THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 30, 1996 TAG: 9607300247
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 73 lines
Twenty months.
That's how much time is left before Hampton Roads jumps into the deep end of Virginia's welfare-reform pool: limits on benefits, the end of guaranteed, lifelong government support.
That's not to say local public-assistance recipients and administrators haven't gotten their feet wet in this first year of the reforms, billed as the nation's toughest.
They're already dealing with ``learnfare'' - new welfare rules for school attendance - mandatory immunizations for children on welfare, underage mothers on welfare being required to live with their parents, and the required naming of fathers of children born to unwed mothers seeking welfare.
All are creating more work for those who have to track such things, even if they haven't affected that many. Still, there are encouraging signs.
``I think that we've seen a greater response as a result of women naming the fathers of their children. And I certainly think that is a real positive . Human Services.
The balance of the reforms, which require most welfare recipients to work for their checks and limit such payments to two years in any five-year period, is scheduled to reach Hampton Roads in 1998, barring changes under a new governor or legislature.
Until then, local officials are watching and taking notes on the experiences of other areas of the state already living with the reforms. The locals are paying particular attention to Northern Virginia, which implemented the changes a few months ago.
``We won't have to reinvent the wheel, hopefully,'' said Linda D. Piersawl, recently named welfare-reforms coordinator for Chesapeake Social Services.
Piersawl not long ago wrote her master's thesis on welfare reform. Still, she, like others, is learning on the job.
New policies on tracking truant students from welfare-receiving families are intended to be less cumbersome. School officials now will first try to contact parents or guardians when a child is absent, rather than tossing the names directly to social workers.
While the work per case is up, some cities are seeing their caseloads drop. This is normal in good economic times, but social workers can't help wondering whether the specter of the coming strict reforms isn't also chasing people into the work force - either from fear or through a new emphasis on helping non-working welfare recipients find jobs.
In Portsmouth, the rolls have dropped by about 300 families, a little more than 9 percent, since 1994, the year before Virginia's welfare reforms began.
Across the water in Norfolk, the drop has been even greater. The number of Norfolk families receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children - the main component of welfare - has declined by 949, or 14.8 percent. This matches the state average.
``A thousand cases in a year is a pretty significant decrease,'' said Suzanne Puryear, director of Norfolk's Department of Human Services. ``In my mind, I have to think something else is influencing this.''
She's talked often this past year with her counterparts in the Culpeper area, hoping to find tips on their successful cooperation with the local chamber of commerce in helping match welfare recipients with jobs. She's also watching how Northern Virginia will handle aspects of welfare reform that particularly concern her, such as day care and transportation.
``I continue to worry about the resource level that's going to be attached to it,'' Puryear said.
``You've got to put some support systems in place in terms of child day care. You've got to make sure people are ready to work. . . . That's case management. That's working one-on-one-on-one-on-one with families, and that's not cheap.''
Perhaps most important, local welfare officials are seeing the loss of the dogged disbelief of most clients and oft-cynical social workers - ``institutional denial,'' Norfolk's Puryear called it - that welfare reform in Virginia is anything more than political posturing and won't reach them.
They're seeing that, political or not, it's for real. And it's on its way.
KEYWORDS: WELFARE REFORM by CNB