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We develop the concept of the local food assistance environment to examine how spatial access to different local food assistance resources might shape food assistance program participation. Using unique survey data capturing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation in metropolitan Detroit, we explore how spatial access to local food assistance resources (e.g., SNAP offices, food retailers, charitable food assistance programs) may be associated with SNAP receipt. Descriptive analyses find that closer proximity to food assistance resources and retailers who accept food assistance benefits is positively associated with self-reported SNAP receipt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do states compete in providing (or not providing) welfare services? Do competitive pressures shape state welfare program adoption? Even though interstate competition is viewed by some to be a ubiquitous feature of the American federal system and welfare state, there is mixed evidence as to whether such pressures have influenced cash assistance policy in the United States. Although evidence exists of competitive pressures in contemporary welfare program decisions, such pressures have not been found in examinations of early state welfare programs. To reconcile this seeming contradiction, I examine the impact of neighboring state behavior on the emergence of state Mothers' Aid cash assistance programs during the early part of the twentieth century. Linking theory of intergovernmental competition to program diffusion, I argue that competitive pressures may play a greater role as programs evolve past the circumstances of initial adoption to decisions about program maintenance. Contrary to previous research, I find that state decisions regarding Mothers' Aid were responsive to similar decisions in neighboring states. Further, there is evidence that women's political organizations were important to Mothers' Aid adoption but not to how states subsequently structured those programs., Do states compete in providing (or not providing) social welfare services? (1) Interstate competition is viewed by many to be a natural condition of the American federal system, where states [...]

Although several studies examine the barriers to employment that limit the employability of welfare recipients, they have not analyzed how these barriers might be different for residents of central cities than for residents in surrounding suburban areas. We consider how the prevalence of barriers to employment varies by race and place in metropolitan Detroit. We find that the prevalence of mental health, substance abuse, and domestic violence barriers is higher in suburban areas, and that structural barriers are higher in the central city., The time-limited, work-oriented welfare policies mandated by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) have brought greater attention to the factors that affect work activity among [...]

Provision of social services that can help welfare recipients overcome barriers to employment has become an important challenge for welfare-to-work programs, yet there is relatively little understanding of how spatial proximity to social services varies across welfare recipients in urban America. In this study, the authors examine the spatial proximity of welfare recipients in the three-county Detroit metropolitan area to mental health and substance abuse service providers. They find that spatial proximity to mental health services varies by geography and race among welfare recipients in Detroit, with evidence indicating that spatial trends in service accessibility are shifting in favor of suburban areas. Keywords: welfare; social services; spatial access