Opinion: D.C. must restore TANF to pull more children out of poverty

By Judith Sandalow, CEO, Children’s Law Center & Andrea Thomas, CEO, United Planning Organization (UPO) 

Our city’s leaders have taken big strides to pull D.C. children out of poverty. Last year’s creation of a $1,000 Child Tax Credit and expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit were landmark steps that will give parents more resources to help their children thrive.

But there’s a major threshold that – if crossed – will reverse that progress: sweeping cuts to D.C.’s only cash assistance programs for families, TANF, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

Last year, Mayor Muriel Bowser proposed significant cuts to TANF. The council delayed them for the current budget year, but without further intervention, they will go into effect later this year. The planned changes to TANF will directly impact 15,000 children, pushing them deeper into poverty in an already fragile D.C. economy. Even more concerning, the cuts reverse commitments D.C. made a decade ago to protect children—this time without warning or rationale.

TANF provides modest but essential cash assistance to low-income families. Parents rely on it to cover rent, utilities, bus fare, diapers, school supplies, and other basics that noncash programs don’t cover. Many families who rely on TANF are parents who work in jobs that don’t pay enough to get by. Most families who benefit from TANF do not receive housing assistance, making this cash support even more critical.

In a city that has worked for years to ensure children don’t go hungry, to improve access to housing, and to reduce truancy, cuts to TANF will reverse that progress. With SNAP benefits also at risk and food prices still painfully expensive, the cuts will increase child hunger. With evictions at a 10-year high, they will increase family homelessness. With school absenteeism already at record levels, they will almost certainly lead to more children missing school.

Right now, a parent with two children receives $803 per month in TANF benefits. If the cuts take effect, that support will plummet to just $201 per month. If $803 is already not enough for a parent to care for two children, imagine doing so with only $201.

Parents feel these impacts directly. In a recent focus group conducted by the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, one D.C. mother said, “If my children can’t eat, they can’t go to school and be productive.” Another added, “If they have to sleep on the floor in the hallway of some apartment building, what are they going to do in school?”

The looming changes will also eliminate TANF cost-of-living adjustments and impose restrictive time limits and work preparation mandates—approaches shown to be ineffective at improving job outcomes. 

These cuts are all the more disappointing because D.C. leaders conducted a thorough evaluation of TANF a decade ago—at Mayor Bowser’s request. Her own staff recommended eliminating time limits and minimizing sanctions. The new cuts come with no rationale, no plan for what happens to families when benefits are reduced, and no corresponding increase in case management or job training.

We know what helps families—and what harms them. Research and common sense tell us that children do better when parents have the resources to provide safe, stable environments. As one mother shared, “TANF allows me to go to school and be a present parent.” 

It’s not too late. While the TANF cuts are set to go into effect later this year, Mayor Bowser and the D.C. Council should use the upcoming budget season to reverse these policy changes and devote $106 million over the next three years to ensure parents have TANF cash assistance to meet their children’s needs. Saving this vital resource will allow the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit to achieve what they were designed to do: reduce child poverty.

The authors are members of the “TANF is Still a Lifeline” coalition, which includes Bread for the City, Children’s Law Center, DC Action, DCFPI, Legal Aid DC, LIFT-DC and the United Planning Organization (UPO). Learn more at www.childrenslawcenter.org/TANF.