THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 12, 1995 TAG: 9512120275
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: WELFARE REFORM
As Virginia moves to the forefront of national welfare reform,
thousands of women and children will soon be living in the precarious
space between theory and reality. The Virginian-Pilot is following
three women in Culpeper - where the changes took effect July 1 - as
they adapt to new rules.
SOURCE: BY MARGARET EDDS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CULPEPER LENGTH: Long : 195 lines
The good news for Michelle Wallner is that she is working.
The bad news is that she risks a jail sentence every time she gets to her job by driving her boyfriend's mud-streaked, maroon Ford Bronco.
``I really don't think I'll get caught. I obey all the laws and avoid any confrontation with the police,'' said Wallner, a plucky 24-year-old, explaining how she drives to and from the ``Gas and Stuff'' convenience store, despite a revoked driver's license.
Besides, she asks, what choice is there? ``I can't walk.''
As Wallner and thousands of others strive for financial independence under Virginia's new welfare law, they enter a world in which fortunes can turn on a broken drive shaft or a suspended driver's license.
Policy strategists say transportation, child care and job skills are the principal hurdles women must clear to escape Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the nation's primary cash program for poor women and their children.
That's not news to Wallner, Deborah Taliaferro, and Denise Fletcher.
Almost six months after Culpeper became one of the first Virginia localities to dive into the Virginia Independence Plan, the trio are wrestling in different ways with a system that eventually will require about 48,000 AFDC recipients to work for their benefits.
But for each of the three, getting to and from jobs and interviews is an ongoing issue.
The Culpeper Social Services Department is offering gas vouchers and even free rides if the going is too tough. ``Transportation shouldn't be a problem,'' said Pam Riley, a social worker who is helping steer the women through the new system.
Even with such supports, transportation looms as a perpetual factor in their daily lives, acting sometimes as a legitimate barrier to success, sometimes as an excuse for not doing better. Either way, how they deal today with speeding fines and balky motors - or no car at all - is a clue to what they'll face in two years when gas vouchers and free rides run out.
Under the Virginia plan, which is one of the nation's most far-reaching experiments in remaking welfare, women can collect payments for no more than two years out of every five. If they give birth to more children, they'll be forced to make do with the same size AFDC check, and even if the recipient is enrolled in school or training, work is mandatory.
Congress is considering similar measures, but Virginia's head start means that Culpeper residents will be among the first in the nation to answer the critical question:
What happens to welfare women and their children when the checks stop?
Taliaferro, 39, a single mother of two who meets the world with an exterior that seems alternately brassy and vulnerable, finished a court-ordered drug rehab program last month and is supposed to be applying for at least five jobs each week.
She's behind. Last week, social services workers decided to ``sanction'' her in January - temporarily cutting off her $207 monthly check - because the forms she submitted as proof of her job search weren't filled out correctly. Even after errors were pointed out and she was given extra time, Taliaferro failed to name some of the people who'd interviewed her, they said. Those names are intended to be a safeguard against listing bogus interviews.
In a conversation in mid-November, Taliaferro spoke warmly of the ceremony that marked the completion of her substance-abuse support group. Dressed at midday in robe and pajamas, she turned misty-eyed as she recalled the closing ceremony: ``We passed this little gold coin around. It was very emotional, every-one boo-hooed . . . I found a new family.''
A week later, her confidence appeared to be sagging. It was a Friday: Evidence of 10 job searches was due to Social Services that day. Taliaferro, who has neither a car nor a driver's license, said it probably would be Monday before she got downtown.
``I haven't been feeling good all week, and I'm not going to walk downtown and kill myself,'' she said. Taliaferro has relied on friends or a social worker to drive during her job-hunting.
Meanwhile, stresses seemed to be mounting. Her 16-year-old daughter, Monique, who'd run away in April, was back home but not particularly happily. Taliaferro's bid to do public service work at a drug rehabilitation center outside town had been turned down because, as a heroin addict with felony convictions for drug possession, she had been there too recently herself.
And her job applications appeared to be getting nowhere. ``I'm just about running out of places to go. This thing is stressing me out,'' she said.
For Denise Fletcher, a petite 30-year-old with five daughters, life as a $4.65-an-hour worker at Burger King is continuing to produce its rewards and frustrations.
After a recent shopping trip, Fletcher happily displayed almost a dozen items of children's clothing she'd purchased for $127 at the local Wal-Mart. An earlier trip to the clothes closet at a local Baptist Church had turned up nothing and left her in tears, she said.
Working for the first sustained period in her life, after a marriage and a relationship that brought her motherhood but little in the way of marketable skills, Fletcher is still spending most of her newfound income on consumable items such as clothes and entertainment.
Fletcher gets $380 monthly in AFDC benefits, plus $385 monthly in food stamps. Her salary brings in an estimated $60-$120 more weekly. On a recent evening she was balancing her checkbook to make sure $40 was left to pay for a birthday party for one of her daughters at a fast-food restaurant.
While she could choose to forgo such treats, Fletcher says they give her children a taste of normalcy.
What Fletcher, who lives with an uncle, does not see is a way to the big-ticket items she wants, an apartment and car of her own. The 1989 Chevy Cavalier hatchback her uncle lets her drive broke down a couple of weeks ago, leaving her driving a pickup borrowed from a neighbor. Her worry is that the truck is uninsured.
Last summer, Fletcher applied for a $13,000 loan to buy a 1989 Thunderbird. ``I wanted it so bad. It would have been so comfort,'' she said. But the bank turned down her application because of three judgments on her credit that she attributes to her former husband.
Michelle Wallner also would like to buy a car to replace the 1981 Datsun pickup parked unused in a field next to the farmhouse she shares with a girlfriend. A headlight is out, the tires need replacing, the brakes are unsafe, the emergency brake doesn't work, and there's a hole in the floorboard, Wallner said.
A mechanic estimated that it would cost about $800 to make the car safe for driving.
The better plan, Wallner believes, is to drive her boyfriend's truck while he is working on an out-of-town job for the next few months, and - once Christmas is past - to start saving for her own.
That is, of course, provided her license is returned as scheduled Dec. 21, and she has not been caught driving without it in the meantime.
Two months ago, Wallner - who lost her license for failing to pay speeding fines - was within minutes of being sent to jail for driving on a suspended license. She was already in court when her boyfriend showed up with $600 to pay her fines.
Although Social Services will help women in the Virginia Independence Plan get to work, Wallner said she was unaware of that service.
She has had little contact with the bureau since being sanctioned for failing to turn in job-search forms in October.
``If I get caught, I'll probably go to jail,'' she conceded.
But Wallner is choosing to be optimistic. After all, she has found a $5-an-hour, part-time job near home.
Baby-sitting is working out, and she's just been named to the policy council of her daughter's Head Start center.
``I'm on a roll,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: To get to work at a fast-food restaurant, Denise Fletcher, 30,
borrows a neighbor's pickup that's not insured. With her are two of
her five daughters: Heather, 11, in truck, and Tiffany, 8.
BILL TIERNAN photos
The Virginian-Pilot
FROM WELFARE TO WORK
The Virginia Independence Plan authorizes localities to help with
transportation as women go to work. Guidelines set up by the
Department of Social Services stipulate that participants have the
``primary responsibility'' for their own transportation, and that it
shall be provided for them ``only when the participant is unable to
make necessary arrangements.''
In Culpeper, recipients can get gas vouchers for up to $10 a
week, depending on their need. Social services workers are also
transporting a few clients to and from work. In some other
localities, school buses or church volunteers are being used for
transportation.
Denise Fletcher:
Age: 30
Children: Five daughters, ranging in age from 2 1/2 to 11.
The story so far: Fletcher, who is divorced and lives with an
uncle to make ends meet, began working last summer at a Burger King
restaurant. It is her first sustained job. She receives a small
amount of child support from her former husband, who is the father
of her four oldest daughters, and is allowed to keep both AFDC
benefits and wages because of the size of her family.
Other profiles/A12
BILL TIERNAN/Staff
The Virginian-Pilot
Deborah Taliaferro:
Age: 39
Children: A son, 7, and a daughter, 16.
The story so far: An acknowledged heroin addict, Deborah has
completed a drug rehabilitation program stemming from her conviction
last spring on drug possession charges. The father of her children
is in prison. She has been enrolled in ``job search'' for the last
month, but her AFDC check will be withheld in January because she
has not met all the filing requirements.
Michelle Wallner:
Age: 24
Children: A daughter, 4.
The story so far: Wallner, a high school graduate, has held
several jobs, but has been on and off AFDC for the past four years.
She is in touch with her daughter's father, but has been
unsuccessful in collecting child support. Her AFDC check was
withheld for November and December because she did not file
paperwork about job searches, but she began working in late November
at a convenience store near her home.
KEYWORDS: WELFARE REFORM AFDC by CNB