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Welfare Running Out. Also, news of the poor, the old, the disabled


(Mar '01) Welfare Running Out / Shelters Full

About 71,400 New York families receiving welfare benefits will reach the five-year limit by the end of the year, reports the New York Times ("State's Poorest Facing Loss of US Aid"). Twenty-eight percent of them are working poor who put in an average of 30 hours a week at a job but still do not earn enough to lift their families out of poverty. Fifteen percent are disabled. The majority, about 59,000, live in New York City.

At the same time, homeless shelters have been filled to their highest capacity since the 1980's this winter, with the largest increases coming from women and children. Since the fall, 500 families eligible for domestic violence refuge were unable to be placed and were sent instead to the general Emergency Assistance Unit in the Bronx ("Hurting for Space, City's Domestic Violence Shelters Fall Short," New York Daily News).

The city responded to the shortage, and a court deadline about to expire, by promising to create 517 new units before next winter, including 100 new units available immediately ("City Agrees to Add Rooms for Homeless," New York Times).

No Lawyers in Family Court

Lawyers representing the poor in family and criminal court have been complaining for years about the low rates they receive from the state for their work. They have not had a fee raise in fifteen years, and New York State's rates for assigned counsel are lower than those in all states but one. In protest, many lawyers have stopped accepting new cases and, for the last month, there have been no lawyers to appoint in Family Court. The extent of the disaster can be seen in this report from Manhattan Family Court Judge, Judy Adams, in an op-ed in the Times ("A Daily Disaster for Children"): "A wheelchair-bound 13-year old girl with cerebral palsy sat at Laight Street (the processing office where children await foster home placements) for seven days and nights. Her indigent grandmother from whose home she has been removed, had no assigned attorney, so a hearing that might have sped the case up was delayed. (Because she was disabled, she needed a specialized placement.) The grandmother was unable to reach a caseworker to arrange a visit, so these two, who had never been separated since the girl's birth, had no contact with each other." After ignoring the issue for too long, Pataki and state legislators have promised increases for the the lawyers, but the money may not come through until next year.

New Prescription Fees

A new policy by the City's Health and Hospital's Corporation to exact a fee on prescription drugs sold at hospital pharmacies has been recently introduced and advocates for the poor are concerned that this will discourage poor patients from getting needed prescription drugs. According to a story in the New York Times ("City Hospitals Imposing Fees At Pharmacies"), the Health and Hospital's Corporation created the fee policy out of desperation for some income, and the policy does state that "no patient is to leave empty handed because of inability to pay." It also would not apply to emergency room or hospital stays or for those in prenatal or AIDS programs. Several patients have already reported being turned away, however, when they didn't have the $40 or $50 for their medications (the fee is $10 for each prescription). "It is too much money for me," one woman told the Times, when she was unable to pick up prescriptions for asthma and diabetes.

IRS After the Poor

Tax returns of the working poor make up almost half of all IRS audits, forty-four percent, while the audit rate for those earning $100,000 or more has dropped from about nine percent to one percent ("Auditing the Poor," New York Times.)

State Employees With Disabilities Can't Sue

States that discriminate against disabled employees of the state cannot be sued for damages under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision ("Justices Give the States Immunity From Suits by Disabled Workers," New York Times).

After months of deliberations, the court found that private lawsuits against the state under the 1990 federal disabilities law violates state immunity from prosecution without consent, as promised in the 11th Amendment of the constitution. The fact that equal protection against discrimination is also promised by the 14th Amendment was overruled in that disability discrimination, much like aging discrimination, seems to be low status in the high court's opinion, the kind of discrimination that some some even consider rational. In his ruling, Chief Justice William Reinquist said, "It is entirely rational and therefore constitutional for a state employer to conserve scarce financial resources by hiring employees who are able to use existing facilities" that do not require accommodation as stipulated under the ADA.

The ruling does not affect suits filed by employees in most businesses, only state employees, although the justification that conserving financial resources has a higher value than protecting against discrimination could conceivably be used again to further erode the law.

On the horizon, the court will be deciding whether to hear another claim of state immunity, this time challenging ADA provisions that require government agencies to make services accessible to people with disabilities, such as curb slits at crosswalks and accessible buses. According to Linda Greenhouse in the Times, "under the analysis the court applied [in this recent ruling], there is every reason to suppose that the justices will find the states immune from suit under this section as well as the employment section."

A recent Times editorial on the ruling ("The Court Usurps Congressional Power") chided the court for "expand[ing] it's own power at the expense of Congress's rightful constitutional authority to decide which new laws society requires."

One of the original drafters of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Chai R. Feldbaum, a Professor at Georgetown Law School, told the Times that "people with disabilities will be second-class citizens if the trend in the courts continues. I don't think this means the ADA as a law is in danger with regard to most employers and businesses," she said. "What it does portend poorly for is the rights of disabled people with regard to the states - in education, voting rights, mental health and other areas." ("Ruling on Disability Rights Called a Blow by Advocates").

Meanwhile, a lengthy review ("Getting States' Rights Right") of a new book on the doctrine of states' rights is in the March Atlantic Monthly, making a case that both conservatives and progressives have sought refuge in states' rights depending on the issues, which have ranged from using it to defend slavery and segregation to seeking protection from corporate exploitation.

Aging in Place-Without Proper Care?

Assisted Living, the housing alternative for elderly adults who no longer wish to live completely on their own, is a fast-growing industry. In New York State, 100 assisted living centers have appeared in the last ten years. Based on a widely appealing philosophy, "aging in place," the centers also apparently benefit from a relaxation of state regulations that govern adult homes, according to an article in The New York Times("Experiment in Assisted Living Exposes Confusion on Rules").

Alzheimer's patients that are normally moved into nursing homes when they required 24-hour care are being allowed to stay on in assisted living centers and one state regulator who objected has been barred from any further investigations of centers or adult homes run by Alterra, the company whose practices the regulator highlighted.

Cynthia Rudder, Director of the Nursing Home Community Coalition of New York State, told the Times she was not aware of the relaxed regulation "experiment" being sanctioned by the state. "We are in favor of aging in place," she said, but she found this situation to be "a betrayal of the public trust, as far as I'm concerned."

In 1999, Governor Pataki introduced a proposal to regulate the assisted living industry but it was not well received and soon died. Families are often against regulations that would force aging parents out of assisted living and into nursing homes. And politicians, too, appreciate keeping the elderly in facilities they themselves pay for as opposed to relying on nursing homes that the taxpayer pays for.

Charges of neglect in assisted living centers, however, have been surfacing, with reports of festoring bedsores, burns from hot water bottles, delays in calling an ambulance when a resident broke her leg, and letting one Alzheimer patient just wander off. Also of interest is just how the industry manages to remain above the law.

Local Scouts Want to Reform Anti-Gay Policy

The city council will give local New York City chapters of the Boy Scouts of America four months to appeal to the national office to change their policy of banning gays in the scouts. If they are not successful, as local chapters in Rhode Island and California have not been in earlier attempts, the council will go ahead with a ban on allowing government agencies to sponsor scout activities, such as the Explorer's program, operated by the police and correction departments in the city.

"We denounce the national policy; we do not think it is right," said Deryck A. Palmer, a lawyer and member of the New York City board of the Boy Scouts told the council committee, according to a story in the New York Times ("Local Scouting Board, Calling Gay Ban 'Stupid,' Urges End to National Policy").

"We would like to be an agent of change," Palmer said.

Contrary to the national policy, scouts and scout leaders are not ousted in New York City because of sexual orientation. However, council members argued that programs should not be sponsored by the city as long as the national organization discriminates.

 

Election Special-The Missing Social Service Issues


(Oct-Nov '00) A few dozen people gathered on the steps of City Hall recently to speak out against the current welfare policy that discourages and denies education and vocational training for those on welfare.

According to Bich Ha Pham from the Hunger Action Network of New York State, one of the organizers of the event, only two percent of people currently enrolled in Workfare are also in educational or training programs, a policy which can only result in continued poverty and low paying jobs. Unfortunately, you won't find this issue, Access to Education and Training for welfare recipients, on the list of issues the candidates are showcasing.

Other missing issues, according to the Hunger Action Network, include:

  • Food stamp reauthorization, which would restore food stamp benefits to many people that were excluded four years ago, particularly legal immigrants
  • An increase in New York State's welfare grant. "It hasn't increased in ten years," said Pham, "and is well below the poverty line." A single mother with two children receives six dollars a day (not counting rent) for food, clothing, transportation, etc.
  • An increase in the Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program, the major funding source for food pantries and soup kitchens in the city and state, where long lines are the norm and people have been increasingly turned away for lack of food.

The Hunger Action Network is presently surveying all local and national candidates on these missing issues and will post the results on their site.

HOMELESSNESS

Homeless people do have the right to vote and over 2,000 homeless voters were registered in New York City over the summer. It is legal to vote in New York even if your address is a shelter or a street corner. Nevertheless, the issues relevant to the homeless- affordable housing and mental health programs- are largely neglected.

"Neither Senate candidate has a comprehensive plan for affordable housing," said Patrick Markee of the Coalition for the Homeless.

"Hillary Clinton did say last year that she was in favor of doubling the number of new Section 8 housing vouchers annually," noted Markee. There were 60,000 vouchers last year, so that would mean 120,000 vouchers. "But if you look at her current list of issues, housing is not one of them."

"Lazio is trying to portray himself as a champion of housing," said Markee, "but look at the budget cutbacks under the Republican-controlled Congress that he was part of. There was zero new Section 8 assistance at a time when there has been a rising need across the country. This led to the freezing of Section 8 housing in New York City. Homeless people are being forced to live in shelters even after they have been approved for Section 8 housing because there is no housing available."

Rick Lazio does include affordable senior citizen housing among the issues on his web site and takes credit for restoring funding for emergency homeless shelters when it was threatened in Congress.

A press release on Al Gore's site, states that he supports an additional 25,000 housing vouchers for people making the transition from welfare to work.

George Bush does not have housing listed as an issue, but he does have home ownership, which includes support for tax credits for single family housing.

Bidding for the State Assembly and State Senate, a few candidates voiced support for affordable housing in profiles for the Citizens Union's Voter Directory for the Primary. Carl Heastie of the 83rd Assembly District in the Bronx advocates state and city assistance for new low income and affordable housing. Adele Cohen in Brooklyn's 46th Assembly District took credit for fighting higher rents and income requirements for public housing. And Liz Krueger in Manhattan's State Senate race includes building more Section 8 housing in her platform.

The mental health side of homelessness turns out to be a housing issue as well: "We'd like to see the federal government fund the development of more supportive housing for the mentally ill," said Markee. "In the past there have been federal housing subsidies and tax credits, but the subsidies have dried up and the tax credits are harder to get."

While mental health is not included in Clinton's list of issues, she has reportedly said, without specifying any numbers, that she would favor more supportive housing for the mentally ill.

In a comparison of the candidates in the mental health area compiled by the National Association of Social Workers, Clinton fared best due to her support for the Patients' Bill of Rights which would allow for mental health care coverage for all, regardless of income level, and for her support of additional mental health research. Lazio is chided for not voting to pass the 1996 Mental Health Parity Act, which required health plans to provide parity for mental health and medical benefits. Gore was noted for his vow to work to eliminate discrimination and assure fairness for people with mental illnesses through mental health consumer protections and the patients' bill of rights. Bush's plan is to create a national commission to recommend reforms of the mental health service delivery system.

SENIOR CITIZENS

While it may appear that senior citizen issues get addressed more than adequately, with so much discussion about Medicare, Social Security and Prescription Drugs, there are neglected issues for seniors as well.

Affordable home care: According to Bobbie Sackman, Director of Public Policy at the Council of Senior Centers and Services, huge numbers of New Yorkers, mainly women, are now caregivers for their elderly parents. The financial strain of caregiving can be enormous, as documented by a MetLife Study.

"Over their lifetimes," the report states, "the caregivers studied lost $566,500 in wages, $67,000 in retirement contributions and $25,500 in social security benefits. Twenty-nine percent said they had passed on promotions, training opportunities and new assignments; 25 percent passed on transfers or relocation; 22 percent said they could not acquire new job skills. In addition, caregiving cost the respondents an average of $19,500 in food, transportation, assistance with rents and mortgages and the cost to retain home care professionals."

Bobbie Sackman recommends candidate support for adequate and affordable home care measures, as well as working with private industry to make it more friendly to this issue, like the old day-care issue, with flex time and working out of the home as accepted options.

The caregiver issue, although not highlighted, has actually gotten some bleeps on the election speech circuit. In her primary acceptance speech, Hillary Clinton indicated support for a tax credit for long term care for a disabled loved one or for aging parents in the home.

Gore too has lent his support to long-term care for an aging or disabled relative.

Ralph Nader spoke out in favor of the Medicaid Community Attendant Services and Supports Act, a proposed bill that would take funds away from nursing homes and make them available for in-home care.

Automatic eligibility for food stamps: Thousands of elderly in New York State are experiencing hunger and malnutrition. One way to help would be increasing the number of elderly receiving food stamps. New York State has just requested a waiver from the US Department of Agriculture which administers the food stamp program to allow elderly New Yorkers who are living alone to automatically become eligible for food stamps should they start receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI), a benefit for people living below the poverty level. They wouldn't have to apply separately for food stamps but would be able to get the benefits directly through their Medicaid card.

"Over 125,000 elderly and disabled are currently receiving SSI and living alone," said Sackman. "I'd want to know from the Senate candidates, just how would you walk this waiver through?" So far, the issue is not walking or talking.

Don't change formula: The Older Americans Act, enacted in 1965 with Medicaid and Medicare, is the major federal funding source for Meals on Wheels, Senior Centers, Frail Elderly Transportation, and a gamut of services. "This funding has eroded over the years," explained Sackman. "Ten years ago, the federal government provided 70 percent of the money for these services and the city 20 percent. Today they provide 23 percent and 70 percent comes from the city. (Less than 10 percent comes from the state, which does a miserable job, says Sackman.) To the city's credit, the mayors have put the money in, but the federal side has really eroded." However, the situation may get even worse. The Older Americans Act is up for reauthorization, but Congress wants to change the formula for how much each state gets. With the new distribution, New York, considered a rich state because of its tax resources, would get considerably less than we do now, which is already insufficient.

Lazio has spoken out indirectly on this issue, focusing on the fact that New York sends more to the federal government than it gets back in benefits, but his solution is a tax cut to rectify the situation, not a fight to keep the formula from changing.

IMMIGRANTS

The New York Immigration Coalition sent out three letters to Hillary Clinton and Rick Lazio asking them where they stand on issues of importance to immigrants. They also started a postcard campaign, sending out 500 postcards a week from member groups to the candidates' offices. "So far we have had no response," said Veronica Thronson of the Immigration Coalition. "Lazio's office did call saying they received all the letters and they would call back -- but they have not."

While it is true that only naturalized citizens can vote - people who are here legally but are not citizens cannot - the New York Immigration Coalition has a voter registration campaign and at recent naturalization ceremonies they have registered 115,000 new citizen voters in New York. "They may surprise the candidates," said Thronson.

Several important immigrant issues are on the table at the moment, including two bills in the House that would reinstate some of the safety net that was removed four years ago with welfare reform bill. The Hunger Relief Act would restore food stamps to low-income legal immigrant families. The Legal Immigrant Children's Health Improvement Act would restore access to basic health care for pregnant women and children who are here legally.

There is also the Latino and Immigrant Fairness Act that would: a) Allow persons who are on the verge of gaining their immigration status to remain in the U.S. to complete the process. This procedure used to be possible but was allowed to expire in November of 1997; b) Correct unequal treatment among different groups of Central American and Caribbean refugees, granting them the same generosity as was granted Cubans and Nicaraguans by the 1997 Nicaraguan and Central American Relief Act; c) Update the "registry date" from 1972 to January 1, 1986, which would benefit hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were eligible for the "amnesty" program of that year, but have since been in legal limbo.

Bush has proposed reform of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to help change its character and to make America more welcoming to new immigrants but without specific references to any current legislation.

Gore has come out in favor of the Latino and Immigrant Fairness Act.

Hunger In New York


The food pantry opens early in the morning at the church, because they don't want a line to form.

"Would you want to stand outside an emergency food program in your own neighborhood?" asks Doreen Wohl. "Out on the street for everyone to see you lining up for food? No, it's an indignity."

As executive director of the West Side Campaign Against Hunger, which is in the basement of the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew on West 86th Street, Wohl attempts to eliminate the indignities. That's why the pantry is set up like a grocery store. The people coming in are not given prepared bags of food but rather shopping carts and cards with points, based on family size. They walk through the place and choose the protein, vegetables, grains, fruits and dairy products they prefer.

People from 88 households picked out food on this particular morning, and another 88 showed up in the afternoon before the doors closed at 3 p.m. "It was a very busy day," said Wohl, who has seen the number of people coming to her pantry rise from 16,652 in 1993 to 47,000 this year.

"Hunger is rising," said Kim Gilliland of the Hunger Action Network of New York State. "More people are turning to emergency food programs, but the food is thinning and portions are being reduced. People are being turned away by the hundreds daily." Over 74,000 people were not able to get food at the 1300 pantries and soup kitchens in the city in just one month last year, 59 percent of them children.

According to "Hunger is No Accident", a recently released report produced by the New York City Welfare Reform and Human Rights Documentation Project, the current demand for emergency food can be traced to practices that amount to human rights violations in relation to the Food Stamp Program by the city, state and federal government.

The city violations, the report charges, include restricted access to the program and wrongful denial of benefits. The city discriminates against people with limited English, the hearing impaired, teenagers, and women who attempt to apply without their husbands. Applicants are also subjected to degrading treatment meant to discourage participation. State violations include insufficient monitoring of the city's practices. Also, since the state began cutting the welfare rolls, it has used the money it has saved for tax cuts rather than to alleviate hunger and other problems of the former welfare recipients. The federal government, which inaugurated the food stamp program in 1964 to help "low-income households alleviate hunger and malnutrition," is faulted for providing meager benefits and insufficient outreach.

NO FOOD STAMPS FOR HALF WHO ARE ELIGIBLE

Nineteen percent of all children in New York City went to bed hungry last year as demands for emergency food continued to rise. Statewide, close to two million people live below the poverty level, according to Food for Survival.

While many of these households are eligible to receive food stamps, they often do not, for a variety of reasons outlined in the report. Many simply do not know they are eligible for food stamps. The participation rate among eligible individuals is only 52 percent in New York City

But the authorities often actively discourage those eligible from applying, the report charges, or fail to inform potential applicants. Eligible families who were rejected for welfare benefits, for example, were not told they could apply for food stamps separately at a "food stamp-only" office.

VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

"Hunger is no Accident" is packed with facts and figures about hunger in our city and the system that frequently prolongs it. Over 200 public assistance applicants were surveyed about their experiences. The report, written by Cybelle Fox, a policy analyst at the Urban Justice Center - Human Rights Project, is the first effort of the Welfare Reform and Human Rights Documentation Project, a coalition group of six anti-poverty organizations.

The report details how many practices violate not only U.S. law, but also various international codes including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Code of Conduct on the Human Right to Adequate Food, and the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

FOOD, FOOD EVERYWHERE, BUT NOT A BITE TO EAT

At the pantry run by West Side Campaign Against Hunger, over twelve percent of the people coming for emergency food are working, but their earnings, low-paying or part-time, are insufficient. Ironically, many of them toil in the food industry: dishwashers, grocery clerks, cashiers, people working on trucks or in bodegas. Other professions include home health aides, beauty parlors assistants and unskilled laborers in construction. The pantry will soon be staying open on Monday nights until 6:30 to be able to serve more of the working poor.

Forty-eight percent of those receiving food at the West side pantry are presently getting food stamps, but it is still not enough to feed themselves or their families. In New York City, participants in the Food Stamp Program receive 88 cents per meal per person, less than half the average meal cost of $1.76. "Probably everyone who comes to the pantry is eligible for food stamps or should be" said Doreen Wohl. "But fifty-two percent are not getting them."

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