for a detailed description of the original Jobs-Plus model and its results 

based on a random assignment evaluation. Longer-term results are available in Riccio (2010). For more publications 

on Jobs Plus, see http://www.mdrc.org/project/jobs-plus-community-revitalization-initiative-public-housingfamilies#related-content. 9 In 2016, HUD awarded Jobs Plus funding to an additional six PHAs. To date, HUD has awarded approximately 

$62 million to 24 PHAs to implement the Jobs Plus Pilot program. See Appendix A.
2

to build and strengthen the intervention. The report also examines key challenges and 

accomplishments and provides a starting point for a final implementation report on the sites

included in this evaluation.

Jobs Plus and Its Evolution

The Original Model 

In 1998, HUD and MDRC, with a consortium of public and private funders, sponsored the Jobs 

Plus Community Revitalization Initiative for Public Housing Families as a place-based 

demonstration program designed to (1) help people living in public housing increase their levels 

of employment and earnings; (2) by doing so, help foster the emergence of a broader mix of 

incomes within those places; and (3) achieve improvements in residents’ quality of life as a 

result of the gains in employment and earnings.10

At its core, Jobs Plus was—and continues to be—structured around three parts, all of which were 

focused on improving residents’ employment, earnings, and well-being.

1. Employment-related services and activities. This component included services and 

activities such as help with job searches, coaching to help residents adjust to the world of 

work, referrals to vocational training (usually short term), high school equivalency and 

English as a Second Language courses, subsidized supported work positions to help 

especially hard-to-employ residents make the transition to the world of work, and a range 

of support services (such as childcare) that make it easier for residents to work. 

Additionally, as a place-based initiative aiming to serve everyone in the housing 

development, the employment services were also intended to help people who were 

already employed or who eventually became employed, including helping them stay on 

their jobs, advance to better jobs, and become reemployed if they lost their jobs. The 

program provided some services on site, at a job center in the housing development, 

whereas others were available in the broader community.

2. Rent-based financial incentives to help “make work pay.”11 By reducing the extent to 

which higher earnings from work resulted in rent increases, which could discourage 

work, the rent-based incentive offered by Jobs Plus was designed to enable families to 

see a higher net financial return from work. In the original demonstration, the Jobs Plus

programs either offered a flat rent—one that did not rise with household income—or an 

income-based rent set lower than the usual 30 percent of income stipulated by HUD. 

3. Community support for work. Inspired by a growing recognition of the importance of 

social networks and social capital, this component sought to strengthen social ties and 

activities among residents to support their job preparation and work efforts. Examples of 

mutual support include everything from sharing information about available jobs to 

carpooling to work to watching after each other’s children during different job shifts. 

Another function of the CSW component was to propagate the message that “work pays” 

 

10 This description draws on previously published reports. See Blank and Wharton-Fields (2008); Bloom, Riccio, 

and Verma (2005); and Greenberg et al. (2015). 11 The demonstration included safety-net provisions for residents who lost jobs (for example, the option for residents 

to revert from a Jobs Plus flat rent to the normal public housing income-based rent if they could no longer afford the 

flat rent). See Blank and Wharton-Fields (2008) for details. 
3

and that “employment goals are attainable”—thereby creating an environment where the 

theme of work was more pervasive than it had been previously. CSW typically involves 

recruiting, training, and supervising a small group of residents who encourage their 

neighbors to use Jobs Plus services and to try to improve their employment situations. 

Residents who are selected for this role usually receive stipends as compensation. 

A distinctive facet of Jobs Plus was its attempt to operate this multicomponent model at 

saturation levels within the target public housing developments—that is, not just target a small 

share of residents, but rather everyone who was working age and able to work. The designers of 

Jobs Plus believed that bringing together the three mutually reinforcing components of the model

in one comprehensive program would be an effective way to boost employment levels in public 

housing communities with high rates of joblessness, support those who are already working, and 

help those who become employed to stay employed and advance.

Moreover, unlike other employment programs, the Jobs Plus employment services are uniquely 

situated to reap the benefits of a place-based initiative, which potentially include opportunities 

for staff to know the context in which participants live, know their families, and have informal 

interactions at the housing developments. Additionally, as a place-based initiative, Jobs Plus 

offers the potential to provide continued support after residents find work. Whereas many 

traditional employment programs only provide assistance through job placement or perhaps 

provide retention services for up to 90 days after employment, Jobs Plus participants are eligible 

for program support as long as they live in the development (until the end of the Jobs Plus grant). 

Another feature of the demonstration was a component promoting governance, accountability,

and support—the mandatory “collaborative”—which was intended to craft, fund, and operate 

this comprehensive initiative. Collaboratives in the sites where the program was implemented

included local PHAs, resident representatives, local human services agencies, and local 

workforce development agencies, which all worked together and were accountable to one 

another.

The original Jobs Plus initiative operated from 1998 to 2003 and was the subject of a rigorous 

evaluation, where six public housing developments in six cities were chosen randomly and then 

were compared with similar developments, in the same cities, that did not participate in the 

program.12 Results from this experiment showed that in the three sites where all three 

components of the model were in place, implemented properly, and sustained,

13 residents earned 

16 percent more per year than residents in comparison developments, an effect that endured for 

at least 7 years.14

 

12 The six cities in the original Jobs-Plus demonstration were Baltimore, Maryland; Chattanooga, Tennessee; 

Dayton, Ohio; Los Angeles, California; Seattle, Washington; and St. Paul, Minnesota. These sites were also chosen 

through a national competition to participate in the demonstration.

13Four of the six original Jobs Plus sites implemented programs of reasonable quality. In three of those four sites—

Dayton, Los Angeles, and St. Paul—Jobs Plus had a positive effect on earnings. The fourth site, Seattle, also 

experienced earnings effects, but they disappeared when a federal HOPE VI renovation relocated residents. 14 The 7 years included 4 years of full-program operations, which followed a 2-year rollout period, plus a 3-year 

post-program period.
4

Initial Replication Efforts 

In 2011, the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City along with the New York City Center for 

Economic Opportunity launched the replication of Jobs Plus in San Antonio and the Bronx 

through the SIF. Under the SIF, Jobs Plus providers—the San Antonio Housing Authority 

(SAHA) and BronxWorks, a community organization in New York City—implemented the 

program in contexts that were different economically, institutionally, and organizationally from 

those in the original demonstration, resulting in some important implementation lessons

(Greenberg et al., 2015). Figure 1 illustrates the evolution of Jobs Plus. Further, one of the 

program operators also had to modify the rent incentive component of the model. In the original 

demonstration, housing authorities had the ability to develop a variety of rent incentives, because 

they were all Moving to Work sites with the authority to do so.15 In the SIF version of Jobs Plus, 

BronxWorks was only able to use a preexisting HUD benefit known as the Earned Income 

Disregard (EID), which was limited in its ability to serve as an effective rent incentive.16 In 

contrast, SAHA, the other SIF Jobs Plus site, had Moving to Work status, and when it recognized 

the limitations of the EID it developed a modified version that, among other things, extended the 

benefit for a longer period. Nevertheless, for a variety of reasons, relatively low levels of 

participation still existed in the EID at SAHA (Greenberg et al., 2015).

 

15 Moving to Work is a demonstration for PHAs that, among other things, gives PHAs exemptions from many 

existing public housing and voucher rules and more flexibility with the use of federal funds; among the goals is 

allowing for the PHAs to design and test innovative strategies to help residents find employment and become selfsufficient.

16 The EID enables eligible public housing residents to receive a disregard of new wages from their rent calculations. 

The EID is limited to 2 years and decreases in value after the first year.
5

Figure 1. The Evolution of Jobs Plus

The 

Evolution of 

Jobs Plus

1990s

PROGRAM DEVELOPED

Jobs Plus was developed by the U.S. Department of Housing 

and Urban Development (HUD), The Rockefeller Foundation, 

other private funders and family foundations, and MDRC to 

address the growing concentration of joblessness, 

underemployment, and poverty in public housing 

communities.

1998–2006

TESTED IN SIX CITIES

An MDRC study of six public housing authorities, located in 

different housing and labor markets, found that nondisabled 

and working-age residents in the three developments that 

fully adopted Jobs Plus earned 16 percent more than 

residents in comparison developments in the same cities.

2011

REPLICATED IN TWO MORE CITIES

The Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City and the New York 

City Center for Economic Opportunity used Social Innovation 

Fund money to replicate Jobs Plus in the Bronx and San 

Antonio. MDRC conducted an implementation study that offered 

analyses of program experiences and costs.

2013

EXPANDED IN NEW YORK CITY

The city of New York announced a $24 million investment in 

Jobs Plus, increasing the program’s reach into 23 of the city’s 

public housing communities.

2015–2017

HUD LAUNCHES NATIONWIDE REPLICATION

HUD selected 24 housing authorities across the country for an 

expansion of Jobs Plus and is expected to select more locations 

for expansion in 2017.

MDRC will evaluate the federal implementation of Jobs 

Plus at nine sites through 2019.
6

Key findings from the SIF replication of Jobs Plus include—

● After a 9-month startup period, providers in the Bronx and in San Antonio were able to 

enroll substantial proportions of residents of very large housing developments, which 

represented a strong early indication of program saturation—that is, saturating the 

target population with services and activities related to the three Jobs Plus components.

● At the same time, providers found that the three components of Jobs Plus—and 

especially their integration and coordination with each other—were difficult to manage 

in practice. Both providers generally placed residents in low-wage work and struggled 

to find ways of helping residents who were already employed.

● Jobs Plus members used rent-based financial incentives very seldom, but these 

incentives were hard to implement and were also not as flexible as the incentives in the 

original Jobs Plus demonstration.

Building off the SIF replication experience, in 2013, New York City’s Human Resources 

Administration launched seven additional Jobs Plus programs across the city. These programs 

received a combined total of $24 million over 3 years, 2013 to 2016, and they served 23 New 

York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) developments across all five boroughs and aimed to 

place more than 4,400 NYCHA residents in jobs. This investment acknowledged the persistent 

need for and growing body of evidence backing the comprehensive employment services and 

support provided by Jobs Plus to the development’s residents. 

HUD’s Scale-Up of Jobs Plus

In 2014, HUD issued a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA)17 to announce the availability of 

$24 million for the Jobs Plus Pilot Program for Public Housing Agencies “to develop locallybased approaches to increase earnings and advance employment outcomes for Public Housing 

residents” (HUD, 2014: 1). Keeping with the original demonstration and the later SIF replication, 

the Jobs Plus Pilot Program includes three core components: employment-related services, 

financial incentives to promote work, and CSW. However, the financial incentive—the Jobs Plus 

Earned Income Disregard (JPEID)—was simplified from the regular EID (as there is now a 100-

percent disregard of incremental earned income for the entire period of the program) and made 

available to all enrolled residents of the Jobs Plus development. This iteration of Jobs Plus also 

emphasizes employment services that attempt not only to place residents in jobs, but also to 

provide training that leads to advancement and career opportunities over time. 

In 2015, HUD announced the first cohort of Jobs Plus Pilot Program grantees (shown in Figure 2),

the focus of this evaluation. Nine PHAs were selected and were awarded grants for a period of 4 

years (April 2015 to March 2019): Boston, Massachusetts; Charlotte, North Carolina; Chicago, 

Illinois; Cuyahoga County, Ohio; Houston, Texas; Memphis, Tennessee; Roanoke, Virginia; St. 

Louis, Missouri; and Syracuse, New York. These PHAs were chosen because their proposals 

indicated that they had strengths, such as strong ties to community organizations, local 

employers, foundations, and citywide workforce agencies; local referral networks with 

community partners; streamlined and tailored hiring processes for local employers based on their 

 

17 All references in this report to the “Jobs Plus NOFA” or the “NOFA” refer to the 2014 NOFA for the first nine 

sites funded to operate this program (HUD, 2014).
7

needs and open positions; and experience running adult education programs, lease-compliance 

programs, and other workforce and economic self-sufficiency programs to meet the needs of 

public housing residents. (HUD, 2014) The sites represent a wide diversity in terms of size, 

location, and other contextual factors, which offer a good opportunity to further understand the 

program’s operation in different environments. For example, they range in size from 240 to more 

than 1,500 residents who are working age and able to work, and their employment rates range 

from 21 percent to 49 percent as shown in Table 1.18

Figure 2. Public Housing Authorities and Developments in the Jobs Plus Pilot Evaluation

 

18 As defined in the NOFA, the target population includes work-able adults—that is, residents between the ages of 

18 and 64 who are mentally and physically able to become employed.
8

Table 1. Selected Characteristics of Sites in the HUD Jobs Plus Pilot Program Evaluation

City Development Characteristics Local Economic Context

(Public Housing Number of Residents Employment Employment Living

Development) Units Able To Work Rate (%) Rate (%) Wage ($)

Boston, MA 1,094 1,016 49 68 14.11

(Charlestown)

Charlotte, NC 381 331 21 72 10.53

(Southside Homes)

Chicago, IL 1,264 1,352 44 66 22.78

(Altgeld Gardens) 

Cuyahoga, OH 1,462 1,584 21 59 9.61

(Outhwaite/Carver Park) 

Houston, TX 553 423 39 68 10.5

(Cuney Homes) 

Memphis, TN 414 406 22 64 10.77

(Foote Homes)

Roanoke, VA 300 288 32 64 10.02

(Lansdowne Park)

St. Louis, MO 358 240 47 65 16.58

(Clinton-Peabody)

Syracuse, NY 474 448 25 57 12.77

(James Geddes) 

Source: Data reported by the PHAs to the evaluation team in December 2015

In addition to funding the program, HUD provides technical assistance and support to the sites, 

holds the sites accountable for good performance, and also ensures that the sites are compliant 

with the grant requirements. HUD also provides feedback so that sites can make corrections and 

continuous improvements to program delivery. HUD staff provide some of this assistance 

directly, along with modest support from a technical assistance subcontractor. This report 

documents the early technical assistance that sites received and the extent to which it addressed 

the startup needs of the grantees. 

About the Evaluation 

In 2015, HUD selected MDRC to lead the implementation evaluation of the scale-up of Jobs 

Plus. The MDRC-led evaluation team includes the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at the 

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the National Initiative on Mixed-Income 

Communities at Case Western Reserve University. The research team is charged with 

documenting the programs established by the first cohort of nine Jobs Plus Pilot Program 

grantees and laying the groundwork for a future outcomes evaluation.19 Specifically, this first 

phase of the evaluation will describe the set of activities and partnerships the grantees establish 

to operate their Jobs Plus programs. Taking a comparative approach, the evaluation is designed 

to speak to the following types of questions: How do the grantees start up and operationalize 

Jobs Plus in their particular settings? What types of local and federal support do they receive to 

 

19 Additional cohorts of grantees selected to operate Jobs Plus are not part of the implementation evaluation. At the 

time of this writing, HUD released a request for proposals for an outcomes evaluation, which will include all the 

sites selected by HUD to implement Jobs Plus.
9

launch the programs? To what extent is saturation achieved at these sites—that is, do all eligible 

residents receive employment services, rent incentives, and CSW? What early outcomes are

achieved? What are the costs of implementing Jobs Plus? 

The evaluation uses a mixed-methods, comparative approach to document and analyze 

implementation strategies and outcomes related to the model’s three components. The findings 

and observations in this first report are meant to characterize the early implementation 

experiences of the programs. The report draws on a range of data collection activities undertaken 

by the research team, including visits to all nine sites, in-depth interviews with key PHA staff 

and partner organizations, focus groups with participants, observations of practice, and review of 

aggregate quantitative data that the sites supplied to HUD.20

As shown in Box 1, site visits and interviews were conducted between August and October 2016, 

roughly 16 to 18 months after the selection of grantees to operate Jobs Plus; programs had been

in operation for roughly 1 year—some a bit more, some less—at the time of the site visits. The 

sites reported the quantitative data included in this report to HUD from April 2015 through 

September 2016.

Box 1. Key Dates for This Early Startup Report on Jobs Plus

• April 2015: HUD announces the selection of the first cohort of Jobs Plus grantee sites.

• June 2015: HUD convenes Cohort 1 grantees for Jobs Plus conference in Washington, D.C.

• July 2015 to December 2015: Sites begin enrolling residents into Jobs Plus activities.

• July to August 2015: HUD conducts initial visits to Cohort 1 grantees.

• March 2016: HUD convenes Cohorts 1-2 grantees for Jobs Plus conference in Washington, D.C.

• August to October 2016: Evaluation team conducts site visits to Cohort 1 Jobs Plus grantee.

 

20 The Jobs Plus grantees are required to submit quarterly reports to HUD by drawing on data from their property 

management and case management information systems, their accounting systems, and their Public and Indian 

Housing Information Center data systems. The data for the reporting period covered in this report are not fully factchecked, and therefore, are used selectively throughout this report. (HUD technical assistance staff were not 

interviewed, and their perspectives are not reflected in this report.)
10

Report Structure 

This report highlights early operational and startup experiences across the nine sites, capturing 

program activities in roughly the first 18 months following award notification. As an early look, 

its goal is to draw out implementation insights from the startup period and consider the extent to 

which sites are beginning to implement the model as intended. Because Jobs Plus is an ambitious 

federal initiative still in the early stages of operation, it is important to assess and contrast the 

strategies that sites use and the choices they make toward becoming fully operational. 

The report begins by examining sites’ staffing strategies, the support provided by HUD and the 

technical assistance provider, and the development of service partnerships. It then turns to how 

sites conceptualized and started to implement the three components of Jobs Plus: employment 

services, the rent-based financial incentive to promote work, and CSW. The discussions of each 

of these components also include recommendations for practice. The report concludes by looking 

forward, identifying primary upcoming evaluation activities. In the end, the success of Jobs Plus 

will depend on the extent to which the grantees are able to operate and effectively deliver all 

three parts of the model at saturation levels and integrate them well. A final report, slated for 

2018, will speak more definitively to the extent to which the grantees were able to replicate the 

model and deliver the Jobs Plus program as expected.
11

Staffing, Technical Assistance, and Partnerships

Much is involved and at stake as Jobs Plus programs begin to expand, given the effort required to 

achieve the model’s ambitious goals—leveraging the capacities of multiple housing authority 

stakeholders and service partners in support of a multipronged program effort to saturate a 

housing development with activities and supports.21 Past iterations of Jobs Plus have shown that 

programs often needed 1 to 2 years to reach operating scale (Bloom, Riccio, and Verma, 2005; 

Greenberg et al., 2015). In the original demonstration, the model development and 

implementation process took about 2 years, and its replication during the SIF intervention 

underwent a startup period of about 9 months, with improvement often noted over time (Bloom, 

Riccio, and Verma, 2005; Greenberg et al., 2015). Sites in the Jobs Plus Pilot Program had 6 

months to start up operations and begin serving residents.

Program staff working to launch Jobs Plus often faced numerous challenges typical for large, 

new initiatives, including but not limited to procuring necessary physical space, recruiting, 

training, and retaining staff, launching program marketing and outreach campaigns, establishing 

data systems, and building working service partnerships. The experience of rolling out Jobs Plus 

in each site was also facilitated by strengths that were specific to the stakeholders and 

communities involved, such as experience operating programs for similar populations of assisted 

households. 

Staffing the Program

Hiring a program director and deciding whether to operate Jobs Plus case management in-house

(chosen by four sites) or to contract with another organization to run this major feature of the

program (chosen by the remaining five sites) were critical steps in the startup of Jobs Plus 

operations. For sites operating Jobs Plus in house, the recruitment and deployment of staff in 

support of the programmatic components of the model was the next priority. These staff included 

case managers, who are expected to link residents with employment-related services and other 

community services; community coaches, who are residents of the developments hired to 

promote Jobs Plus and a culture of work in the developments; and job developers, who are 

expected to link residents with available jobs in the community. 

Given the multiple aims of Jobs Plus, staffing the program with workers who possess the skills 

and aptitude necessary to succeed can be difficult. The program must persuade residents with 

different interests and needs to participate in Jobs Plus. Case managers are responsible for

assessing and screening participants for needs across employment and other domains and for 

connecting them successfully to services that can meet those needs. All staff—in particular the 

community coaches, who are tasked with promoting a work-positive environment within the 

Jobs Plus developments—must connect with the Jobs Plus target population in proactive and 

creative ways to begin the work of delivering services at saturation levels.

Housing authorities took a variety of approaches to hiring case management staff. Some 

recruited case managers from existing housing authority staff, and others hired new staff or 

contracted with outside agencies. Although program directors from some sites characterized 

the initial staffing process as smooth, others reported delays or difficulty recruiting qualified 

 

21 Stakeholders include, but are not limited to, housing authority management, property management, case managers, and service providers.
12

case management staff. Institutions with the ability to staff Jobs Plus positions from existing 

housing authority personnel appear to have had an early advantage in staffing quickly.

However, one site specifically sought to hire staff from the outside in order to gain external 

expertise.

A few sites experienced turnover among case management staff during the first year of 

operation; and the circumstances varied, in a few cases attrition was attributed to poor employee 

fit. Some program directors spoke of a certain benefit to staffing Jobs Plus with employees who 

had experience working in public housing contexts or in low-income communities. One program 

director remarked that she sought to recruit a job developer who could “feel the heart of the 

community.”

Attrition among community coaches also had already occurred at the time of the field research 

visits in 2016 or was expected soon. However, the nine sites differed in whether these positions 

were permanent staff or were envisioned primarily as a work experience opportunity for 

individuals in the housing developments, and some turnover occurred when staff advanced into 

better jobs or left to pursue further education. Some sites indicated that their conceptions of an 

ideal fit for the community coach role were still evolving.

Around the time of the field research visits, roughly 1 year into operation, most program 

directors expressed comfort with the staff in place and overall staffing models. Some sites had 

recently added or were contemplating adding new case management positions in order to 

increase service delivery capacity, as caseloads began to grow and the needs of participants were 

better understood. 

Development of Program Services

The core mandate of Jobs Plus to serve all nonelderly residents within a public housing 

development who are able to work (the saturation idea) requires the design and maintenance of 

service pathways to meet the diverse needs of this population. Residents may have vastly 

different barriers, skill levels, expectations, and objectives in seeking connections to the 

workforce, requiring Jobs Plus to be in a position to connect them to programs that can provide a 

wide array of resources and services.

Many program directors and case managers described service flows and partner relationships that 

were evolving as the program matured, although the extent to which service offerings were being 

refined varied greatly by site. In addition to the services offered directly by the Jobs Plus 

program, many staff indicated that the program was increasingly connected to external services

to best respond to residents’ needs. 

By mid-2016, most sites were building modestly on the service relationships that existed before 

the launch of Jobs Plus. Some sites prioritized enrollment into Jobs Plus during their early startup

period, including a primary focus on ensuring that individuals received the JPEID, and only later 

began investing effort in developing service delivery pathways. In one site, staff rationalized that 

the first program year would be devoted to developing relationships with residents, and the 

second year would bring a focus on building on those connections and placing residents into a 

variety of services.

Prior experience with self-sufficiency programs may have advantaged some sites during 

planning and early implementation, as they could borrow elements from these programs in 

designing operations for Jobs Plus. In fact, many staff framed Jobs Plus in relation to other self-
13

sufficiency programs offered by housing authorities, such as the Family Self-Sufficiency 

program,22 and some housing authorities delivering Jobs Plus services in house described 

modeling service delivery procedures and tools on these existing programs. For example, some 

sites described developing Jobs Plus resident assessments from assessments used in other 

programs. At one site, case conferencing for Jobs Plus participants—that is, meetings of staff to 

discuss the particular situations of individual residents, including their challenges and the 

services provided—included representatives from other housing authority programs to avoid 

service duplication.

Internal Coordination and Program Infrastructure

Saturating a development with comprehensive employment services, work-promoting activities, 

and a rent-based work incentive program requires coordination efforts beyond the scope of 

typical PHA program management and involves multiple administrative units at the housing 

agencies. About a year into Jobs Plus operations (that is, a year after the end of the 6-month 

startup period), program directors described several approaches to improving communication 

and coordination with internal stakeholders. Some sites hold standing Jobs Plus coordination 

meetings with all stakeholders—including housing authority management, property 

management, and case managers—with conferencing on resident cases routinely on the agendas, 

whereas other sites relied on more informal, as-needed coordination.

Although the involvement of housing authority senior management was characterized as 

supportive in most sites, program directors at a few sites expressed a desire for more active 

involvement of housing authority management in setting program strategy and facilitating both 

internal and external partnerships. Some program staff were uncertain about whether housing 

authority management had any role in Jobs Plus beyond monitoring. Along these lines, housing 

authority management in one site aspired to make time to become more involved in and aware of 

the day-to-day operations of Jobs Plus.

Many sites described challenges or delays launching new or customizing existing data systems to 

track and report on Jobs Plus enrollment and service participation, and some sites reported 

significant work remaining to deploy those systems.23 Some sites used shared spreadsheets or 

other manual data-sharing methods for recording participant case notes and participation activity 

across service providers at the time of the evaluation team visit, although sites were working 

toward implementing case management systems dedicated exclusively to Jobs Plus. Jobs Plus 

programs that faced reporting challenges described the effort of quarterly reporting to HUD on 

program activity in costly terms. One site described a week-long exercise in “hair pulling” each 

quarter to compile aggregate program activity reports from various data sources. Another site 

reported that inadequate reporting capabilities led HUD to question the accuracy of their data. In 

contrast, sites that were able to deploy dedicated case management systems spoke favorably of 

 

22 HUD’s Family Self-Sufficiency program provides referrals to services to help HUD-assisted families become 

self-sufficient and reduce dependency on public assistance and rental subsidies. To provide an incentive to increase 

earned income, any increases in the family’s rent as a result of increased earned income during the family’s 

participation in the program results in a credit to an interest-bearing escrow account that is established for the 

family. Once a family graduates from the program, they may access the escrow and use it for any purpose. 23 Sites are required to submit a quarterly report to HUD that covers site data elements such as demographics, 

education and training participation, job outcomes, educational advancement, financial literacy activities, support 

services receipt, JPEID enrollment, and activities related to CSW.
14

those systems and their effect on day-to-day operations. Rather than having to manually collect 

information about participants’ activities from multiple service providers, case managers at these 

sites could access all information about services provided to residents in a single system, which 

eased reporting and monitoring burdens.

Technical Assistance Structure 

Given the challenges inherent to Jobs Plus startup, sites often required external supports and 

guidance to help them conceptualize and operationalize the program model. Following award 

notification in April 2015, HUD provided various supports to the sites as they worked to start 

and scale up operations. Several staff members from HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing 

were designated as site liaisons, tasked with administering grant oversight and delivering 

technical assistance to the sites. Each site worked with HUD staff to propose action plans 

defining objectives and outcomes during the 4-year grant period for each program intervention.

Additionally, HUD provided guidance in January 2016 encouraging, but not requiring, sites to 

dedicate 4 to 5 percent of their budgets to procure the services of technical assistance providers 

to help them effectively implement the Jobs Plus program.

Each site’s HUD liaison made in-person visits during the second half of 2015, which served to 

mark the transition from a planning phase to the beginning of program operations. During this 

period, HUD liaisons also communicated regularly with sites by phone to support planning 

activities, to troubleshoot contractual or operational issues, and to offer general advice. The 

liaisons also held standing monthly check-in meetings with sites by telephone.

To assist with managing and overseeing the Jobs Plus sites and their performance, HUD 

procured technical assistance services from Abt Associates Inc. Although Abt Associates’ staff 

periodically joined standing site check-in meetings with some Jobs Plus sites, their technical 

assistance role did not assume individual, one-on-one coaching with sites. Rather, their main role 

was to support HUD by creating program metrics, developing data collection tools, and drafting

guidance documents for the sites. Abt Associates also helped to coordinate and support the 

annual Jobs Plus conferences and convene periodic cross-site webinars. These included cross

cutting topics, such as implementing CSW, data collection, and data reporting. A few Jobs Plus 

staff members found the webinars helpful, stating that they served as an occasional forum across 

all nine sites for discussion of discrete topics. However, many interviewees remarked that the 

webinars occurred infrequently, could not recall the content covered in these sessions, or did not 

find them helpful for their needs.

HUD also used annual meetings, such as the Jobs Plus grantee conferences in June 2015 and 

March 2016 in Washington, D.C., to bring together site management and staff. The conferences

included presentations and discussions on the Jobs Plus model, networking sessions, and 

workshops devoted to specific facets of Jobs Plus; workshops included creating trust and 

organizing within resident communities, serving residents via Workforce Investment Boards

(WIBs), and managing partnerships. Impressions of the 2016 grantee conference among Jobs 

Plus staff were generally positive. Participants seemed to value the opportunity to interact in 

person, meet other practitioners implementing the program, and share perspectives and discuss 

common questions. 

Most site staff also reflected positively on their relationships with HUD liaisons and program 

management staff, suggesting that the support and assistance were welcome, both during site 

visits and on an ongoing basis. Sites often praised HUD’s suggestions for improving certain 
15

program practices, such as strengthening a resident orientation in certain ways. A few Jobs Plus 

staff appreciated the “creativity and flexibility” afforded by HUD during the startup phase, with 

one staff member suggesting that HUD was “helping us by allowing us to be a true pilot.”

However, site staff also expressed a desire for more concrete guidance and clearer program 

standards during the early startup phase. One site, for example, shared the impression that 

HUD’s technical assistance was more focused on compliance with the grant requirements than 

on improving program implementation. Several sites seemed to expect that they would receive 

more direct technical assistance. Subsequent sections of this report describe some challenges that 

sites experienced operationalizing the more technical aspects of the model—for example, the 

JPEID—and conceptualizing CSW, where early implementation might have benefited from more 

timely, more frequent, and more direct technical assistance guidance and support.

Collaboration and Partnerships

Partnerships are critical to running a successful Jobs Plus program, because each partner brings

its own area of expertise to the program, and the program requires an array of partners to work 

with residents who may have multiple needs and barriers to employment. When working with 

such a population, a broad array of services is necessary to move participants into work, and 

these services can best be provided through partnerships with organizations that have them

available. According to the NOFA, a successful Jobs Plus program—

... is collaboratively designed and implemented by high-performing local housing 

authorities, residents of public housing developments, Workforce Investment 

Boards (WIBs) and American Job Centers (also known as One Stop Career 

Centers), local businesses and employers, and other organizations that provide 

supportive services within that community. Other suggested partners include 

higher education institutions, philanthropic organizations, human service 

agencies, vocational rehabilitation agencies, business-related and other nonprofit 

organizations, and community and faith based organizations. (HUD, 2014: 2)

Elsewhere in the NOFA, guidelines provide a list including some of the same suggested partners, 

omitting others (like business-related organizations), and adding some different kinds of 

organizations to be included in the partnerships. This list of partners is much more expansive 

than the types of partners involved in the original Jobs Plus demonstration’s collaborative.

As discussed in the following section, within the early implementation followup period (roughly 

the first year), all sites had developed partnerships to implement the Jobs Plus program; however, 

the partnerships varied in terms of the types of partners involved, their roles in delivering Jobs 

Plus services, the value that they brought to the program, the formality of the partnerships, and 

the level of ongoing engagement of the partner organizations. Most sites developed partnerships 

with their local WIBs and a variety of education, training, and support services organizations. 

Direct relationships with employers and business-related organizations were missing from most 

partnerships, which is discussed in the following sections. This was especially problematic,

because most Jobs Plus programs also did not employ job developers, which would have been 

one way to establish relationships with employers.

Strategies Used To Develop Partnerships

Jobs Plus implementers made decisions about partnerships based on a combination of factors, 

including previous history of collaboration, alignment of services provided with perceived Jobs 
16

Plus goals, the perceived need for those services in the development, and the perceived capacity 

of the partner. All sites relied on existing partnerships that the PHAs had developed over the 

years. For instance, Syracuse partnered with an organization with which it had more than a 

decade-long relationship to provide case management for the program. Similarly, in St. Louis, an 

employment and training agency, which was contracted to implement and manage the Jobs Plus 

program, had worked with the PHA under a HOPE VI grant.24 In fact, it was the partner 

agency’s leadership that brought the Jobs Plus NOFA to the attention of the PHA, and it was the 

partner agency that put together the proposal. 

In some cases, like in Roanoke and Charlotte, in addition to tapping into existing relationships, 

new organizations were sought as partners to meet the perceived service needs of residents. In 

Roanoke, for example, program implementers conducted a pre-enrollment survey to learn about 

the most pressing needs of residents and guided their decisions to engage partners based on these 

needs. Many sites developed relationships with multiservice agencies, childcare centers, and 

agencies offering legal and health services to be able to provide an array of support services to 

residents. Several sites sought new partnerships once the program was under way, and staff learned 

through interactions with residents that residents had a need for a particular type of service.

Many sites sought partnerships that would leverage other funding streams that could be used to 

benefit residents. For example, many sites were able to refer residents to local WIB programs 

that are supported through Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act funds. Other partners 

brought other types of resources directly to Jobs Plus participants; for example, the Center for 

Community Alternatives (CCA) in Syracuse, which was subcontracted by the Syracuse Housing 

Authority to provide case management, has a legal clinic that offers services to individuals with 

criminal backgrounds. Still other partners made in-kind donations for events organized by the 

PHA, such as back-to-school events or health fairs. Implementers indicated that onsite services 

were particularly desirable. Onsite services are easier for residents to access, which is especially 

important for sites with little public transportation. Many interviewees valued being able to refer 

public housing residents to services such as childcare, legal services, financial literacy classes, 

and the like. 

Although sites had a broad array of education, training, and support services partners, few had

yet to involve employer or business-oriented partners, despite the NOFA’s suggestion that such 

partners be included. Most sites also did not employ or connect with job developers at external 

agencies, although the NOFA suggested that they should. There are a number of possible reasons 

for this relative lack of emphasis on developing an employer-facing feature of Jobs Plus.

• The PHAs’ general orientation is to focus on residents and their barriers more than on 

employers and their skill needs. 

• The sites were relying on the WIBs and American Job Centers to make these employer 

connections, given that the PHAs did not have experience working directly with employers. 

• Connecting with employers and businesses was just a lower priority within the relatively 

short time frame that sites had to get Jobs Plus up and running. 

 

24 HOPE VI was established to eradicate severely distressed public housing and to revitalize public housing 

communities through physical improvements, management improvements, and social and community services to 

address residents’ needs.
17

Given that sites are still in the early period of program implementation, they may yet develop 

these relationships. The final report on Jobs Plus will explore this aspect of program

implementation more closely.

Though some sites did have training partners that had connections with employers, and most 

sites had relationships with their local WIBs, it is not clear yet whether or to what extent these 

connections facilitated employer input into the Jobs Plus programs. The lack of sufficient 

connections with employers and business-oriented organizations roughly 1 year into program 

implementation may have hindered the sites’ ability to fulfill a major goal stated in the NOFA—

These grants will employ several principles of the President’s Job Driven training 

checklist to ensure that public housing residents are connected to a program that is 

using evidence-based practices that work for job seekers and employers. (HUD, 

2014: 2)

Those principles included using labor market data to inform employment services, promoting 

career pathways—“a seamless progression across work-based training and education”—and 

incorporating work experiences such as on-the-job training, internships, and apprenticeships. 

Without solid employer partnerships, either directly or through local WIBs, workforce agencies, 

or other partners, it is likely that the Jobs Plus programs were not as driven by local employer 

demand as intended during the early stages of implementation and that career pathway and work 

experience components were as yet underdeveloped. 

Types of Partnerships and Roles

Although Jobs Plus programs were expected to develop partnerships to deliver the services that 

would best meet participants’ needs, HUD gave sites the flexibility about the types of partners to 

involve and the types of arrangements or agreements to develop with those partners. This 

flexibility contrasts sharply with the original Jobs Plus demonstration, which called for 

mandatory partners in each site’s collaborative. A mandatory collaborative comprising

government agencies brings with it a certain level of accountability from each agency. In the 

absence of mandatory partners and a formal collaborative leadership structure, and with a mix of 

multiple public and private partners of all sizes and with different types of partnership 

agreements, the sites in the current Jobs Plus Pilot were more challenged to hold partners 

accountable for delivering the expected Jobs Plus services.

The level of formal arrangements that the Jobs Plus Pilot PHAs had with partners varied

widely by site. Four kinds of partnerships were observed, and they differed in their level of 

formality: (1) contractual partnerships in which funding was passed through for delivered 

services (this could involve a partner executing a core Jobs Plus function, such as providing 

case management or a complementary function, such as providing an English as a Second 

Language class or a specific training program onsite); (2) less formal partnerships based on 

mutual agreements via memoranda of understanding (MOUs); (3) referral partnerships; and 

(4) ad hoc partnerships. 

Five sites contracted key components of Jobs Plus to an external agency. In all five cases, the 

partner had worked with the PHA in the past and was perceived as having the capacity to 

undertake the work and a level of expertise that the PHA did not have. In Memphis and 

Syracuse, for instance, the PHAs contracted with external organizations to provide all the Jobs 

Plus case management services. Given that these partners undertook a key aspect of the 
18

implementation of the program, these kinds of partnerships required constant communication, 

extensive levels of coordination with the PHA, and involvement of partners in some aspects of 

Jobs Plus program decisionmaking.

Some PHAs developed MOUs with external organizations with the intention of gaining priority 

access to services for residents or establishing more formalized collaborations in providing 

services for residents. Although the MOU increased levels of communication and coordination in 

some cases relative to more informal partnerships without MOUs, with perhaps a few 

exceptions—notably Boston—the MOUs did not lead to stronger partner relationships, priority 

treatment of residents, or coordination of their service delivery.

All sites developed informal relationships with agencies to which Jobs Plus could refer residents 

for services. Referral partners varied in terms of the level of coordination between PHA 

implementers and the partner. In some cases, like in Charlotte, a childcare partner served as a 

liaison between residents and childcare providers and helped verify and process residents’

childcare subsidies. In other cases, like in Syracuse, case managers referred Jobs Plus members 

to the WIB, but no close communication or coordination existed between the Jobs Plus case 

manager and WIB staff.

Finally, in some cases, the PHAs developed more ad hoc relationships with external 

organizations to bring specific information about available services to events or to receive 

donations for events. Ongoing field research will continue to examine the results of these 

partnerships and whether program operators found some arrangements more beneficial than 

others for programs and participants.

Partner Engagement and Dynamics

Sites often found it challenging to maintain a high level of engagement from partners. In some 

sites, implementers held regular meetings with partners to provide updates on the program, learn 

about new services that partners were providing, and in some cases request advice from partners 

about the direction of the program. In Syracuse, partner organizations served as a formal

advisory board to the program. As described by one member, monthly meetings helped partners 

open up to and discuss new ideas and be “in the know” about what was going on in the 

community. However, many Jobs Plus staff noted that not having contractual agreements or 

funds to entice partners made it difficult to engage them during the duration of the program or to 

expect that partners would tailor their programs to the needs of residents. Contractual agreements 

and resource sharing seemed to be most effective in promoting continued engagement and 

communication.

At two sites, misunderstandings about HUD’s grant award process and the partners’ expected 

roles in Jobs Plus led to unanticipated tensions. In both cases, the partners were involved in the 

drafting of the Jobs Plus proposal, which created the expectation that they would automatically 

be the key partners for their respective projects. In fact, it was the leadership of one partner that 

brought the Jobs Plus Notice of Funding Availability to the attention of the PHA, and the 

leadership of that partner expected to receive the HUD funds directly. However, HUD required 

that contractual agreements with partners undergo a competitive bidding process. This situation

created some tension, as the partners had to compete for roles in the project and for funds they 

had helped secure. The early misunderstandings led to tensions that persisted into the early 

implementation of that site’s program.
19

Some agencies that were contracted for services have in turn subcontracted parts of their 

services. In Syracuse, CCA subcontracted with an agency to provide management information 

system services. The subcontractor provided expertise in developing a case management system 

that both CCA and the PHA adopted to track residents, their needs, and progress in the program. 

A similar arrangement took place in Cuyahoga, where a financial literacy partner subcontracted 

with another agency to offer one-on-one assistance for residents interested in starting a small 

business. In both of these cases, the subcontracting resulted in a benefit to the program and 

enhancement of services for residents. 

Considerations for Staffing, Technical Assistance, and Building and Maintaining 

Partnerships 

The experiences thus far of the Jobs Plus sites suggest some important lessons and modifications 

for consideration.

● Program managers might want to plan for the possibility of increasing Jobs Plus staff 

in year 2, as more residents get involved with the program. Early rollout and 

implementation experiences should enable program managers to hire staff who have 

the right set of skills to meet those needs.

● Sites might benefit from deeper, earlier, and more frequent technical assistance that is 

focused squarely on helping them strengthen implementation quality. 

● For Jobs Plus to be demand driven—that is, informed and shaped by employers’ needs 

for individuals with certain skills to fill available jobs—sites ultimately need input 

from employers and business-oriented organizations that can help them understand 

which industries and occupations are in local demand. This information could then help 

guide residents toward a focus on occupations for which they are more likely to be 

hired, hopefully at a better wage than what one site called “survival jobs”—entry-level 

jobs without much promise for advancement. Although some sites receive this kind of 

input and information, many do not, and room exists for improvement at all sites. To 

achieve this objective, sites would be best served by hiring job developers who have or 

can develop the necessary relationships with employers, deepening relationships with 

local WIBs and workforce agencies, which can serve as intermediaries with employers, 

as well as a link to training, or both.

● PHAs might benefit from more formal contracts with partners that can provide key 

services, such as training. Formal contracts may help ensure that essential partners are 

committed to the success of the program and that program components are delivered as 

expected. Implementing more formal contracts would be difficult to achieve, however, 

under the current NOFA guidelines for partnerships, which require partners to provide 

matching funds or in-kind services. Additionally, formal contracts currently require a 

competitive procurement process, which would further complicate the process of 

establishing partnerships if they were to be contract-based. For future iterations of Jobs 

Plus, the advantages and disadvantages of these various types of partnership

arrangements should be weighed to determine which types would be most beneficial to 

the Jobs Plus programs.

● Sites might benefit from developing formal advisory boards for the program that 

comprise the principal service partners and local employer partners; this arrangement 
20

could ensure that the program adapts as necessary to changes in local labor market 

conditions and remains demand-driven. Advisory board members need to be key 

partners that are not only expected to provide services to the program but that also 

stand to benefit from the relationship. For example, they might gain access through 

board involvement to information about other activities in the community that could 

have an effect on their own programs.

● Finally, sites should strive to maintain open communication with partners, manage 

expectations about roles, and help partners stay focused on the program mission.
21

Delivery of the Jobs Plus Employment Component

As is clear from the name Jobs Plus, employment is the program’s main focus, and employment 

services are a key element. The Jobs Plus NOFA states—

The purpose of the Jobs Plus Pilot program is to develop locally-based, job-driven 

approaches to increase earnings and advance employment outcomes through work 

readiness, employer linkages, job placement, educational advancement 

technology skills, and financial literacy for residents of public housing. (HUD, 

2014: 2)

This section explores how well the Jobs Plus sites understood what they were expected to deliver 

in terms of employment services, what they prioritized during this early period of 

implementation, which kinds of services they provided, early take-up of services, and some of 

the challenges they faced. It shows that—

● The array of employment services provided is generally similar among sites. They tend 

mostly to be job preparation and job search services, along with some occupational 

skills training. 

● For the most part, the employment services do not yet seem to be rooted in local labor 

market data or to be employer-driven, although these expectations are stated in the 

NOFA. 

● Employment services are not especially individualized to meet the specific needs and 

skill levels of each participant. Although some sites have taken steps to customize their 

approach to working with participants, most sites tend to take the same approach with 

all participants—for example, by referring all participants to a similar set of available 

services. This approach is likely the result of several factors, including a general lack of 

assessment, partnerships that make a particular (and limited) set of services available, 

and the sites’ overall approach to case management.

● There seems to be an interest among most sites in preparing participants for livingwage employment and creating opportunities for advancement, as specified in the 

NOFA. To achieve this goal, two sites in particular emphasized training and developed 

partnerships to deliver training and advancement services.

● Creating opportunities for more career-oriented jobs presents a number of challenges 

for implementers, including those related to—

o Program requirements and time commitment.

o Participants’ expectation of being placed into a job after training.

o Creating partnerships and ensuring accountability.

o Funding restrictions.

● There is a tension between sites’ interest in promoting career-oriented, living-wage 

jobs, which can include an investment of time spent in training, and residents’ need for 

immediate employment. Some sites responded to these dual needs by developing plans 

to help residents find immediate job placements while continuing to work with them on 

skill upgrades that would lead to better employment opportunities later. Future research 
22

will explore whether participants in fact achieved these skill upgrades and/or obtained 

better employment, and findings will be included in the final report on Jobs Plus.

● Barriers to employment that residents face are not unusual among low-income, lowskilled individuals who tend to be served by similar employment programs. Such 

barriers include limited literacy and math skills; lack of adequate childcare and 

transportation; having a criminal record; and substance abuse, health, and mental health 

issues. The sites are trying to address these challenges through a variety of strategies, 

discussed in the following sections.

Goals of Jobs Plus Employment Services 

The Jobs Plus NOFA set HUD’s expectations for delivering employment-related services. In 

addition to the pre-employment services that employment programs typically offer, including 

career exploration, job-readiness training, and job search and placement assistance, the NOFA 

indicated that Jobs Plus programs should also provide work experiences. Work experiences 

could include on-the-job training, internships, and Registered Apprenticeships.

25 The Jobs Plus 

program should also facilitate connections to education and training opportunities; provide rapid 

reemployment assistance in the event of job loss; and offer proactive post-placement job 

retention support and career advancement coaching. Additionally, case managers should work 

one on one with participants to develop Individual Training and Services Plans to establish 

participants’ employment goals, barriers, service strategies, and to track their progress. 

Finally, the NOFA stated that job developers—who can be grantee staff or staff of the local WIB 

or American Job Centers—should work directly with the business community to identify and 

create employment opportunities and the previously referenced work experiences. Employment 

opportunities should be in industries that offer career advancement opportunities, as identified by 

local labor market data, and training should be focused on these demand-driven opportunities. 

The overall goal of delivering this array of employment services is to connect public housing 

residents to the needed resources to build up their skills so that they move into in-demand jobs in 

industries with opportunities for career advancement, thereby meeting the needs of both the 

residents and local employers.

Unlike other employment programs, the Jobs Plus employment services are uniquely situated 

to reap the benefits of being part of a place-based initiative, which could potentially include 

opportunities for staff to know the context in which participants live, to know their families, 

and to have informal interactions at the housing developments. Additionally, by being a placebased initiative, Jobs Plus offers the potential to provide continued support after residents find 

work. Whereas many traditional employment programs provide only assistance through job 

placement or perhaps provide retention services for up to 90 days post employment, Jobs Plus 

participants are entitled to support from the program for as long as they live in the 

development (until the end of the Jobs Plus grant). This feature positions the program well to 

take a career pathways approach in which participants may start employment based on their 

current skills, then work to build skills through short-term training, enabling them to advance 

 

25 Registered Apprenticeship is a program of the United States Department of Labor that connects job seekers 

looking to learn new skills with employers looking for qualified workers. It combines job-related technical instruction with structured on-the-job learning experiences.
23

into higher-paying jobs. Compared with other employment programs, Jobs Plus could also 

have more opportunities to engage participants while they are employed, especially if the Jobs 

Plus staff have extended or weekend hours, because they are providing services where the 

participants live. It remains to be seen whether or not the Jobs Plus programs will take full 

advantage of opportunities afforded to them by being place-based, and an ongoing evaluation 

will explore this question further.

Conceptualizing Employment Services

In previous iterations of Jobs Plus, implementers provided employment services using a variety 

of approaches. Some used a case management approach, with emphasis on removing barriers 

to employment by providing support services. Others emphasized immediate job placement as 

a way to address immediate income needs of residents. In the NOFA for the current version of 

Jobs Plus, HUD emphasized career pathways, work experience, and access to training. Given 

that many public housing residents have an immediate need for employment and income, it is 

not surprising that, at least at some sites, tensions arose over what aspect of employment 

services to prioritize—helping residents get into jobs more quickly, although they may not be 

the kinds of quality jobs envisioned by the NOFA, or having residents delay employment while 

building skills first in order to obtain a better-quality job with more career advancement 

opportunities. 

Staff in Memphis, Roanoke, and St. Louis, for example, were explicit about the need to provide 

assistance with immediate placement and making sure that the program provided supports for 

retaining employment and advancing in the future. In St. Louis, staff adopted an approach that 

intended to place most participants into jobs or on-the-job training opportunities right away and 

then worked on a longer-term plan of improving educational and career credentials (such as 

earning a high school equivalency certificate and other types of educational certificates or 

degrees) to help facilitate advancement into better-paying jobs with better career opportunities in 

the future. Staff in Roanoke also mentioned that during the first year of the program, they 

focused on providing survival jobs to residents, because that was residents’ immediate need. 

Only after a year of program operations did staff think they could start having conversations with 

residents about obtaining a better-paying job or registering for training. 

In contrast, Memphis staff were emphatic about the need to ensure that residents knew that the 

program was more comprehensive than traditional job placement. As a staff member noted—

We work with residents to place them in employment with the promise that once 

they get stabilized, you know, to catch up on arrears on rent, utility bill, or 

whatever the situation is that requires them to be in immediate need of funds, they 

will open themselves to appropriate training down the road in a few months.

In these three cases, the tension was resolved in favor of immediate placement first, with 

attention to skill building and advancement later.

At some sites, like Cuyahoga and Roanoke, practitioners talked about the Jobs Plus program as a 

“step-by-step” process, noting that the role of the program in terms of employment services was 

to “meet residents where they were” and provide supports needed to aid them in the process of 

moving forward toward jobs and careers. As a result, rather than move every participant through 

the same set of services in the same order, services would be more tailored to the particular needs 

of each participant. For example, participants with minimal skills who needed employment right 
24

away might be placed in low-skill jobs while also taking high school equivalency classes to 

prepare them for more advanced training later on. In contrast, participants who had basic skills 

but needed more advanced skills might go into a short-term training program before being placed 

into more mid-level jobs.

Practitioners at most sites talked about the need for offering career and advancement 

opportunities, even if at first the focus was on survival jobs. Boston and Chicago were the two 

sites where staff particularly emphasized training and advancement as important components of 

the program. A Chicago staff member noted—

The service that I see that Jobs Plus offers is identifying growing industries that 

are hiring, that will provide full-time, permanent jobs, with benefits. That’s our 

mantra: full-time, permanent jobs, with benefits. That’s our goal.

This orientation to employment services seems most closely aligned with the vision for the 

program described in the NOFA. When speaking more broadly about Jobs Plus, many 

practitioners described the program as one that required staff to help build the confidence of 

residents, change their mindsets about work, provide encouragement, and foster introspection on 

the part of residents to be able to assess their own skills and future goals. 

Employment Services Provided

Given the diversity of views about the goals of the program and the expectations for delivering 

employment services in particular, one would expect to find a broad range of services offered 

across the sites. Other contextual factors also influenced the services offered, such as service 

delivery infrastructure, capacity, and partnerships. With a few exceptions, employment services 

offered are generic—that is, they are not tailored to the specific skill set or needs of the 

participant, nor to the workforce needs of local employers—and are not particularly intensive.

All sites provide general pre-employment services such as job-readiness assessments, résumé

writing assistance, and interview preparation. Some sites structure these services as part of 

classes offered to residents, and others offer more individualized assistance through the 

relationship between the participant and the case manager. Some sites use existing assessment 

tools to gauge whether residents are ready to start employment, to identify potential barriers to 

employment, and to develop action plans with residents. Others assess residents more informally, 

through one-on-one conversations with case managers. Pre-employment services are necessarily 

general in nature, rather than tailored to specific types of jobs or specific sectors or industries, 

because Jobs Plus participants could end up in a wide range of different kinds of jobs.

Job search assistance is offered in a variety of ways that can be found in most employment 

programs. At some sites, case managers post job lists in the main office so that residents can scan 

the list. When asked, case managers provide assistance with job searches, but for the most part 

participants conduct their own job searches. At other sites, community coaches provide one-onone assistance with job searches. Several other sites have organized onsite hiring events where 

residents can talk to employers directly and apply for openings. In this early period, a few sites 

had developed strong relationships with local workforce agencies, but most sites had yet to begin 

working with job developers—either hired by the program or through partnerships—or otherwise 

engage employers to help identify career-path jobs or in-demand industries; rather, job searches 

tend to be for any jobs that are available, regardless of pay or career opportunity provided. Sites 

that did engage job developers or other staff with strong ties to employers, either by hiring them 
25

directly or through closer relationships with partner organizations, included Charlotte, Roanoke, 

and St. Louis. Memphis had recently brought on an employment specialist at the time of the 

research visit there, and Houston was looking to hire a job developer but had not done so yet.

Other sites attempted to establish closer connections to employers through local WIBs or other 

business-related organizations. However, it is unclear whether any of these efforts led to job 

search assistance in higher-paying fields with career opportunities.

Early Program Participation and Employment Outcomes

Sites are required to report to HUD on Jobs Plus participants’ use of employment services such 

as job search assistance, job-readiness training, occupational skills training, and the start of 

employment. Site-reported data covering July 2015 through September 2016, the early 

implementation period, indicate moderate levels of participation in employment services and 

relatively low levels of reported employment gains. Although data reported to HUD by the sites 

have not been verified and precise participation levels are not reported here, there appears to be a 

general trend of greatest participation in initial assessment and drop-off with each subsequent 

activity in what might be considered a typical service flow. Job search assistance is the second 

most popular service, after the initial assessment, which at some sites seems to represent not 

much more than enrollment into Jobs Plus, rather than an assessment using the suggested 

Individual Training and Services Plan, for example. Still fewer people, on average, are enrolled 

in job-readiness training, and fewer still are enrolled in training or certificate programs. The 

percentage of residents who gain full-time employment appears to be in the single digits for most 

sites. 

Focusing on the early implementation period, it is difficult to tell whether approach, services 

provided, and early employment outcomes are related, beyond noting that some of the sites that 

focused on placing participants into jobs immediately had the highest reported placement rates, 

which is to be expected. For example, St. Louis focused on on-the-job training (essentially 

employment and training concurrently), and Charlotte emphasized removing barriers to 

employment, and these two sites appear to have the highest percentages of residents beginning 

full-time employment. 

Employment-Related Challenges and Support Services

It is not unusual that residents in the Jobs Plus housing developments faced many of the same 

barriers to employment that are common among many low-income individuals with minimal 

vocational skills. What is unusual about Jobs Plus compared with many programs that serve 

similar populations is that Jobs Plus was expected to serve all residents in the development who 

were working age and able to work, regardless of their needs or skill levels. Additionally, the 

2014 Jobs Plus NOFA made clear that HUD hoped that the services provided would be along the 

lines of sectoral or other career advancement initiatives, with a strong focus on meeting the 

demands of employers and working with participants to advance along a career pathway. Serving 

the entire population of a public housing development presents challenges on its own, but 

serving them with an advancement-focused, demand-driven set of services compounds those 

challenges. The Jobs Plus Pilot program provides an opportunity to explore how PHAs might 

approach this task.

• Literacy and math skills. Jobs Plus staff mentioned that many public housing residents 

grapple with limited literacy and math skills, which can prevent them from accessing training 

and advancing their careers, as well as limit the ability of the site to offer training and place 
26

individuals in living-wage jobs or on a path to advancement. To address limited literacy and 

math skills, some sites offer additional services such as adult literacy and high school 

equivalency classes. In cities like Boston, Houston, and Syracuse, where a significant 

proportion of the population in the developments has limited English proficiency, English as 

a Second Language classes were provided. Staff were challenged to find job placements that 

did not require English language proficiency.

• Childcare. Childcare was a common challenge of residents. Most sites offer assistance with 

childcare either by providing the service directly on site or by making referrals to childcare 

providers. Boston, for instance, offers onsite childcare for residents who take adult literacy 

classes.

• Transportation. Many sites mentioned lack of sufficient transportation as a challenge for 

residents who are trying to obtain employment. Some sites offered transportation assistance 

such as providing bus passes or gas cards. Some sites provided this service once a Jobs Plus 

member received the first paycheck, leaving the participant to figure out transportation 

before then.

• Criminal record and legal services. Staff at some sites mentioned that having a criminal 

record, an issue faced by a number of residents, limited their ability to access jobs, training,

and credentialing. Some sites partnered with institutions that offer legal assistance to public 

housing residents to correct errors or expunge records. In Syracuse, for instance, the Center 

for Community Alternatives has an in-house legal clinic. Jobs Plus members with a criminal 

background are referred to the legal clinic, where staff review their records for any errors, 

provide assistance in correcting errors, and inform residents of their rights about what 

information in their records to disclose or not.

• Substance abuse, health, and mental health. Some staff also flagged challenges of 

substance abuse, health, and mental health issues. In some situations, substance abuse could 

be detrimental to enrolling residents in training and placement. A number of sites offered

referrals to mental health services, and a few sites offer substance abuse assistance.

Other support services that sites make available include food assistance, student loan assistance, 

and youth services (table 2).
27

Table 2. Support Services Available at Jobs Plus Pilot Evaluation Sites

Site Child CareTransportation Legal Services Adult Literacy Mental Health 

Services

Substance Abuse 

Assistance

Boston   

Charlotte      

Chicago    

Cuyahoga    

Houston   

Memphis 

Roanoke      

St. Louis    

Syracuse    

Source: Analysis from 2016 field research conducted as part of the Jobs Plus Pilot Evaluation

Career-Focused Employment Services and Advancement

Many interviewees agreed that advancement opportunities were necessary if residents were to 

obtain living-wage employment. “In my opinion, the only way they’re [public housing residents]

gonna get out of a minimum-wage job and move out of [subsidized housing]—they have to have 

a credential of some kind,” said a partner in Roanoke. As a result, nearly all the sites developed 

partnerships with community colleges and other institutions that offer an array of skill-building 

and credentialing opportunities.

The range of opportunities varies across sites, with some sites like Syracuse offering a jobreadiness certification and referrals to the local WIB for on-the-job training to sites like Chicago 

that offer training in several fields. The most common industries in which sites offer training are 

manufacturing, healthcare, and hospitality. A few sites, like Chicago, Houston, and Roanoke, 

selected industries based on local market demands, but most made these decisions based on 

residents’ interests and available partner institutions.

Most training programs offered by sites are offered to the general public and do not tailor 

training programs in any way to meet the needs that might be more common among public 

housing residents, such as a need for classes in basic literacy skills. One exception is Roanoke, 

which adopted a training model that includes occupational training and built-in academic skills, 

such as reading, writing, and math, while in training. Offering academic skills instruction in the 

context of occupational skills training was an approach that resulted from staff recognizing that 

residents had low literacy levels. 

Challenges in Delivering Career-Focused Employment Services

• Investment of time. Implementers mentioned that one challenge related to taking up careerfocused opportunities is that some of the training offered requires time investments of weeks, 

months, or even years. In many cases, residents are searching for employment to address 

immediate economic needs and are unwilling or unable to invest the time required for skillbuilding that would lead to better-quality jobs.

• Training prerequisites. Another challenge associated with taking up training opportunities 

is related to the requirements of many training programs. Some programs require certain 
28

literacy levels, paperwork, drug screenings, or criminal background checks. According to 

practitioners, these requirements make it difficult for public housing residents to access 

programs. 

• Job placement. One way the sites have attempted to facilitate job placement has been to 

create partnerships with employers or employment services organizations. In Boston, for 

example, the program offers home health aide training and has partnered with three home 

health aide agencies to place trainees. The program has an MOU with these agencies to give 

priority to Boston Housing Authority trainees, and the agencies attend training sessions

where participants can fill out job applications directly. Charlotte partnered with a local 

employment services nonprofit to place a staff person on site to assess residents’ skills and 

certify residents as qualified for particular kinds of work. The employment services 

organization has relationships with many of the area employers. When employers have one 

or more openings, the employment agency sponsors a hiring fair and invites only residents 

who are qualified for particular positions to attend. Employers meet with residents at the 

public housing site, interview, and hire on the spot.

• Funding. One challenge that one site ran into is related to funding restrictions. In St. Louis, 

the program had allocated a certain amount of its grant funding for paying the salaries for 

some of the on-the-job training slots. However, the site reported that it later learned that 

HUD has restrictions about the use of grant funds for training. Although the site tried to 

resolve this issue with HUD and preserve the program, it was ultimately too difficult to 

resolve, and the program was dropped. 

Considerations for Future Work on Employment Services

The Jobs Plus sites’ early experiences delivering employment-related services point to some 

lessons that can help inform the delivery of these services going forward.

• Sites might benefit from taking a more individualized employment services approach 

with participants. Sites tend to favor immediate job placement first or training first for 

everyone and to connect people to services that are available through their partners but that 

are not necessarily tailored to the individual. Instead, sites might consider using more of an 

individualized approach—that is, they could focus on assessing individuals’ skills and needs 

and then working with them on next steps for employment based on those skills and needs. 

One possible way to assess skills on an individual basis is to be more diligent about 

completing the Individual Training and Services Plans with each participant, as directed by 

the NOFA. 

• To support the employment goals of the program, sites will need to develop stronger 

direct (or indirect ties) to employers. In spite of the emphasis in the Notice of Funding 

Availability on ensuring that the Jobs Plus programs are meeting employer needs, there does 

not yet seem to be an employer-facing component of the program at many sites. For 

example, most sites had not yet hired job developers, and many were not yet working closely 

with job developers or business services representatives at the WIBs who have strong 

relationships with employers. Establishing an employer-facing component—either directly 

or through stronger and clearer relationships and expectations with local WIBs—will 

eventually be necessary for the employment services to be demand-driven.
29

• Finally, sites may be missing an opportunity to deliver services to residents as a group 

and take advantage of the benefits that residents could reap by experiencing training 

and other services in cohorts with other residents. A place-based program may present a 

good opportunity to send groups of qualified participants together to training programs in 

areas where common interest and local demand exist, including sector-focused programs. By 

training together in cohorts instead of individually attending a virtually unlimited variety of 

training programs, residents can study together at the development, discuss and reinforce 

what they are learning, and support each other in a way that classmates not living in the same 

development cannot. This can work only if sufficient common interest exists among 

participants in the same industries or occupations. Encouraging cohort training opportunities, 

preferably in industries with local demand, must be balanced with meeting the individual 

participant needs and interests. 
30

Implementation of the Jobs Plus Earned Income Disregard

Many have criticized public housing rents—which calculate tenants’ contribution on 30 percent 

of adjusted household income—for potentially discouraging work, because approximately onethird of any increase in earned income goes to increased rent. By disregarding any additional 

earned income from the rent calculation, the JPEID seeks to counteract this work disincentive 

and, in turn, to make work pay. 

This section presents early experiences implementing the JPEID across the nine pilot sites. In 

doing so, it reviews the JPEID goals and early outcomes and implementation challenges reported 

by Jobs Plus staff. It also presents key recommendations based on this experience and identifies 

issues to monitor in the evaluation going forward. 

Program staff across all nine sites were generally excited about the JPEID and its potential to 

help recruit program participants, to motivate them to increase earned incomes, and to help them 

make progress toward self-sufficiency. Many interviewees noted the JPEID’s particular 

effectiveness in generating resident interest in the overall Jobs Plus program and in getting 

participants connected to other Jobs Plus services. One case manager remarked, “I think [the 

JPEID is] a great recruiting tool ... it’s probably what got them in the door in the first place.”

Uncertainty about JPEID implementation, however, has both hampered enrollment in the 

earnings disregard and limited the number of households that have benefited from it. Staff 

members across all sites expressed confusion and frustration about what they perceived as 

unclear or limited guidance from HUD and the technical assistance provider, particularly 

concerning how residents enroll to receive JPEID and which income sources are subject to the 

JPEID exemptions. Additionally, several sites have struggled to develop data systems to track 

and report JPEID outcomes.

Design and Goals of the Jobs Plus Earned Income Disregard

Rent-based employment incentives for nonelderly public housing residents who are able to work 

can take many forms, and prior Jobs Plus iterations incorporated several variations with quite 

different results. In the original demonstration, each site designed its own rent-based incentives. 

Most sites opted for either flat rents—some of which escalated over time—or income-based rents 

below the standard 30 percent adjusted incomes (Miller and Riccio, 2002). Implementation of 

rent incentives was delayed, however, due to negotiations between HUD and Congress about 

how to fund the lost rental revenue. As a result, most sites did not implement rent incentives until 

2 years after the program began. Overall, 48 percent of participants benefited from these 

incentives; this figure varied across sites from 19 to 77 percent. Several sites complemented rent 

incentives with other financial incentives, such as escrow and rent credits (Bloom, Riccio, and 

Verma, 2005).

In the SIF replication of Jobs Plus, however, the only rent incentive was the already authorized, 

but little used, EID. EID implementation is highly complex, and staff reported difficulty 

explaining it to residents. EID roll-out was delayed as staff contended with modifying rent 

calculation procedures, and the EID’s time frame—a 100 percent EID the first year and 50 

percent disregard the second—was not as attractive as the incentives offered in the initial Jobs 
31

Plus demonstration. Taken together, these issues help explain the very low rates of residents 

benefiting from the EID in the two SIF replication sites—3 percent in San Antonio and 1 percent 

in the Bronx (Greenberg et al., 2015).

26

Unlike the original Jobs Plus demonstration program, the rent incentive in the HUD scale-up 

iteration was specifically prescribed in the Jobs Plus NOFA and applies to all sites. The JPEID 

provides a 100 percent disregard of any additional earned income (that is, wages) throughout the 

entirety of the Jobs Plus grant period. Thus, participants’ rent contributions do not rise following 

an increase in earned income, thereby removing the “tax” on increased work effort. 

According to Section 2(a) of the 2014 Jobs Plus NOFA—

All targeted residents in the Jobs Plus development are eligible to receive the 

JPEID benefit, but they must sign up for the Jobs Plus program, even if they do 

not actively participate in other Jobs Plus activities. (HUD, 2014: 4)

Residents can benefit from the JPEID from the time they enroll through the end of the 

demonstration for as long as 4 years. Thus, those who sign up for the program earlier have the 

potential to benefit longer from the JPEID. The NOFA also specifies that once enrolled, 

participants can receive the JPEID without participating in any additional Jobs Plus activities—

although Jobs Plus staff hope that the JPEID encourages residents to avail themselves of other 

Jobs Plus services. 

The NOFA also specifies that HUD will reimburse sites for JPEID costs (for example, 

administration and forgone rent revenue) through their Jobs Plus grants. The NOFA required 

applicants to estimate the amount of forgone rent and to include that figure in their proposal 

budgets. To trigger reimbursements, sites must calculate participants’ rents both with and 

without the JPEID and provide those figures to HUD. Thus, even though rent contributions will 

not rise, residents must continue to report income increases in the same manner as they did 

before enrolling in the JPEID. The NOFA also specified that further JPEID guidance would be 

available when the grants were awarded. 

Findings From Early Implementation

Site-reported quarterly data indicate substantial variation in JPEID enrollment. From April 2015 

through September 2016, the percentage of eligible residents (nonelderly residents who were 

able to work) who were enrolled in the JPEID varied from 8 percent in Chicago to 91 percent in 

Memphis, as shown in figure 3. The average across all sites is 42 percent. High enrollment 

numbers in Memphis are attributable to the site’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative 

implementation grant. As residents receive relocation counseling, they are simultaneously 

enrolled in Jobs Plus and the JPEID.27 Among enrolled households, the percentage reporting a 

JPEID benefit varied from 9 to 39 percent across sites (not shown).

28

 

26 Over time, even as sites worked through early EID implementation challenges, not many eligible residents took 

advantage of this incentive. 27 The Choice Neighborhoods Initiative implementation grant involves the physical redevelopment of the entire 

housing development, requiring relocation of its residents.

28 The summary report used for this analysis did not include data for two of the nine sites.
32

Figure 3. Share of Residents Able To Work Enrolled in JPEID, From Program Inception Through 

September 2016

JPEID = Jobs Plus Earned Income Disregard.

Source: Quarterly site data reported to HUD from April 2015 through September 2016 (not independently verified)

Conceptualizing and Targeting

Staff interviewed generally believe that the JPEID is crucial to the success of the Jobs Plus 

program, as it eliminates a major disincentive for gaining employment or increasing earnings. 

Although many believe that the JPEID is especially beneficial to participants who are not 

employed but who could secure work quickly, as they can easily gain wage income following 

enrollment, none of the sites reported limiting marketing to that group. One interviewee, 

although, suggested that those who are already working can benefit from JPEID the most, as they 

are likely in a better position to work more hours or secure a second job.

Despite broad agreement on its importance, emphasis placed on the JPEID in the recruiting 

process varied across sites. Some have prominently featured the JPEID in recruitment efforts and 

noted that it was especially helpful in getting hard-to-serve residents in the door. Other sites see 

the JPEID as complementing job-training opportunities rather than as a major selling point. 

Some staff at these sites cautioned that overemphasizing the JPEID could lead to participants’

enrolling in the benefit without using other Jobs Plus services.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Boston Charlotte Chicago Cuyahoga Houston Memphis Roanoke St. Louis Syracuse

Enrolled in JPEID (%)

Site
33

One conceptualization challenge faced by numerous sites concerns property managers’ role 

implementing the JPEID. At nearly all sites, property management staff are responsible for dayto-day JPEID implementation, including entering income sources, calculating the amount of 

forgone rent, and communicating the details of the disregard to participants. Interviewees across 

sites, however, indicated that many had not included property managers in planning and 

conceptualizing the JPEID, and that this omission hampered initial implementation. For example, 

property managers at several sites were unenthusiastic about the additional work caused by the 

JPEID or did not communicate the JPEID clearly to participants.

Implementation Challenges

Overall, many interviewees found JPEID implementation challenging, with three processes 

proving especially problematic: enrollment, calculation, and data collection and reporting. One 

senior PHA executive reported, “Conceptually, it’s a great idea. It is a little difficult to 

implement and it’s ... [a] bit of a data nightmare to keep up with.” Another staff member said, “I 

think that [property management] is having a difficult time with getting their arms around what 

they actually need to do to make [JPEID] happen ... that’s an area that I think we’re going to be 

challenged with.”

To receive the JPEID, residents must first enroll in the benefit; however, Jobs Plus staff both 

within and across sites expressed disagreement and confusion about resident enrollment 

procedures. Some of this confusion stemmed from HUD’s guidance on how residents should 

enroll in the JPEID—an issue reported across sites. Many interviewees elevated the need for 

more timely, accurate, and complete technical assistance. They also felt that more frequent 

JPEID webinars would have been useful for getting the needed guidance, or even clarifying their 

understanding of what was being communicated.

Another source of confusion, which played out mainly within sites, stemmed from variation in 

the messaging on how residents could enroll. Broadly, it appears that sites adopted one of four 

JPEID enrollment processes.

1. Simultaneous enrollment in Jobs Plus and the JPEID. When residents enrolled in Job 

Plus, Jobs Plus staff forwarded their information to property managers, who noted each 

resident’s current rent contribution.

2. Separate enrollment in Jobs Plus and JPEID. Residents who enrolled in Jobs Plus were 

referred to the property manager’s office to enroll in the JPEID. Residents then had to meet 

with the property manager to enroll in the JPEID.

3. Enrollment following assessment. Following completion of a basic assessment 

administered by the Jobs Plus staff (which collected data on work status, education, and other 

items), residents were enrolled in the JPEID.

4. Enrollment following income increase. In at least two sites, staff enrolled residents in the 

JPEID when they reported income increases to property managers. Since the research team’s

data collection visits, HUD provided guidance that those sites are to discontinue that process.

To simplify enrollment procedures in the JPEID and help sites meet saturation goals, HUD now 

allows sites to use automatic enrollment so that residents in a Jobs Plus development no longer 

need to sign up for Jobs Plus or for the JPEID in particular to benefit from the disregard. As of the 

data collection visits for this report, the sites were not implementing this option. Nonsimultaneous 
34

enrollment in Jobs Plus and the JPEID led to implementation difficulties at a few sites, as residents 

who had enrolled in Jobs Plus (but not in the JPEID) increased their incomes. At least one program 

back-dated JPEID enrollment so that participants who had enrolled only in Jobs Plus initially could 

benefit from the income disregard. The ongoing evaluation will follow the implications of the 

policy change allowing for automatic enrollment into the JPEID. 

Another implementation challenge concerns calculation of the JPEID. While the NOFA states 

that the JPEID disregards only earned income (that is, wages), several site staff suggested that 

they—at least initially—believed the JPEID applied to other income sources as well (such as 

child support payments). As a result of this confusion, the Boston program had yet to implement 

the JPEID at the time of the field research visit, but it is promising rent credits once it receives 

HUD guidance.29 A separate JPEID calculation challenge occurred when residents were 

participating in other rent programs, like the Family Self-Sufficiency program and the regular 

EID. For example, Cuyahoga and St. Louis have had to struggle with balancing Family SelfSufficiency escrow and the JPEID, as participants cannot receive both. 

Finally, many interviewees cited data collection and reporting as a significant challenge to JPEID 

implementation. To calculate and report the JPEID, sites are either using a HUD-provided 

spreadsheet, their own spreadsheets, or paper records―all of which they find time-consuming. 

Sites also require accurate income data to receive reimbursement for forgone rent. However, 

several case managers indicated that getting participants to report income increases was a 

challenge, as residents did not understand the necessity to report increases if those increases do

not affect rents. Interviewees at a couple of the sites that had implemented the regular EID noted 

that this experience helped them implement the JPEID, as they had experience in explaining 

income disregards and developing data systems to track the benefit.30

Jobs Plus Earned Income Disregard Marketing and Financial Empowerment

As discussed previously, many Jobs Plus staff believe that the JPEID is particularly effective in 

generating resident interest in Jobs Plus. Confusion about JPEID implementation, however, appears 

to have hampered JPEID marketing efforts. At several sites, residents received conflicting 

information about how the JPEID works from different staff members or partners involved in the

program. Some interviewees believe that this inconsistent messaging eroded trust between residents 

and staff, potentially discouraging program participation.

Some sites’ marketing efforts also caused resident confusion about the JPEID. Several initially 

marketed the JPEID as a rent freeze, which led to confusion when residents learned that the 

JPEID excludes only earned income. One promotional flyer, for example, said, “When you get a 

job, your rent freezes,” which does not clearly specify that the “rent freeze” applies only to 

earned income. In several sites, staff reported that HUD officials who visited at program launch 

used similar language, potentially adding to the confusion. As the program progressed, many 

sites changed their messaging to clarify that the JPEID applies only to increases in earned 

income. Several interviewees recommended keeping the message simple but clear, such as 

“Increase your paycheck, not your rent!”

 

29 As of September 2016, only 16 percent of nonelderly residents who were able to work in Boston had enrolled in 

the JPEID, the second-lowest figure across the nine sites. 30 Four sites—Boston, Chicago, Cuyahoga, and Roanoke—had previously implemented the regular EID.
 

35 

Many sites integrated financial empowerment initiatives with the JPEID, including budget and 

credit counseling, helping participants to open savings accounts or Individual Development 

Accounts,31 and connecting participants to homeownership opportunities (table 3). Among these 

programs, the most frequently adopted include financial literacy, credit counseling, and 

household budgeting assistance. 

Table 3. Financial Empowerment Activities at Jobs Plus Pilot Evaluation Sites 

Site 

Financial 

Literacy 

Credit 

Counseling 

Credit 

Repair Budgeting 

Tax 

Assistance 

Benefits 

Counseling 

Savings 

Promotion 

Boston      

Charlotte       

Chicago    

Cuyahoga   

Houston    

Memphis   

Roanoke      

St. Louis    

Syracuse     

Source: Analysis from 2016 field research conducted as part of the Jobs Plus Pilot Evaluation

Several Jobs Plus staff noted the importance of connecting financial empowerment with the 

JPEID, as it enables participants to leverage the increased earnings that result from both the 

JPEID and greater employment. Further, financial empowerment training can help participants 

save money needed to move out of public housing or cushion increases in rent following the 

expiration of the JPEID. To that end, one program director shared that “[participants’] rent is not 

going up ‘til 2019. So we want to make sure [that], as people obtain employment ... they’re

budgeting their money better” to prepare for that day.” 

Although many program staff expressed concern about low participation rates in financial 

empowerment programming, two sites devised strategies to encourage greater attendance at these 

classes. Roanoke implemented a policy that forgives back rent for those who enroll in Jobs Plus 

and attend a certain number of financial literacy classes. Participants who fail to attend those 

classes are responsible for paying the back rent owed. Staff in Cuyahoga, meanwhile, report 

increased participation in financial literacy workshops after combining them with professional 

development and job-training activities. 

Considerations for Future Implementation of the Jobs Plus Earned Income Disregard 

The sites’ early experiences implementing the JPEID point to some important lessons for the 

delivery of this component going forward. 

• Sites should strive to minimize residents’ confusion about enrolling in the JPEID. One 

way to ease enrollment is to make enrollment in Jobs Plus and the JPEID simultaneous, in 

which case, the Jobs Plus program staff forward the names of new program participants to 

property managers, rather than requiring the participants to do so. HUD’s automatic 

 

31 Individual Development Accounts are designed to encourage savings by providing financial matches to those who 

save and then use those savings for buying a home, furthering education, starting a small business, or some other 

approved use. 
36

enrollment provision, which was not yet in place at the time of the field research visits, offers 

another way to simplify this process going forward.

Jobs Plus staff should also ensure that JPEID messaging is both consistent and accurate. One 

way to ensure consistency is to designate certain individuals—perhaps the community 

coaches—as lead messengers for the JPEID, as Syracuse did, and provide lead messengers 

with additional training on the disregard. Interviewees also noted that JPEID messaging from 

community coaches, who explain the benefit in ways that residents can understand, could be 

especially effective.

• Sites should ensure they are ready to implement the JPEID and that property 

managers both understand and buy in to the JPEID. Before implementation, Jobs Plus 

program directors, housing authority fiscal staff, and property managers should develop 

policies and procedures explaining JPEID eligibility and enrollment, which income sources 

are excluded, and how to market the benefit. They should also ensure that data systems could

track and report the JPEID before enrolling participants. Since property managers have a 

critical role in its implementation, they should (1) be involved in developing implementation 

plans; (2) understand JPEID eligibility and which income sources are to be excluded; (3) be 

able to clearly explain the JPEID to residents; and (4) ensure that residents understand the 

need to report income increases, even if their rents will not increase.

• Sites should identify messaging around work incentives that appeal to both those who 

are working and those who are not. Staff reported that some residents who were working 

before the launch of Jobs Plus feel the JPEID is unfair, as their baseline rents were set at a 

higher level. This impression suggests the need for sites to clarify that those who are already 

working can still benefit if they increase their earnings—through working more hours or 

increased wage rates (which may also be an incentive to get training to help them do so). 

Given that many participants have not worked in some time and likely have little or no 

income, they may not see the value in learning about budgeting or saving. Jobs Plus staff 

should consider innovative ways to encourage attendance at financial empowerment classes. 

• Clearer technical assistance and guidance is needed to help sites implement the JPEID 

more effectively. HUD should clearly outline who is eligible for the JPEID and the sources 

of income to be disregarded. The technical assistance providers should supply consistent 

information to local program staff on the JPEID, and the availability of more one-on-one 

technical assistance (from either HUD or the technical assistance subcontractor) would help 

sites implement this important aspect of the Jobs Plus program effectively. 
37

Implementing Community Support for Work

The CSW component of Jobs Plus aims to strengthen the work-supporting relationships within 

public housing communities so that as many residents as possible are engaged in meaningful 

work-related activities. This section presents the goals of CSW and describes how grantees 

implemented it in the early phases of the pilot. Analysis reveals three main findings: (1) grantees 

launched various types of discrete CSW-focused activities; (2) as intended, some grantees 

embrace CSW as a universal paradigm—that is, an orientation where CSW infuses all aspects of 

life in the development and that requires the commitment of all staff, residents, and partners; and 

(3) early implementation issues experienced include operational, community, and individual 

challenges.

Defining Community Support for Work 

As described previously in this report, CSW aims to connect residents to Jobs Plus services and 

employment opportunities, strengthen resident networks related to employment, and produce a 

lasting change within the social environment at the Jobs Plus development. As envisioned in the 

original demonstration, CSW intends to create “sustained support for work during and beyond 

the period of the Jobs Plus program” (HUD, 2014: 4)―in other words, creating a lasting 

environment where there is mutual support among residents to help each other become employed 

and stay employed. Four elements of CSW stand out as integral in prior demonstrations and were 

encouraged in HUD’s policy guidance for this round of Jobs Plus. Described in the following 

paragraphs, these elements include saturation, resident leadership, relationship building, and 

community expectations.

One facet of CSW is its central role in contributing to the Jobs Plus goal of saturation by infusing 

the entire public housing development with messages about the importance of work, the 

availability of employment, and the opportunity for support in obtaining it. In past 

demonstrations, these messages promoting work and career engagement were relayed not only 

by Jobs Plus staff but also by residents, property managers, PHA staff, and community-based

partners. 

A second element of CSW is its strong emphasis on resident leadership. The 2014 HUD NOFA 

highlighted the idea that residents must ultimately “own” the program so that they will be 

responsible for sustaining the norms, expectations, and networks after the Jobs Plus effort is 

completed. If residents are involved in planning, operating, and influencing the priorities of Jobs 

Plus, the benefits of the intervention may show greater sustained effect. This element has most 

often been facilitated by deploying outreach workers or community coaches, a small cohort of 

residents hired to spread the word about the program to neighbors and encourage them to 

participate (Blank and Wharton-Fields, 2008; Kato, 2004).

A third element of CSW is its focus on building networks and relationships that enhance the 

social capital of residents, which in turn broadens their connections to employment opportunities. 

At least two levels of relationship building are important in CSW: (1) among residents who live 

in the public housing development, and (2) between residents of the development and the 

broader community. Neighbor-to-neighbor exchanges of information, network building, mutual 

support, and efforts to make connections to community-based organizations are only a few 

approaches used in past Jobs Plus demonstrations. In addition, past demonstrations actualized 

this element through the facilitation of social connections that strengthen residents’ attachment to 
38

work, such as offering babysitting; rides to interviews, work, or appointments; and emotional 

support.

A fourth element of CSW involves enhancing the shared expectations and aspirations for work. 

CSW helps to establish community expectations that every resident enriches the neighborhood 

by taking individual actions toward work, such as through paid employment and volunteer 

service. In this way, CSW can be conceptualized as promoting cultural or mindset shifts among 

resident populations to encourage them to think differently about themselves, their aspirations, 

and their life trajectories. Ultimately, CSW efforts result in a community where all residents 

support each other to become economically strong enough to move out of poverty. 

Operationalizing Community Support for Work

Despite the language that clearly describes the goals of CSW in the NOFA, expectations for 

exactly how to implement this component are less clear. Grantees generally agree that CSW is 

the most nebulous component and the one that is hardest to put in place. This elusiveness has 

contributed to a challenging dynamic in which most sites are grappling with how to define the 

CSW scope. In general, grantees lack clarity about what constitutes CSW and hold differing 

ideas about the purpose of CSW relative to the other two Jobs Plus components. 

Grantees’ thinking about the purpose of CSW has been shaped by various messages from HUD 

and its staff. The HUD NOFA was quite clear that CSW was more than only recruitment and 

enrollment of residents.

Leadership, resident participation and empowerment and building relationships—

between residents and from the development into the community—that will lead 

to sustained support for work during and beyond the period of the Jobs Plus 

program are key functions of community support for work. (HUD, 2014: 4)

However, implementing this directive is less straightforward, and grantees have also 

subsequently been directed to track several quantitative measurements that do not translate easily 

into this NOFA directive, including the number of events and number of residents who attended 

events. These quantitative measures may not accurately reflect a site that, on the ground, has 

implemented CSW in ways that are consistent with the four key elements previously described. 

For example, a site with very poor turnout at events, or even little offer of events, could 

nevertheless rank very high on implementation of CSW in general but in ways that cannot be 

easily quantified. One neighbor telling another about a job opportunity, in private, perhaps when 

passing by each other in the development, is an example.

Overall, most grantees expressed a need for more clarity about CSW. As an example of one 

source of confusion, the grantee conference hosted by HUD in March 2016 included sessions 

that presented different definitions of and approaches to CSW. While the Jobs Plus staff in 

attendance found it helpful to learn of innovative approaches, some suggested they needed more 

clarity on what constituted CSW activities, particularly those that engage residents in activities 

that on the surface may not include an explicit focus on work (such as social, cultural, artistic, 

and athletic activities).

Although HUD officials intended to leave the definition of CSW broad to give grantees 

flexibility in determining how to best implement it at their sites, steps have been taken since the 

March 2016 conference to offer more guidance and support. HUD officials created a document 

that provides a vision for CSW and outlines who is responsible for developing it, articulating 
39

very clearly that “everyone has a role in building CSW” (HUD, 2016). Grantees’ responses to 

this document and how it will affect CSW strategies will be explored in the future.

Key Findings From Early Implementation of Community Support for Work

Focus of Community Support for Work Activities

All sites began to implement a set of activities, events, and programs within the first year. Sites 

moved with various levels of priority to get a CSW program in place. Five different 

programmatic strategies emerged that were most frequently described as the core elements of 

CSW: (1) community coaches, (2) enrollment and recruitment activities, (3) community events, 

(4) social support and network building, and (5) bridging to the broader neighborhood and 

metropolitan area. Most sites implemented a range of these strategies, with some implementing 

all strategies. 

Community coaches. The core mechanism used across sites to implement CSW was to hire 

residents as community coaches. The goal of the coaching program centered on connecting 

residents to the Jobs Plus program, to each other, and to job opportunities. Some Jobs Plus staff 

suggested that coaches were available as facilitators and connectors to residents beyond the 

professional staff and physical office. Coaches made connections with residents while walking 

around the development and during hours beyond the typical work week. Site staff described 

four main roles held by coaches; the first three were as recruiters for the program, relationship 

builders, and peer leaders for other residents. A fourth role was as a beneficiary of the program; 

some sites, such as St. Louis, were explicit that the coach role was intended to be a stepping 

stone to employment and professional advancement for residents (table 4).

Every site hired at least one community coach, and most sites hired between two and four 

coaches. Coaches had different titles across sites, including ambassadors, weavers, and coaches. 

Most coaches worked on a part-time basis, and the positions were often structured as short-term, 

temporary positions (no more than 1 year), as shown in table 5. The available program data 

suggest that the coaches engaged only a limited portion of the population at each site. For 

example, during three quarters of 2016, sites reported that about one-fourth of adult residents 

across the sites were connected to a coach32 (not shown).

 

32 According to the Jobs Plus Data Dictionary, a document that HUD provides to sites for reference for quarterly 

data reporting to the agency, a Jobs Plus coach connects with an adult public housing resident by holding an inperson conversation or a phone call about Jobs Plus (HUD, n.d.).
40

Table 4. Typology of Roles Demonstrated by Coaches at Jobs Plus Pilot Evaluation Sites

Roles Description Number of Sites Illustrated Example From Field Research

Recruiters Coaches as marketers of the 

Jobs Plus program. They 

disseminated information about 

Jobs Plus with the goal of getting 

residents enrolled in the 

program.

8 “They’re our initial face of Jobs Plus. They’re in the field 90 

percent of the time spreading the word about what we have to 

offer in Jobs Plus. ... It’s their job to dispel all the myths, 

because believe it or not, there’s tons of myths that went around 

when the program first kicked off. So they were our mythbusters.”

Relationship builders Coaches as connectors with and 

among residents. Coaches built 

trust with other residents. In the 

process of deepening 

relationships with residents, 

coaches also became a source 

of genuine support for residents 

who entered the workforce.

7 “They are the bridge. They are residents, and so once we have 

the residents, the trust factor in saying this is a program, and 

they can ask them questions that they may not be able to ask us 

[as staff]. And the ambassador can say, ‘Yeah, this is how it 

works. This is what we need to have done.’... So it’s critical to 

have a good ambassador who can explain what’s going on. And 

they’re that bridge from us, because they are our employees but 

they’re also residents.”

Beneficiaries Coaches as participants of Jobs 

Plus. The coach position was 

considered a stepping stone into 

the workforce for the handful of 

residents who obtained the 

position. Coaches would be able 

to develop skills to allow them to 

succeed in the workforce and 

they would eventually graduate 

out of being a coach.

7 “If you’re residents here, I don’t expect you to stay in this 

[coaching] position. ... This empowers them to understand their 

abilities and what they can do because some of the individuals 

we hired thought that they could not do this job, didn’t think that 

they would be able to be successful, but they have been. So it 

helps their self-esteem and helps them to understand they have 

the ability to do anything they think they can. ...And so we’re 

using this as an opportunity to springboard them into training, 

school, work, whatever that looks like for them, wherever they 

are in that process.”

Peer leaders Coaches as models. They were 

viewed as leaders and examples 

for other residents to emulate.

5 “I think that, again, leading by example is the most effective. And 

so being able to see the coaches in action, seeing them 

facilitating meetings. ...[Residents] get so excited when they see 

someone who lives in their community who is working like they’re 

working or trying to gain different skills like they are leading and 

facilitating these meetings, for example, and encouraging them 

to do the same.”

Source: Analysis from 2016 field research conducted as part of the Jobs Plus Pilot Evaluation
41

Table 5. Characteristics of Community Coaches at Jobs Plus Pilot Evaluation Sites

Site, Employer, 

and Role Title

Current 

Number of 

Coaches

Hours 

per 

week

Wage

($) Reports to

Rotating vs. 

Long-Term 

Position

Typical 

Weekly 

Schedule

Caseload for 

Engagement

Activities Beyond 

Recruitment

Boston, MA, 

Boston Housing 

Authority:

Community 

Coach

3 18 15.00/hr Program

assistant 

director 

Long-term The coaches 

typically work 

18 hours a 

week. One 

coach works

Monday, 

Wednesday,

and Friday. The 

second coach 

works Tuesday, 

Wednesday,

and Thursday. 

The third coach 

works every

day and 

manages the 

front desk.

Individuals are 

assigned to 

coaches by referral 

source: people 

coming to Jobs 

Plus through the 

daycare are 

assigned to one 

coach, walk-ins are 

assigned to a 

second coach, and 

people who 

responded to 

marketing materials 

are assigned to a 

third coach.

Coaches are 

responsible for 

completing intake and 

enrollment into the Jobs 

Plus program. Two of 

the coaches are also 

responsible for making 

appointments for VITA 

(tax service) and 

following up with people 

after their appointment. 

The third community 

coach manages the 

front desk full time.

Charlotte, NC

Charlotte Housing 

Authority:

Community 

Coach

3 25 12.50/hr Lead case

coordinator

Rotating Monday 

through Friday, 

9:00 a.m.–2:00

p.m. and 12:00

p.m.–5:00 p.m. 

Community job 

coaches are not 

assigned a 

caseload. 

Front desk, receptionist 

activities, monitor 

activity logs, produce 

event flyers, facilitate 

monthly support 

groups, work with 

resident organization.

Chicago, IL, 

Metropolitan 

Family Services: 

Program 

Supervisor

3 37.5 26,000/y

r

Program 

supervisor

Long-term 8:30 a.m.–5:00

p.m.; rotating 

late nights until 

7:00 p.m. on 

Tuesdays and 

Saturdays.

50 clients per 

coach. 

Intakes on clients,

provide referrals,

conduct followup,

organize Jobs Plus 

events.

Cuyahoga, OH, 

Cuyahoga 

Metropolitan 

3 15-20 8.10/hr Weaver 

supervisor

Depends on 

weaver’s 

interests and 

Varies; 3–4 

days per week; 

2–3 hour shifts; 

Divided into 

“projects” within a 

property.

Actively engaged at 

events/activities 

occurring at properties,
42

Site, Employer, 

and Role Title

Current 

Number of 

Coaches

Hours 

per 

week

Wage

($) Reports to

Rotating vs. 

Long-Term 

Position

Typical 

Weekly 

Schedule

Caseload for 

Engagement

Activities Beyond 

Recruitment

Housing 

Authority: Weaver

career goals typical office 

hours.

resident meetings, Jobs

Plus monthly team 

meetings, Weaver team 

meetings. 

Houston, TX, 

Houston Housing 

Authority:

Community 

Coach

2 26 15,000/y

r

Program 

manager

Long-term Hours vary due 

to activities/

events 

scheduled for 

the week.

Hours can also 

fluctuate from 

weekday to 

weekend 

hours. 

Community 

Coaches are not 

assigned a 

caseload. Coaches 

provide support to 

the Career 

Coaches & Service 

Coordinator. 

Complete enrollment 

forms, facilitate

orientations, facilitate

resident council 

meetings, complete

post-assessments, 

make referrals, and 

monitor the computer 

lab.

Memphis, TN,

Memphis Housing 

Authority:

Ambassador

6 10 10.00/hr Lead case 

manager

Long-term Monday–

Friday; hours 

vary. 

Families are 

divided by 

geographic 

location. 

Meeting RSVPs,

opportunity 

announcements,

assistance at meetings,

mail communication,

and case manager 

support. Each 

community coach is 

also assigned to a case 

manager.

Roanoke, VA, 

Roanoke 

Redevelopment 

and Housing 

Authority:

Ambassador

2 20 12.50/hr Program 

manager

Rotating 11:00 a.m.–

5:00 p.m., flex 

as needed. 

As needed; use 

targeted focus. 

Residents are 

contacted for 

specific purpose.

Assist with events, staff 

meetings, attend 

training. 

St. Louis, MO, 

St. Louis Agency 

Employment: 

Community

Coach 

4 20 10.00/hr Project

lead

Rotating 9:00 a.m.–2:00 

p.m. and 12:00 

p.m.–5:00 p.m.; 

4 days/week, 

can vary 

Each coach is 

responsible for 1/4 

of the development 

(approximately 91 

households each). 

Assist clients with 

enrollment; promote 

programs at meetings; 

promote community 

resources; babysit; 
43

Site, Employer, 

and Role Title

Current 

Number of 

Coaches

Hours 

per 

week

Wage

($) Reports to

Rotating vs. 

Long-Term 

Position

Typical 

Weekly 

Schedule

Caseload for 

Engagement

Activities Beyond 

Recruitment

depending on 

events. 

assist with event setup, 

including job fairs; 

serve meals. 

Syracuse, NY, 

Syracuse 

Housing

Authority: 

Community 

Coach 

1 20 10.00/hr Program 

director

Rotating 7 hours a day 

Monday, 

Wednesday, 

and Friday. 

Help case 

managers support 

all active 

participants 

(currently 107 

participants). 

Facilitate orientation, 

conduct outreach for 

events, help case 

managers with 

followup, plan 

activities/programming 

for Jobs Plus. 

Source: Analysis from 2016 field research conducted as part of the Jobs Plus Pilot Evaluation
44

As sites implemented community coach strategies during their programs’ startup period, they 

encountered a number of challenges. For example, the perception of the community coaches as 

employees of the PHA (or a contracted organization) presented difficulties when it came to building 

trust or relationships with other residents. Additionally, community coaches are at different stages in 

their professional lives and may require additional training and supports from the Jobs Plus staff. As 

interviewees explained, this need for training and support is essential because of the multifaceted 

nature of the coach job, as it requires a great deal of persistence and energy to build relationships 

with residents who are often skeptical of programs offered through the PHA.

Enrollment and recruitment strategies. A second CSW activity is aimed directly at recruiting 

and enrolling residents into Jobs Plus. Recruitment occurred in similar ways across sites, with 

staff and coaches leading the effort by going door to door and using word-of-mouth messaging, 

phone calls, and social media. Coaches and staff described the goals of engagement as sustained 

connection with residents, which typically may be more likely to occur through frequent 

interactions. The hope was that these connections result in residents’ commitments to obtaining 

services and a high level of use of all the Jobs Plus components. 

Community events. Site staff described a third type of programming as community-wide events. 

These events were created for purposes of educating residents on a specific topic, enhancing 

social connections, and ensuring enrollment into Jobs Plus. Almost all sites reported hosting at 

least one major event.33 Examples of events included—

● Kick-off or welcome meetings in Chicago, Memphis, and St. Louis.

● March Madness, an event to help youth get ready for summer jobs in Houston.

● Back-to-school events in Cuyahoga and St. Louis.

● Move-in mixers in Cuyahoga.

● Job fairs in Boston, Houston, and Roanoke.

Community events are intended to function as part of sites’ saturation strategies and get residents 

involved in Jobs Plus; however, as of roughly 1 year of implementation, it appears that resident 

engagement in community events has leveled off, potentially affecting sites’ saturation levels overall.

Although community events in and of themselves may not be characterized as CSW efforts, it is 

possible to consider them as a CSW activity if a site is intentional about how these types of 

events are part of a larger strategy to engage residents around employment and career 

opportunities. For example, in St. Louis, program staff described having a Jobs Plus‒themed 

trivia night, with questions related to employment. It is unclear at this point whether all sites are 

taking the extra step to ensure that the events they are hosting have a clear connection to work.

Social support and network building for residents. Site staff noted an emerging strategy 

focused on helping residents connect with each other for the purposes of social support and 

network building. In Charlotte, community coaches plan and host monthly Members Only 

meetings that are limited to participants and that provide opportunities for ongoing connection 

outside of staff-directed programs. Other examples include—

 

33 According to the Jobs Plus Data Dictionary, events are any activities designed to introduce or expose residents to 

Jobs Plus, including but not limited to kick-off activities, workshops, and social activities that provide a forum for 

highlighting Jobs Plus (HUD, n.d.).
45

● Weaver (community coach) conversation meetings in Cuyahoga.

● A Resident of the Month board that posts member accomplishments in Chicago.

● A Jobs Café in St. Louis to facilitate connections between residents.

● Tell a Neighbor, Tell a Friend program in Charlotte, where Jobs Plus members are 

encouraged to bring a friend who has not heard about Jobs Plus to appointments with 

case managers. At that time, potential new Jobs Plus participants can learn about 

services and make an appointment to receive services.

● Neighbor Helping Neighbor barter boards in Roanoke, where residents can share 

resources with each other through a visual display by posting and retrieving contact 

information for needed services that other residents can offer. 

Some Jobs Plus staff explained why social support is valuable and necessary, such as in 

Syracuse, where a respondent said it is helpful for “people who are going through the same 

thing...to bring us together for a commonality [of purpose].” Staff suggested that this social 

support would not occur organically; rather, it needed to be facilitated through actions led by 

both staff and residents—as done through barter boards that staff created in Roanoke and St. 

Louis. As one staff member described it, “We do know of individuals helping individuals, but 

this is a real organized effort.”

Similar to community events, social support and networking activities will not necessarily 

generate a work-supportive environment at the sites. However, with intentionality, the potential 

exists to link these activities to the CSW goals of changing work-related norms. Events that 

capitalize on building trust among residents and staff in order to promote work-related activities 

are considered congruent with Jobs Plus. Sites should be intentional about ensuring that these 

opportunities for social support and networking are connected to employment and career 

advancement. 

Bridging to neighborhood and metropolitan area. Site staff acknowledged the need to connect 

with organizations, businesses, and resources beyond the housing development. Indeed, the 2014 

Notice of Funding Availability indicates that sites’ CSW strategies include building relationships 

“from the development into the community,” but many staff suggested that these connections 

were difficult to make. The hope was that broader networks lead to new opportunities for career 

development. This type of strategy reflects the idea of social bridging that is necessary for lowincome individuals to develop networks outside their communities in order to get ahead or 

enhance economic mobility. As one staff member in Syracuse described it, residents “don’t get 

to network outside the community,” so a need exists to “bring as many resources into” the public 

housing development as possible. Examples of sites’ attempting to make these bridges into the 

larger community include holding job fairs on site with employment partners and offering 

industry-specific trainings off site at community colleges or other educational institutions.

Holistic Approach to Community Support for Work

Many sites had been relying on community coaches to promote Jobs Plus and a “culture of work” 

and to facilitate mutual support. Over time, some sites began to operationalize CSW as an effort to 

establish a more holistic approach to surrounding residents with formal and informal supports. As 

some Jobs Plus staff are grappling with the need to sustain the prolonged work engagement of 

residents, they suggested it was more compelling to think about CSW as reaching beyond an array 

of programs and events. Instead, these staff described their work to cultivate an ongoing process 
46

that sustains aspirational and behavioral change on individual and communal levels beyond the 

grant period. With this approach, and as intended in the design of the original Jobs Plus model, 

CSW philosophy would be infused throughout day-to-day operations and would manifest as an 

ongoing process or mode of thinking and acting. For example, a property manager in Chicago said 

CSW is about heart, going above and beyond in your job to do everything that it takes to genuinely 

engage residents and the entire community in the process of change. 

In this way, CSW is built into everything that everyone does and touches all aspects of the 

community, rather than being the responsibility of only certain members of the Jobs Plus staff. 

Thus, the role of implementing CSW involves everyone within the community, including all 

staff, partners, and residents. As one interviewee explained, CSW “should be a collaborative 

effort and not something that just lands in someone’s lap or on someone’s desk.” The recent 

HUD CSW policy overview document for grantees also reflects this same orientation: “CSW is 

something that engages the entire public housing community (HUD, 2016). “In Syracuse, for 

example, this orientation is being operationalized through the use of meetings focused on lease 

recertification as an opportunity to tell residents about all components of Jobs Plus and refer 

them to become enrolled. 

It is still too early to determine whether this universal orientation will be fully operationalized to 

any degree within any one site or across sites, but it appears to be emerging in some sites, 

including in Charlotte, Chicago, and St. Louis.

Implementation Challenges 

At the end of the first year, most grantees reported encountering challenges in at least one or 

more of the following areas. Earlier iterations of Jobs Plus also experienced many of these 

challenges. This section highlights the issues that cut across the various components of CSW’s 

early implementation.

Operational challenges. Site interviews identified three main types of operational challenges: 

basic logistical challenges, organizational and institutional role challenges, and challenges 

associated with the physical redevelopment of buildings at some sites. At least seven sites faced at 

least one of these challenges. The basic logistical challenges that affected CSW included (1) the 

size of the development and numbers of residents targeted for engagement and (2) lack of access to 

buildings after hours when working residents are available for events, as well as access to 

particular homes and buildings for outreach. At least three sites faced these logistical challenges. 

Five sites reported numerous challenges related to organizational and institutional roles, 

including (1) staff or partners not carrying out roles effectively or in concert with others; (2) a 

lack of adequate orientation or training for staff or partners, especially coaches; (3) perceived 

micromanagement by the PHA; (4) a lack of accountability to ensure that partners were 

following through on obligations, which affected the connections to broader neighborhoods; and 

(5) a lack of trust between the PHA and residents. At two sites, Boston and Memphis, the 

preparation for site-wide physical rehabilitation and redevelopment presented a major challenge 

to implementing CSW (and other aspects of Jobs Plus). Memphis secured a Choice 

Neighborhood Initiative implementation grant (described previously), and the Boston Housing 

Authority is undertaking a complete citywide conversion to the Rental Assistance Demonstration 

program, which provides a funding mechanism for the housing authority to do extensive 

rehabilitation to public housing units.
47

Community challenges. At the community level, three main types of challenges appear to 

constrain CSW implementation. In at least five sites, respondents noted issues focusing on lack 

of trust among residents, dynamics related to resident power and influence, and public safety 

concerns. Although the lack of trust among residents is a broader issue for the implementation of 

Jobs Plus as a whole, it is a particular challenge for the CSW imperative of connecting residents 

to one another for social support, information sharing, and bridging to opportunities. These 

challenges, as described in the following quote, make it more difficult for neighbor-to-neighbor 

community building to occur, given the social dynamics in place that create tension over space 

and behavioral norms.

There’s a lot of distrust. A lot of neighbors live next door to each other in the 

same unit and don’t interact with one another, other than passing by. There’s a lot

of tension. ... They just don’t really get along and trust each other.

In addition, the perception of the community coaches as employees of the PHA (or a contracted 

organization) sometimes got in the way of building trust or relationships with other residents. 

Across sites, community coaches were seen as “just one of them” or being hand-picked by the 

Jobs Plus program directors, and consequently, some residents were more cautious about sharing 

work-related struggles with coaches. Balancing the roles as a resident and a Jobs Plus employee 

made community coaching complicated for residents, in some cases hindering the ability to 

connect openly with other residents due to the perception of being more closely allied with site 

staff.

A second community-level challenge involves the dynamics of resident power and influence. In 

large part, the resident councils and particularly the council presidents assert these dynamics. At 

some sites, resident council presidents positioned themselves as gatekeepers for the community, 

through whom all site initiatives must be negotiated. Thus, the responsiveness, openness, 

competence, and influence of the tenant council president were critical factors in the 

operationalization of Jobs Plus as a whole. The implementation of CSW was specifically 

challenged in this regard, because the presidents tended to see the efforts to organize and 

mobilize residents as a threat to their influence. 

A third community-level challenge involved public safety. In particular, actual incidents and

perceptions about the lack of safety had an effect on communities in Chicago, Cuyahoga, St. 

Louis, and Syracuse. Staff and contracted partners reported being afraid to conduct outreach at 

these sites because of safety concerns. 

Individual challenges. Several forms of individual-level challenges inhibited CSW 

implementation, including helping residents overcome barriers such as mental health conditions, 

family issues, and substance abuse problems that prevented engagement. There were also 

challenges that residents and even staff faced related to a basic resistance to change and 

uncertainty about the value and risk of trying something new. Staff shared concern about getting 

residents to come out to meetings, in part because of individual and family situations that 

impeded engagement. Staff at some sites also expressed that residents were concerned about 

privacy and confidentiality and did not want other residents “in their business.” For example, 

some residents did not want others to know that they lacked high school diplomas. Finally, some 

staff shared how residents initially engaged with a facet of the program, such as a GED class, but 

later stopped attending sessions. In part, staff identified the lack of retention as related to specific 

individual challenges.
48

Considerations for Ongoing Community Support for Work 

The Jobs Plus sites’ early experiences implementing CSW suggest some important 

considerations for this component going forward.

• Clarification and support of CSW: As is known from past experiences, this component 

is challenging to implement. HUD officials, Jobs Plus PHAs, and other stakeholders should 

work collaboratively to define CSW efforts and come to clear agreement on how to 

operationalize and measure outcomes effectively. Jobs Plus sites and HUD officials should 

develop a process for proactively addressing the challenges that threaten to compromise the 

success of CSW. Arising challenges across most sites should take priority, including the 

operational, community, and individual challenges previously presented. HUD leadership is 

needed to establish an ongoing, collaborative, and accessible process for facilitating CSW 

problem solving among staff, coaches, and resident leaders.

• Implement CSW through a universal orientation: Relationship building is essential to 

the early implementation of CSW, but also to the sustainability of the changes in the 

social environment that the pilot intends to make. In line with the intent of the component 

and in keeping with the current direction offered by HUD, staff, residents, and partners 

should consider CSW through a universal lens, engaging a wider range of people in 

contributing to CSW efforts. As the CSW policy overview document said, “Everyone has a 

role in building CSW. ... PHAs should not assume that CSW is solely or even mainly the 

responsibility of the community coaches” (HUD, 2016). Attention to the community 

coaches’ role is necessary in order to ensure that coaches can support the adoption of this 

integration approach, as well as maintain their specialized and unique contributions to Jobs 

Plus implementation.

• Resident leadership: Sites could benefit from more technical assistance in cultivating 

their skills on topics related to resident leadership, neighbor-to-neighbor networks, and

community-building efforts. Stronger resident engagement in the planning and execution of 

CSW efforts may be necessary to achieve sustained support for work within public housing 

communities beyond the grant period. Furthermore, community coaches are the most 

concrete manifestation of CSW, although there remains a need for more training for coaches 

and program staff to support them. For coaches to balance dual roles as staff members and as 

residents expected to maintain peer trust, greater intention and investment in their 

professional development is needed.

• Building relationships beyond developments: Jobs Plus staff need to engage and hold 

accountable partners who originally agreed to provide support services, linkages to 

employment, and other leverage opportunities, as well as to engage new partners in the 

broader neighborhood. Creating bridges between residents and new social networks and 

career opportunities needs to be more concretely operationalized through strategic 

innovations. In addition to bringing resources from the broader community into the public 

housing developments, more opportunities should be sought for residents to engage in 

activities outside of developments—for example, to attend offsite job fairs, workshops, and 

classes, where they can hopefully meet and network with people who are connected to 

employment. Ultimately, most employment opportunities for residents will be outside of the 

developments in the surrounding communities, so activities that help facilitate residents’

interactions in the surrounding communities are a crucial piece of what Jobs Plus can offer.
49

Looking Forward

This report provides a look into the early startup experiences of the nine grantees in the Jobs Plus 

Pilot Evaluation, the first round of sites funded as part of HUD’s scale-up of this intervention. As 

a summary of early site experiences, this report offers insights into the basic approaches that sites 

have taken to frame each component of the Jobs Plus model, the pace at which sites have 

operationalized the components, and early participation outcomes where available. In doing so, 

this report describes the challenges that local site staff navigated regarding employment services, 

CSW, and rent-based work incentives (JPEID) and highlights emerging strategies at the time of 

data collection during site visits in mid-2016. These early insights—and proposed considerations 

for the program and practices—may help inform sites, HUD, and the technical assistance

provider on issues that deserve attention and practices that are worth emulating, as they continue 

to build and strengthen the Jobs Plus Pilot program. 

As a brief initial document, this report’s focus is on elevating overall early startup experiences, 

rather than exploring individual site-level experiences in depth. The second and final report for 

the evaluation, scheduled for mid-2018, which will look at the nine programs through early 

2018, will describe longer-term implementation, how programs mature, technical assistance

needs and how to address them, the costs of the initiative, and lessons for HUD and future 

program implementers. The final report will also take into account new policy and programmatic 

HUD-developed guidance, particularly around the JPEID and CSW, and how the new guidance 

addresses some of the issues sites raised. The final report will take on more of a cross-site, 

comparative perspective of strategies, saturation, and outcomes to explore how program context 

and strategies evolved and supported Jobs Plus implementation. It will also include an 

assessment of how employment services were implemented to reach saturation goals, how 

deeply JPEID reached residents in the housing developments, how CSW operationalized and 

effected changes in work expectations among development residents, how the different model 

components interacted with each other to support employment outcomes, and whether and how 

the programs took full advantage of opportunities afforded them by being place-based. Drawing 

on a richer body of data, the final report will offer conclusions about the ability of the program to 

replicate the past success of Jobs Plus. The final report will also examine the costs of the 

initiative and draw lessons for future scale-up of the program.
50

Appendix A

Table A-1. Public Housing Authorities Selected To Operate Jobs Plus, by Funding Year

Funding Year/State Public Housing Authority Funding ($)

2014

Massachusetts Boston Housing Authority 1,977,607

North Carolina Housing Authority of the City of Charlotte 2,224,786

Illinois Chicago Housing Authority 3,000,000

Ohio Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority 3,000,000

Texas Houston Housing Authority 3,000,000

Tennessee Memphis Housing Authority 3,000,000

Virginia City of Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority 3,000,000

Missouri St. Louis Housing Authority 3,000,000

New York Syracuse Housing Authority 1,977,607

Total 24,180,000

2015

California Housing Authority of the City of Oakland 2,700,000

Housing Authority of the City of Sacramento 2,700,000

Colorado Housing Authority of the City and County of Denver 2,700,000

North Carolina Housing Authority of the City of Goldsboro 2,700,000

Pennsylvania Philadelphia Housing Authority 2,700,000

Tennessee Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency 2,700,000

Texas Housing Authority of Austin 2,700,000

San Antonio Housing Authority 2,700,000

Virginia Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority 2,700,000

Total 24,300,000

2016

Florida Housing Authority of the City of Tampa 2,500,000

Arizona City of Phoenix Housing Department 2,000,000

Maryland Housing Authority of Baltimore City 2,489,734

Ohio Greater Dayton Premier Management (Dayton MHA) 2,399,211

New York New York City Housing Authority 2,000,000

Rhode Island The City of Providence Housing Authority 2,999,608

Total 14,388553

Source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Services, JPI Jobs Plus Initiative Program
51

References

Blank, Susan, and Donna Wharton-Fields. 2008. Helping Public Housing Residents Find and 

Keep Jobs. New York: MDRC. 

Bloom, Howard, James Riccio, and Nandita Verma. 2005. Promoting Work in Public Housing: 

The Effectiveness of Jobs-Plus. New York: MDRC.

Greenberg, David M., Aurelia Aceves, Victoria Quiroz-Becerra, David H. Greenberg, and Ari 

Oppenheim. 2015. The Second Generation of Jobs-Plus Programs: Implementation Lessons 

From San Antonio and the Bronx. New York: MDRC. 

Kato, Linda Yuriko. 2004. Mobilizing Resident Networks in Public Housing. New York: MDRC. 

Miller, Cynthia, and James A. Riccio. 2002. Making Work Pay for Public Housing Residents: 

Financial-Incentive Designs at Six Jobs-Plus Demonstration Sites. New York: MDRC. 

Riccio, James. 2010. Sustained Earnings Gains for Residents in a Public Housing Jobs Program. 

New York: MDRC. 

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). 2014. “Jobs Plus Pilot Program 

NOFA.” FR-5800-N-24. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban 

Development.

https://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/administration/grants/fundsavail/no

fa14/jppp.

———. 2016. Community Support for Work. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Housing and 

Urban Development.

———. n.d. Jobs Plus Data Dictionary. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Housing and 

Urban Development.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Office of Policy Development and Research

Washington, DC 20410-6000

September 2017