For over a year, a team at Code for Boston has been developing an app to calculate public benefit "cliffs." Code for Boston's cliff effects app was built in partnership with UMass Boston's Center for Social Policy, Project Hope, and the On Solid Ground Coalition. During that partnership, we built a prototype app that calculates cliff effects for Section 8 and SNAP benefits. We have tested the app with case managers from Project Hope and have demoed the app to policy stakeholders.
The cliff effects app was originally intended as a tool for case managers to help their clients better understand how changes in income might change their benefits. Currently the project has implemented, as much as possible, what the project partners requested:
- Calculations (non-validated) for two public assistance programs:
- Section 8 Housing Voucher
- SNAP