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By Tracie McMillanRead the original publication in Harper’s Magazine. The welfare system was overhauled, in 1996, on the premise that the un-employed and supposedly unemployable could be forced into jobs. Tougher restrictions on welfare, we were told, would lead the poor to self-sufficiencyand eventually to upward mobility. But to enter the job market, welfare’s millions … Read more

By Tracie McMillan, available at City Limits. State officials are considering temporarily cutting people from the welfare rolls if they reach the federal five-year time limit, City Limits has learned. In an obscure regulatory change announced for consideration in mid-October, the State Office for Temporary and Disability Assistance put forth plans to require families to submit a … Read more

The city’s eyeing a new tool for fighting obesity: Bodegas By Tracie McMillan, available at City Limits. It’s a boiling July morning in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Terry “Speedo” Moore, 43, is stopping in at the corner store for some chips and cigarettes. Compact, muscular and sporting a gold tooth, Moore’s appearance suggests a rocky life–and … Read more

By Tracie McMillan. Originally published in City Limits. NEW YORKERS antsy for some international athletic competition needn’t wait for the Olympic Committee’s upcoming decision: This Fourth of July weekend, New York will play host to the Cycle Messenger WorldChampionships, a grassroots-y, slightly debauched take on global sporting contests. Equal parts trade show, family reunion, party … Read more

By Tracie McMillan, available at City Limits. A coming overhaul of the city’s after-school and summer child care is already causing chaos and confusion, say local parents. At a June 29 hearing, nearly 200 low-income parents crowded into a sweltering elementary school auditorium for a hearing on the city’s new Out of School Time (OST) … Read more

New city regulation lets single welfare recipients spend a year in school.By Tracie McMillan, orignally for City Limits Virtually all city welfare recipients are now able to spend up to 12 months pursuing education and training full-time under a new city policy, City Limits has learned. The city already had to allow single parents on … Read more

By Tracie McMillan. Original available at City Limits. Private employers could soon be forced to provide health insurance for their workers, under a new bill moving steadily toward City Council approval. The Health Care Security Act, introduced this fall, would require private employers in five industries—large groceries, industrial laundries, hotels, building services and construction—to either … Read more

By Tracie McMillan. Original available at City Limits. When the latest poverty statistics came out in August, the numbers didn’t make very big waves. With the Republican Party roaring into New York, the fact that poverty had gone up nationally–no surprise for an economy just creeping out of a recession–barely made it to the local … Read more

By Tracie McMillan. Originally for City Limits. A city program designed to get homeless families into solid jobs and apartments is yanking the rug out from under them, City Limits has learned. The Employment Incentive Housing Program (EIHP), a joint project between the city’s welfare and homeless agencies, operates initially much like other rent assistance programs, offering … Read more

Families fleeing violence find full shelters, and a long journey for help they once got from a hot-line. By Tracie McMillan, originally for City Limits. In the city that never sleeps, the number of families spending their nights in emergency shelters has reached a 10-year high: over 18,000 women and their children each night this … Read more