How Has Welfare "Reform" Worked Out for Families in Poverty?

In 1996,the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant replaced the former Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program... 

• Over the last 15 years, the national TANF caseload has declined by 60 percent, even as poverty and deep poverty have worsened:
  
  

These opposing trends — TANF caseloads going down while poverty is going up — mean that a much smaller share of poor families receive cash assistance from TANF than they did prior to welfare reform:

TANF cash benefits have not kept pace with inflation and are below half the poverty line in all states:

TANF benefits are a fraction of the estimated costs of housing for a family, and housing is only one of the basic needs that a family has...