NEW BOOKS
By Cassie J. Moore
Out of Reach: Place, Poverty, and the New American Welfare State
by Scott. W. Allard
In the United States, assistance for the poor has evolved from a
welfare system made up primarily of cash assistance and other direct
benefits into a network of social-service nonprofit groups designed to
provide employment assistance, low-cost health care, child care, and
other services, and less direct cash assistance.
However,
writes Scott W. Allard, an associate professor in the School of Social
Service Administration at the University of Chicago, "poor persons
cannot receive assistance from providers that are not located within a
reasonable commuting distance of their homes, and providers, it turns
out, are not equitably distributed across communities and
neighborhoods."
In this book, Mr. Allard looks at three
cities--Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington--to describe how social
assistance delivered in each is increasingly out of reach
geographically of those who need it most. He also examines the
financial instability of nonprofit groups that help the poor, and
compares religious and secular nonprofit service providers.
In
the final chapter, "Repairing Holes in the Safety Net," Mr. Allard
recommends ways that governments and nonprofit groups can make sure
poor people get the help they need, including providing services
outside of traditional work hours, and identifying and reaching out to
those who are often missed by the social-service safety net, such as
poor black men. (Read an opinion piece by Mr. Allard here)
Publisher: Yale University Press, P.O. Box 209040, New Haven, Conn. 06520; http://www.yale.edu/yup; 280 pages; $35; ISBN 0300120354.