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  • Longtime D.C. welfare recipients prepare for life off the rolls

    Longtime D.C. welfare recipients prepare for life off the rolls

    By Ian Shapira
    Washington Post Staff Writer
    Monday, December 20, 2010; 9:47 PM

    Navida Joy knows she needs to liberate herself from the District's dole for good. The divorced mother of three has been receiving city welfare checks on and off for six of the past 10 years.

    But Joy, who gets about $430 a month in welfare checks and $440 in monthly food stamps, supports a controversial plan by the D.C. Council that would slash her benefits and those of other long-term welfare recipients.

    "The council's move is the right idea, but there are a lot of people out there who depend on it and need welfare," said Joy, 28, who lost her bartending job at T.G.I. Friday's in August and takes medical coding classes at a local trade college to find work. "Right now, I am facing eviction because I can't pay my rent. I'm not as motivated as I should be. I've been dealing with a divorced family. But I am trying. I plan on getting off welfare and not begging for money."

    Her life illustrates the hurdles the city faces in pushing thousands of people off its welfare rolls.

    On Tuesday, the strapped D.C. Council - facing a $188 million shortfall this year and a projected $440 million deficit in the next budget - is expected to approve cutting welfare payments to single unemployed parents who have been in the District's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program cumulatively for five or more years.

    Many are single mothers who dropped out of high school. They often come from troubled families and have spotty work histories. Some also struggle with alcohol or drug abuse or mental health issues.

    The cuts would have a deep impact on the city's poor, particularly its children. Among the 17,000 families in the city's welfare program, about 40 percent - or 6,800 - have been getting benefits for more than five years, receiving an average of $370 a month.

    The outcome of the council's vote appears certain. "It's going to stay on track as it is," said Doxie A. McCoy, spokeswoman for Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray (D), now in his final days as council chairman. "Chairman Gray has said repeatedly the cuts would be painful, and everything had to be on the table. I would say this is a motivator and a way of breaking the cycle of dependency."

    In 1996, President Bill Clinton's welfare reform act imposed a five-year limit on federal payments to welfare participants, but it let states keep using federal funds to pay benefits for some of their long-term recipients, said LaDonna Pavetti of the nonprofit research Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Some states, as well as the District, have used their own dollars to pay for other long-term welfare recipients.

    The council's measure, which won preliminary approval this month, would gradually eliminate payments to long-term welfare recipients, starting with a 40 percent reduction of monthly benefits by October. By 2014, the five-year limit would be absolute.

    Critics say the council's measure has been cobbled together too quickly and could flood the foster-care system and homeless shelters with families and children.

    "To be doing this now, when the effects of the recession are still at their height, is unfortunate, and to be doing it in such a hurried way is not thoughtful," said Peter Edelman, a Georgetown University law school professor who is a leader of the health and human services committee of Gray's mayoral transition team.

    Ed Lazere, executive director of the nonprofit D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, said advocates are lobbying the council to soften the cuts. "Many families reaching time limits simply fall further behind rather than landing a job," he said.

    And many longtime welfare recipients are ill-equipped to find work.

    With no job, five children and a boyfriend who is an unemployed former drug dealer just back from prison, Diane Greenfield has grown accustomed to life on the welfare roll. For a total of seven years, Greenfield - a former temp at a downtown law firm who has struggled with pot and PCP addictions - has been receiving city welfare checks.

    The 28-year-old says her assistance from the D.C. government - $540 a month in cash plus $850 in food stamps - is just enough for diapers, deodorant and other necessities.

    "Are they going to guarantee me a job to raise my kids?" asked Greenfield, who lives in an apartment in Southeast Washington operated by the nonprofit Community of Hope for those who have struggled with drug addiction. "If they don't, then it's going to be, 'Are they going to take away my kids?' It's scary. If they cut me off, how am I supposed to get Pampers, shoes and socks for my babies?"

    In the red-brick Community of Hope apartment building on Second Street off Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE, apartment doors are covered with brightly colored Christmas wrapping. Three nights a week, residents head to the basement for group classes on their psychological issues and drug addictions - spirited discussions interrupted every so often by yelping children in the hallway.

    The council's proposal angers many of the long-term welfare recipients. If the city stops paying them, they say, then the city had better find them work. Some confess they have been complacent about applying for jobs over the years, but they also say that the city's job preparation programs have been useless.

    "Sometimes, I feel unmotivated about getting a job," said LaTanya Stuckey, whose last full-time position was earlier this year as an ice cream scooper at a Ben & Jerry's. "But when you get in a job-training class all day long, all you do is listen to how you should dress. But a lot of people don't have no dress-up clothes. I don't have no dress-up clothes. That's why I don't go to funerals."

    Stuckey, who dropped out of high school her senior year, thinks there are many reasons why she's mired in this economy. She doesn't get the support she wants from the three fathers of her four children. And although she loves her children, she said they came too early in her life.

    "I didn't have the money for an abortion, but then, I always thought a child deserved to live," she said. "With my third child, I went to the abortion clinic, but left. With my children, I have no regrets. The only regret I do have is that I wish I was determined in my career and education."

    Another reason she finds herself out of work: She's picky. "I won't take a job because TANF wants me to get off TANF," she said. "I just don't want to work at McDonald's. I need something that has a benefits package and that's going to help me in the long run."

    Other welfare veterans are more active in hunting for work.

    Katrina Peterson, 36, Joy's classmate at Pilgrim, has been on welfare for about seven years. Her last job was in 2003, working as a program assistant at the Northeast Performing Arts Group, but she quit because she didn't have day care.

    The city gives her money to support her four children, but "being on TANF gets depressing," said Peterson, who is taking classes at the University of the District of Columbia to become a home health-care aide.

    At the Community of Hope apartments, Stuckey and Greenfield are trying to find work before the government hacks away at their benefits. Greenfield is networking to find a security guard job in the D.C. school system, and Stuckey is applying for a security job at a group home for juveniles.

    For Navida Joy, who's applied for jobs at CVS, Safeway and Giant, the long wait for a job might be over soon, but only because of strange luck. The other day, her used Mitsubishi was towed. When she went to retrieve her car, she learned she had $500 in fines.

    "I told the towing guy I had no money, and he was like, 'Bring in your resume, and we'll see what we can do,' " Joy said. "So, I might be a towing dispatcher."
    To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

  • #2
    painfully sad and heartbreaking... it appears that these people have lost their self respect and have tried to fill the gap by having kids - that they are ill prepared to support.
    sigpic"If your plan is for one year, plant rice. If your plan is for ten years, plant trees.
    If your plan is for one hundred years, educate children."

    Comment


    • #3
      I thought this is a story about career politicians getting a real job.
      "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

      Comment


      • #4
        For every 100K a year government worker they fired they could keep 5-6 families on welfare. Neither group produces so why not act to help the most people?

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by zraver View Post
          For every 100K a year government worker they fired they could keep 5-6 families on welfare. Neither group produces so why not act to help the most people?
          Kind of like helping thousands of middle class workers instead of a couple of CEO's.
          Removing a single turd from the cesspool doesn't make any difference.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by zraver View Post
            For every 100K a year government worker they fired they could keep 5-6 families on welfare. Neither group produces so why not act to help the most people?
            There's a government employees union working behind the scenes to keep their meal ticket.

            Welfare families don't have a union.
            "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by bonehead View Post
              Kind of like helping thousands of middle class workers instead of a couple of CEO's.
              The difference is CEOs generate income and revenue, and thus offer employment.

              When was the last time you worked for a welfare family for a paycheck?
              "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by zraver View Post
                For every 100K a year government worker they fired they could keep 5-6 families on welfare. Neither group produces so why not act to help the most people?
                Because that government worker doesnt produce generations of welfare kids that we will have to continue to support.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by troung View Post
                  Longtime D.C. welfare recipients prepare for life off the rolls

                  By Ian Shapira
                  Washington Post Staff Writer
                  Monday, December 20, 2010; 9:47 PM



                  With no job, five children and a boyfriend who is an unemployed former drug dealer just back from prison, Diane Greenfield has grown accustomed to life on the welfare roll. For a total of seven years, Greenfield - a former temp at a downtown law firm who has struggled with pot and PCP addictions - has been receiving city welfare checks.

                  The 28-year-old says her assistance from the D.C. government - $540 a month in cash plus $850 in food stamps - is just enough for diapers, deodorant and other necessities.
                  She has a drug problem so obviously $1390.00 provides for more than Diapers and deodorant.

                  In the Grapes world, drug testing would be tied into receiving any government benefits. Fail the test, get no check.


                  "Are they going to guarantee me a job to raise my kids?" asked Greenfield, who lives in an apartment in Southeast Washington operated by the nonprofit Community of Hope for those who have struggled with drug addiction. "If they don't, then it's going to be, 'Are they going to take away my kids?' It's scary. If they cut me off, how am I supposed to get Pampers, shoes and socks for my babies?"
                  Quit doing drugs.

                  The council's proposal angers many of the long-term welfare recipients. If the city stops paying them, they say, then the city had better find them work. Some confess they have been complacent about applying for jobs over the years, but they also say that the city's job preparation programs have been useless.
                  What? Lazy people would actually not look for a job as long as they can get a free check from the government? Say it ain't so. Then blame the government because they think the prep programs (that they don't use because they are not trying to work), don't work.

                  Why don't we keep those illegals that will work and deport some of these people?




                  Another reason she finds herself out of work: She's picky. "I won't take a job because TANF wants me to get off TANF," she said. "I just don't want to work at McDonald's. I need something that has a benefits package and that's going to help me in the long run."
                  Rule number 2 in the Grapes word. I see lots of "Help Wanted" signs and talk to other local businessmen that are trying to hire people but cannot fill jobs.

                  And I'm not talking about $8-10.00 an hour jobs either. They cannot get people.

                  My solution would be, No more EFT unemployment checks. Any business that has a position to be filled shows up at the employment office the day recipients get their checks. You get hired on the spot, or if there isn't a job opening that you are qualified (not "Want to take") you get another check.

                  Katrina Peterson, 36, Joy's classmate at Pilgrim, has been on welfare for about seven years. Her last job was in 2003, working as a program assistant at the Northeast Performing Arts Group, but she quit because she didn't have day care.
                  So how did that work out for you Kattie? The only time I quit a job was after I had something else lined up.


                  The city gives her money to support her four children, but "being on TANF gets depressing," said Peterson, who is taking classes at the University of the District of Columbia to become a home health-care aide.
                  Taking classes? She has been unemployed for 7 years. How long does it take to become a Home Health Care Aide?


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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by gunnut View Post
                    The difference is CEOs generate income and revenue, and thus offer employment.

                    When was the last time you worked for a welfare family for a paycheck?
                    The last 4 years it's become obvious the exponential increases in top executive pay in comparison to the average employee is not related to the actual economic benefit.

                    I don't feel bad for welfare recipents who make it a lifestyle who loose benefits I just wonder where the outrage is against those so called small farmers who need protection against the death tax because redistribution is bad yet suck hard on the farm subsidy tit provided by redistributive dollars. Why do folks with assets worth 5 million need welfare.......other than the fact Iowa has the first caucus
                    Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost.”
                    ~Ronald Reagan

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Grape, statistically there is still one job for every 5 applicants.
                      Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost.”
                      ~Ronald Reagan

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Roosveltrepub View Post
                        Grape, statistically there is still one job for every 5 applicants.
                        And thats why I said that the check will come if you cannot find work that you are qualified to do.

                        That 5 people for every job opening is a National statistic. There are areas and skills that are lower.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          The last 4 years it's become obvious the exponential increases in top executive pay in comparison to the average employee is not related to the actual economic benefit.
                          The rich are always going to get richer doesn't make me want to pay for welfare moms though...

                          For every 100K a year government worker they fired they could keep 5-6 families on welfare. Neither group produces so why not act to help the most people?
                          Welfare mothers produce a lot less then a government worker.

                          Why do folks with assets worth 5 million need welfare.......other than the fact Iowa has the first caucus
                          An ear of corn is worth more to me then a welfare mother who has been on the tax payer dime for seven years making while more kids with her drug dealer, legally I can at least eat the ear of corn...
                          Last edited by troung; 23 Dec 10,, 19:30.
                          To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Roosveltrepub View Post
                            The last 4 years it's become obvious the exponential increases in top executive pay in comparison to the average employee is not related to the actual economic benefit.
                            So? Why is it wrong to be rich? I want to be rich.

                            How about this? Instead of looking at the fat cat CEOs, look at the unions, especially government unions. How many layoffs have they suffered compared to the private sector? How much paycut have they received compared to private sector? Why is it that their benefit packages are not related to the actual economic conditions? Pensions never get a pay cut. Why is that?

                            Originally posted by Roosveltrepub View Post
                            I don't feel bad for welfare recipents who make it a lifestyle who loose benefits I just wonder where the outrage is against those so called small farmers who need protection against the death tax because redistribution is bad yet suck hard on the farm subsidy tit provided by redistributive dollars. Why do folks with assets worth 5 million need welfare.......other than the fact Iowa has the first caucus
                            I agree. End farm subsidies.

                            You're reverting to your old habit again. Comparing one bad to another bad and trying to justify it.
                            "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by troung View Post
                              Welfare mothers produce a lot less then a government worker.
                              Now hold on there. Welfare moms keep government workers employed. What would these government workers do if everyone else actually had real jobs?
                              "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

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