One strategy states have used for getting additional cash to TANF recipients is to provide extra cash benefits to TANF recipients with high housing costs.
Some examples:
In Maine, TANF families can receive a housing supplement of up to $300 per month. Families are automatically considered for the supplement upon application or redetermination of their eligibility. To be eligible, families must have housing costs that exceed 50 percent of their countable income plus their TANF benefit and any child support payments they receive. Families can also receive the supplement if they do not receive TANF cash assistance, so long as their countable income is below the state’s standard of need. Families where only the child receives TANF assistance (known as a child-only case) are also eligible for the supplement.
In Minnesota, TANF families were eligible for a flat $110 per month housing supplement in 2023, so long as the family does not receive HUD rental assistance and is not a child-only case. All eligible families automatically receive the supplement. Going forward, the supplement will be indexed annually for inflation.
You can find more detail on these state approaches as well as other examples of how states are using TANF funds to address housing needs in the file linked at the right.
States can reduce housing instability in other ways including ensuring that families who are eligible for TANF benefits receive them, increasing monthly cash benefits for all families, eliminating and or minimizing sanctions that take away benefits from families, and operating effective work programs that prepare TANF recipients for high paying jobs. This paper both provides a rationale for why TANF benefits matter for housing stability and provides more detail on how states can use TANF to address family housing instability and homelessness: TANF Can Be a Critical Tool to Address Family Housing Instability and Homelessness | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (cbpp.org)
These resources provide additional information for ways in which TANF can help reduce housing instability and homelessness. (You can also find additional information in the entry for non-recurrent short-term benefits.)