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With the passage of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the nation's welfare system for poor women and their children was fundamentally transformed. These profound changes have the potential to dramatically alter the nature of state and local welfare agencies and to create new and expanded roles for human service workers, including social workers, both within public welfare agencies and other community agencies. This article reviews the major provisions of TANF and its implications for state welfare agencies and recipients. Roles for human service workers in public welfare are delineated for direct practice, management staff development policy analysis and advocacy, and research.

The passage of the new welfare law and its provisions for a new program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), continues a thirty-year tradition of attempting to replace welfare with work. Within the context of increased flexibility for states to administer welfare programs, TANF includes a goal of in-ceasing work efforts by welfare recipients and imposes new work requirements on both recipients and states. These work requirements are expected to apply to 70% of all adults receiving welfare by 2002. This article analyzes the work requirements imposed on both recipients and states by TANF and evaluates the states' capacity to serve increasing numbers of welfare recipients. The options available to states are outlined and their feasibility is reviewed in light of experience under prior welfare employment programs. The article concludes with an assessment of job availability for welfare recipients and the prospects of employment for alleviating poverty for lesser-skilled women workers.

Most studies of homelessness have focused on populations receiving shelter in large metropolitan areas. This article provides descriptive-correlational information about homeless individuals and families who request social services from a centralized intake agency in a moderately sized community.