Three quarters of welfare recipients live in cities or rural areas, while the vast proportion of jobs are being created in suburban areas. HUD provides vouchers, targeted to welfare recipients who need housing assistance to get or keep a job. These vouchers are available on a competitive basis to local public housing authorities, which will develop plans to use the new vouchers to support families transitioning from welfare to work. Vouchers focus on families where housing assistance is essential to getting or keeping employment and making the transition from welfare to work.
Agencies can propose to focus on particular groups of welfare recipients.
Local plans will be selected by HUD, in consultation with the Departments of Health and Human Services and Labor. HUD monitors and evaluates the impact of its voucher program on the overall mission of moving welfare recipients to work. Projects to compete for and use the new voucher program will be developed at local levels. This could include identification of Hispanics as the primary target population of a particular voucher program proposal. Assurance from HUD should be sought to provide that benefit to Hispanic communities will be a selection criteria of at least some of the successful voucher program applicants.