After years of homelessness, Quanay Lynch landed a job with the Transportation Security Administration. At a salary of $58,500, it was the most money she had ever made.
Lynch, 38, was proud to be able to support her young children but soon realized the increased pay put her in a bind. She made too much to continue receiving the government benefits that helped her feed her family but not enough to make up the difference at the grocery store.
“It was kind of a panic, like okay, what are we going to do?” she said. “You don’t want to let your kids know that things are going to shift and change.”
Lynch’s situation plays out across the country in what experts call the “benefits cliff,” referring to when low-income families earn too much to qualify for food, health-care, housing, child-care and cash benefits, but not enough to cover the loss, putting them at risk of falling back into homelessness.
Advertisem*nt
A $17.7 million D.C. pilot program aims to fix that by financially supporting 600 families who were formerly homeless and are at risk of losing those benefits as their income increases with career advancement. The five-year program combines rental assistance, direct cash payments and educational resources to participants selected through a lottery. Many, like Lynch, are Black single mothers.
It’s been one year since most families enrolled in the program, called Career Mobility Action Plan, or Career MAP, and those leading it see promising signs.
Thirty percent of participants reported that they were employed when they entered the program. As of February, 41 percent were employed, according to data from the D.C. Department of Human Services, which runs Career MAP. About 90 percent of participants have continued using the “navigator,” or career coach, provided through the program, and 13 percent of parents have earnings high enough to qualify for financial assistance to help replace the loss of government benefits, the data shows.
Advertisem*nt
Parents trying to rise out of poverty are often forced to choose between a better-paying job or retaining their benefits, said DHS Director Laura Green Zeilinger.
“You’re going to take what looks like a raise or growing your career, but in fact it’s going to set you back to homelessness,” Zeilinger said.
Career MAP aims to ease the transition. When participants pay their portion of their monthly rent, the city deposits $200 in an escrow account so that families have a nest egg of up to $12,000 as they exit the program. Parents also have access to emergency payments up to $1,000 per year.
About half of Career MAP participants receive monthly cash assistance and other benefits from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program for low-income households with children in the District. Roughly 7 in 10 receive food assistance through the District’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), according to DHS data.
Advertisem*nt
In the District, which has one of the highest costs of living in the country, a single parent of a 3-year-old could be equally as well-off with a salary of $11,000 as someone making $65,000, because their raise of tens of thousands of dollars would be canceled out by the loss of public benefits, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, which studied the Career MAP program.
While the program hasn’t seen major hurdles, there have been some lessons, according to Zeilinger. For example, some participants would have been a better fit for permanent supportive housing because of a disability that prevents them from working. Others needed more support for finding a new home, which was more of an immediate concern than career planning.
“Our philosophy is always to listen to families,” Zeilinger said. “If what they need is a different environment to be able to achieve their goals, move to the next step, we want to be able to support them in that.”
Advertisem*nt
Career MAP builds upon successes from similar programs in California, New York and Kentucky that combine social services and career development to combat poverty, said Altaf Husain, an associate professor at the Howard University School of Social Work.
“It’s a more comprehensive model,” he said of Career MAP. “It’s not foolproof necessarily, but it definitely is a much better positioning, and more sound policy in … saying that ‘We’re with you in this, weathering the storm with you, for these five years.’”
Zeilinger compared the program to a bridge, supporting parents so they can advance their careers enough to pass the benefits cliff. Funding for the program was included in the budget Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) proposed for next year.
“There are all of these myths about people just don’t want to work or the incentives aren’t strong enough, but it’s actually not the incentives,” Zeilinger said. “It is the financial penalties that people can’t afford.”
Advertisem*nt
While homeless and pregnant, Mya Bennett, 27, of Northwest Washington was working as an administrative assistant for a mechanical contractor and as a home health aide, she said. She was born and raised in the District, but every year it felt harder to stay in the city.
She eventually stopped working to take care of her son and relied on TANF and SNAP to support her family. She landed an apartment through the city’s rapid rehousing program and got a job as a reservation manager for a moving and storage company. She made $19 an hour and estimated her benefits dropped by about $700, or about 67 percent, even as she juggled the cost of rent, food and diapers.
“It was a huge gap,” Bennett said. “I couldn’t afford to put food on my table.”
In February 2023, she enrolled in Career MAP and chose to go back to school. Now, Bennett is pregnant with her second child and studying biochemistry at Trinity Washington University with hopes of starting a pharmaceutical brand. The program pays her $1,359 rent, allowing her to focus on studying and being present for her 4-year-old son.
Advertisem*nt
She used to see him only a few hours each day, asking relatives to babysit while she worked long hours. Now that she can spend more time with him, he’s more affectionate, asking for hugs and cuddles.
“He’s not just seeing Mommy dropping him off and keeping it moving,” she said. “I’m able to really be hands-on with him. I didn’t have that opportunity, at first, to really be nurturing to my kid.”
Lynch, who worked at the Transportation Security Administration, enrolled in Career MAP in December 2022. The program supported her when she feared her four children could end up homeless. Now, she receives almost $1,800 per month in discounts to offset what her family would receive in TANF and SNAP benefits. A navigator provided through the program helped her find a therapist for her son and connected her with a customer service certification program.
Advertisem*nt
Lynch recently got a new job as a guest services representative at a hotel. Although the job pays $15.75 per hour, significantly less than her previous job, it comes with a higher potential for earnings and career opportunities.
Next on her list, Lynch said, is a small business certification class.
“I want my children to be able to have something to aspire to, to say ‘Mommy did this,’” Lynch said. “Or, ‘My mom was a manager or supervisor’ or eventually ‘an owner of her own company.’”
