What is known, though, is that the way things turned out, the 1996 reformers didn’t merely “replace” welfare. They killed it. By 2012, welfare was far from the minds of the $2-a-day poor. So far, in fact, that Modonna Harris, living in a shelter on the Near West Side of Chicago, and Susan Brown, living in the dilapidated family home on the South Side—both eligible for the program—thought they just weren’t giving it out anymore.
