The changes Gov. Jim Doyle has proposed for Wisconsin’s welfare-to-work program known as W-2 are long overdue steps in the right direction.
But the real problem with W-2 is, simply, that it doesn’t pay enough.
When instituted in 1997, W-2 provided two types of monthly stipends: one for $673 for beneficiaries who work, and another for $628 for those who, for various reasons, cannot. While those stipends have not budged in the last decade, the price of housing has increased by historic proportions.
Consider the rise in Milwaukee’s fair market rents. Calculated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, fair market rents are gross estimates that combine rent and utility costs.
Desmond is a Ford Fellow in the Department of Sociology at UW-Madison. He is writing a book on landlords and tenants in Milwaukee’s poorest neighborhoods.