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Utah’s most aggressive effort to end chronic homelessness and reduce overall homelessness started in 2004. Although “Housing First” guides the plan, providing employment and work readiness activities was part of this vision. Beginning in 2010, plans were developed to provide supported employment opportunities for formerly chronically homeless individuals. Palmer Court, a permanent supportive housing (PSH) facility with both single adults and families, was selected as the employment pilot test site.

Since October 2009, the Humanitarian Center Program has provided daily jobs skills training (4 hours) and English language classes (4 hours) to refugees seeking to gain employment to help support themselves and their families. This partnership program between Utah’s Department of Workforce Services (DWS) and the LDS church seeks to “help participants improve their employable skills so that they will be job-ready and able to move into family-supporting paid employment at some time within approximately 12 months of program entry.”

With the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 the focus of public assistance shifted from income maintenance to employment. There has been much debate as to whether it is more effective to focus first on education or work activities in order to reach this goal. The literature suggests that a mixture of work activities supported by education is most effective (Gueron and Hamilton, 2002) unless the person has no basic education. In this case, it is best for the individual, their children and society to focus on education.

Transitioning recipients of TANF cash assistance from welfare-to-work has become the focus of state welfare programs. Successful transitional assistance programs incorporate pre-employment and post-employment services to increase job retention and advancement to avoid welfare returns. In the late fall of 2008, The Social Research Institute (SRI) was contracted by Utah’s Department of Workforce Services (DWS) to complete an evaluation of the Transitional Cash Assistance Program (TCA).