Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 5, 1992 TAG: 9201060191
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: D-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By NEVA HART
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
WHAT SHOULD THE '92 GENERAL ASSEMBLY DO?
RICH is what you have to be before politicians will listen to you. Educated helps, too. At least, that's the way it appears to the poor people in Virginia.After all, how often would a politician be interested in hearing from a welfare mother calling from the local 7-Eleven pay phone, explaining above the noise of her baby crying that her welfare payments just aren't making ends meet? When the competition for finite state dollars gets rough, there's no poor people's union to march on Richmond because they have no political clout.
One in four children nationwide is classified as living in poverty. In Roanoke, more than 65 percent of incoming first-graders are "poor." A Roanoke mother (or father) and one child on welfare receive $231 a month in Aid to Dependent Children benefits. An ADC caretaker with two children receives $291 a month. To compare, an adult couple in Roanoke on Supplemental Security Income receives $602 a month.
How far could you, Mr. or Mrs. Legislator, stretch $291 for monthly rent, day care, transportation and food?
The state's ADC benefit-payment rate, last determined in 1985, needs to be raised to help relieve the financial pressure on this group of poor and working poor so that they can focus on job training and education to get off welfare. That's a desirable goal, if they can get a job in an area with 12 percent unemployment.
The heaviest concentrations of ADC cases in the state are in the East-Central regions (fishermen), the Southwest and South-Central region (farmers), and Southwest region (coal miners). Sixteen local social-service agencies in those areas carry 63 percent of the state's ADC caseload!
At least there is some public housing in Roanoke, where average housing costs begin around $300 a month. However, the ADC population of Roanoke is only 10 percent of the city's total population, yet 52 percent of the children coming into Foster Care (read "taxpayer care") are from ADC families.
It shouldn't be a crime to be poor, but when caretakers cannot provide shelter and care for their children, they can be convicted of child abuse and neglect and have their children taken away and put into the care of local social-service agencies.
Raising the monthly ADC payment by 5 percent would cost an additional $8 million from the general fund annually. Raising the ADC payment is "prevention," and will help keep families together.
Because of budget cuts due to the state revenue shortfall, and increasing caseloads due to economic conditions, the social-services system cannot be expected to function with even marginal adequacy. To protect programs for the poor, cuts have been made in direct-service funding for local social-service agencies, causing layoffs and unfilled vacancies.
Statewide, the Department of Social Services is currently short approximately 700 eligibility workers and 250 service staff (social workers).
Although the state shares the responsibility of paying for local agency staff, local governments are increasingly being asked to pick up a larger share of this cost.
For a social worker working 40 hours a week, plus on-call for child-protective services on nights and weekends, the starting salary in Roanoke is $20,000. In surrounding counties, social workers start near $16,300. Benefit workers (those who take applications and determine eligibility) are hired at $16,700 in the city, and approximately $15,200 in rural counties.
Cutting and eliminating staff causes a decline in the ability to issue the benefits. When state funds are cut, local governments must consider paying staff (and related employment costs) entirely from local funds or face being out of compliance with federally mandated benefit-delivery requirements.
Administering programs for housing and food to the poor is a bottom-line humanitarian essential. Other programs - highway funding, etc. - should not take priority over human suffering.
The legislature cannot cut more "fat" from social services - there isn't any! To avoid federal sanctions and more Legal Aid-type lawsuits, restoring full staffing is absolutely necessary.
Welfare is anything but a free ride. By being a democratic and humanitarian state, however, we have chosen to provide a variety of programs and benefits for the less fortunate - many of whom are children.
During this coming General Assembly session, elected officials must not forget that group of Virginians who aren't able, for whatever reason, to provide themselves with a decent existence.
The Department of Social Services budget for the 1990-92 biennium was 3.29 percent of the state's general funds.
So that legislators hear about those citizens who depend on social services, members of local social-service agencies' boards of directors and other interested citizens formed Virginia Social Service Advocates.
The advocates are taxpayers who voice their priorities for how tax dollars should be spent because they have become educated on the needs of poorer Virginians.
Neva Hart is president of the Virginia Social Service Advocates and is a director of Franklin County's social-services agency.