Jobs-Plus
Program overview
Supporting employment for public housing residents: Jobs-Plus is a place-based workforce development program for public housing communities. Jobs-Plus members are more likely to be employed and see their incomes increase than before Jobs-Plus enrollment.
Supporting the job search: Jobs-Plus coaches provide on-site, one-on-one application and job search assistance. Coaches support members in job search assistance, job placement support, workshops, and life skills classes. Jobs-Plus also offers flexible assistance with transportation, clothing, and child care.
Subsidizing rent increases: Jobs-Plus recognizes that for many public housing residents, their rent would increase if their income were to increase. To remove this disincentive to pursuing higher-paying employment, Jobs-Plus provides subsidies that effectively freeze participants’ rent for the first year after securing a new job.
Recruiting public housing residents: To recruit participants, Jobs-Plus programs use word of mouth recruitment via their community coaches. When possible, programs hire coaches with strong connections to the community they are operating in. Program staff may also knock doors, post flyers, use social media, and host community events like raffles or fairs. Jobs-Plus is typically funded by local government agencies.
- Strategies
-
Job placement services and supports
A single study with a rigorous design suggests that Jobs-Plus is a promising strategy for increasing employment rates and decreasing poverty.
- A 2019 mixed methods evaluation found that Jobs-Plus clients saw their employment rates increase by 12 percentage points and quarterly earnings increase by $497 after one year of participation.
Find the right job: Jobs-Plus seeks to set participants up for career success by pairing them with a job that aligns with their skills and interests. Jobs-Plus matches participants with appropriate jobs through their coaches’ deep knowledge of their participants, through one-on-one career counseling, and through skill inventories. This commitment to job match yields longer-term stability in participants’ employment.
Build relationships with employers: Each Jobs-Plus site has a job developer, who builds relationships with employers that may hire program participants. Job developers network and cold call local businesses in order to build a database of potential jobs. These jobs are typically entry-level jobs that also pay above the minimum wage.
Publicize rent stabilization: Public housing residents may be concerned that increasing their income may lead to an increase in their rent. Including information on the Earned Income Disallowance (EID), the program through which rent is frozen for the first year of a person’s Jobs-Plus employment, is critical when marketing Jobs-Plus to residents. In addition to flyers and brochures, Jobs-Plus staff should prioritize one-on-one conversations with residents in order to dispel common misconceptions.
Balance employer support with employee support: To increase participant accountability and build buy-in among potential employers, Jobs-Plus negotiates special payment contracts with employers. As part of these agreements, employers guarantee 70 percent of an employee's pay, with the remaining 30 percent contingent on their meeting certain performance metrics. This arrangement can increase the number of employment opportunities available to residents.