DATE: Sunday, September 28, 1997            TAG: 9709290247

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH SIMPSON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  299 lines

WELFARE REFORM GOES TO WORK ON WEDNESDAY JOB REQUIREMENTS AND TIME LIMITS ON BENEFITS ARE FEEDING HOPE, FEAR.

Domergue Chavis has tried to deliver a message to the 45 welfare recipients who regularly troop through her office at Norfolk's Department of Social Services:

``You have to get a job, no fooling.''

Those words will take on new meaning come Wednesday, when the most critical phase of welfare reform takes effect in Hampton Roads. That day will bring fundamental changes for 9,000 welfare recipients throughout the Hampton Roads region who will now be required to work for their benefits and who face history-making time limits on receiving government aid.

The change also will have an impact on the community where those recipients venture for jobs, for child care, for rides to work, and for help in making the transition from welfare to work.

Suzanne Puryear, director of human services for Norfolk, asks those who think they won't be affected to consider this: Every year, $50 million in welfare payments flows into Norfolk alone. ``If that $50 million goes away, that's a big impact,'' she said. ``Landlords don't get paid. Soap doesn't get bought. We need to make sure that welfare money gets replaced with earned dollars.''

``There's no one this won't affect,'' agrees Daniel Stone, director of social services in Virginia Beach. ``When people are impoverished and depend on the government, you don't have the full force of the community behind you. When people are productive, we have a safer community, a place where schools improve, where more people pay taxes, where people buy more goods and services.''

Wednesday's phase-in will also be a major landmark for the state, since Hampton Roads, along with three other areas of the commonwealth - the Roanoke area, the far western tip of Virginia and a rural area around Amelia - will be the final pieces of the puzzle of the state's experiment in welfare reform.

It is a change that some call long overdue, and others describe as punitive. A change that welfare recipients either welcome or fear, sometimes both.

Some of Chavis' clients, like 31-year-old Eleanor Fisher, say they are looking forward to the changes, which were mandated by laws passed more than two years ago.

``I'm ready,'' said the mother of two, who has recently completed high school equivalency classes and is in an unpaid, work-experience job at the Huntington YMCA. ``I'm tired of being part of the system. It's depressing sitting at home waiting for a check.''

Diana Bogart, who has been trying to finish up a degree at Old Dominion University, is less optimistic, even though her prospects for a job may be rosier. The Norfolk mother of a 10-year-old daughter has received welfare benefits for two years, and thinks the changes will ultimately hurt children and families.

``I feel like we're the scapegoat for American society,'' said Bogart, who believes welfare reform will force people from education and training programs into dead-end jobs. ``I think a lot of people don't care about the poor anymore. They're fed up with them, and they think, `Screw 'em.' ''

That diversity of opinion is matched by differences in attitude, education and station in life among the clients Chavis sees each day.

She has recipients whose families have been in the system for generations, others who are first-timers. There are people who have college educations, others who don't have high school diplomas. Recipients with ``attitudes,'' and others so anxious about getting a job they cry in her office.

But Chavis believes, by and large, they have one thing in common: ``Most of them want to work,'' she said. ``But they think there are no jobs out there for them. For some, it's a matter of hopelessness, despair, passivity. We have to turn that around, and instead of having them say, `No,' teach them to say, `Yes, I can.' ''

The changes that will take place Wednesday were designed to make that happen, for better or worse.

What will welfare reform mean for recipients?

Wednesday's phase-in of work mandates will mean three things for the people on Chavis' caseload and those throughout Hampton Roads.

First, welfare recipients will have to work for their benefits within 90 days of becoming part of the Virginia Initiative for Employment not Welfare, the work mandate part of welfare reform. If they can't find a job, they will be placed by Social Services in community service jobs, such as doing clerical work for city offices or working for nonprofit agencies. Every person who walks through the door on Wednesday to sign up for benefits will be part of that program immediately and will be required to sign a ``personal responsibility'' contract.

The people who are currently receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families will be phased into VIEW over the next six months. In some cities, such as Norfolk, recipients will be able to request whether to be phased in early, to take advantage of keeping welfare benefits and job income, or to wait as long as possible, to keep the clock from ticking on their five-year limit. The only exceptions will be people older than 60 or younger than 17, those with children younger than 18 months, and 17- to 19-year-olds who are in school.

The second change is that once people move onto VIEW, the clock starts ticking. Not just to find a job, but on their lifetime timetable of receiving welfare benefits. They can continue to receive TANF for two years, plus receive an additional year of transitional services, such as help paying for child care and transportation. Then the client will be dropped from the welfare rolls. Clients can return two years after they are cut off from receiving TANF payments, but they have only five years - total - to receive TANF benefits in a lifetime.

Besides those policies, viewed by many as the more punitive part of welfare reform, there is a third element that's regarded as a plus.

It's called the ``Earned Income Disregard.'' Recipients can continue to receive some or all of their welfare benefits even after they get a job. Currently, recipients lose their benefits almost immediately after getting employment. But under the revamped welfare policy, they can keep their pay, plus welfare benefits, up to the federal poverty level. For a family of three, that could mean earning up to $1,100 a month.

``For the first time, they can realize a difference in their standard of living,'' Puryear said. ``They might be able to save money for a car, or find a better place to live.''

Before, a part-time job, a temporary job, or even a full-time minimum-wage job might not be worth taking, since a recipient would lose welfare payments and, in some cases, other benefits such as Medicaid. Come Wednesday, any job - even a low-paying one - can boost their monthly income.

But while that's a clear advantage for the two years those benefits last, those payments eventually will come to a halt. And that's the point where some people may hit the wall.

Patrice Schwermer, social minister at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Norfolk, said the reform plan depends on people's moving up from minimum-wage jobs, and she's not convinced that will happen for everyone.

``What happens if people don't move up?'' she asks. ``Initially, people may be able to get the jobs, but down the road, when the time limits hit them, are they going to be self-sufficient? If they're not, there won't be a safety net for them anymore.''

What are the barriers to success?

One of Chavis' clients, Earlon Hayes, is a good example of someone who has the ability to get a job but who hasn't because he worried about losing health benefits for his children, who are 6, 8 and 9 years of age.

``If a person really wants to get off, they can do it,'' Hayes said one recent afternoon as his children played in the next room. ``The only reason I'm still on welfare is because I couldn't find a job with benefits and a decent salary.''

Hayes, who has been on welfare six years, is being trained as a certified nursing assistant at the Southeastern Tidewater Opportunity Project. He hopes by the time he is phased into VIEW, he will have a job, with benefits, with a wage that will support his family, which his former landscaping job could not do.

Chavis knows that once clients like Hayes get employment, her job is still not done.

``I have to constantly pluck their nerves,'' she said. ``Once they get a part-time job, I have to ask, `What about a full-time job? Once they get a full-time job, I ask, `How can you move up?' ''

Caseworkers throughout Hampton Roads are faced with the same challenges. Each of the city social service agencies in the area have been working to set up job training programs and to tap local businesses - like General Motors and NationsBank - for job opportunities.

Still, whether there will be enough jobs - and whether they will pay enough - remains to be seen.

Two other big concerns - how people will get to those jobs, and who will care for their children when they're there - also figure into the success of welfare reform.

TRT is compiling a database of where welfare recipients live to better serve that community, but Carol Russell, who works for TRT, said there will still be pockets of neighborhoods that lack service. Russell said TRT and the cities of South Hampton Roads have applied for two transportation grants, one to serve the more rural areas and another to serve the urban residents. The grants, which are being distributed by the state Department of Social Services, would help set up ride-share programs, purchase vans for unserved areas, and encourage people to donate cars for needy residents.

Child care is also a concern. While there are openings in centers and homes, child-care experts say there are shortages of care during nontraditional hours - which many shift workers will need - for infants and toddlers and for care of sick children. There's also concern that the number of latch-key children will skyrocket. ``We can't risk putting children in poor quality child care, or leaving them alone, or we will have the same issues to deal with in 15 years,'' said Kathryn Wolf, director of dependent care services for The Planning Council.

And then there's the biggest wild card of all: the economy. Considered a major player in dropping the caseloads 24 percent in Hampton Roads during the past two years, it's the one thing no one can control.

``A glitch or two in the economy could hurt us,'' Stone said.

While Stone would like to focus solely on the positives of welfare reform - moving people to self-sufficiency - he voices a concern that's on the minds of many:

What about the people who aren't successful?

``That's the unknown,'' he said.

The role of the community

The jury is still out on whether welfare reform will work - it may be years, even decades, before a verdict is in.

Few people, though, believe the old welfare system worked. Puryear, for instance, still sees people in the hallways of her Brambleton Avenue office whom she worked with as an eligibility worker 24 years ago. ``People deserve better,'' she said.

While welfare recipients will shoulder the greatest burden of this effort, the nonwelfare population will play a role as well.

That includes: the grandparents and relatives who will be helping welfare recipients with child care, and absent parents who will be more aggressively tapped for child support payments; the people in charge of hiring, who can hire welfare recipients, and those who work alongside them, who can mentor them through difficulties; neighbors and members of churches and synagogues and civic clubs and nonprofit agencies who can help ease the transition and form a makeshift safety net.

Although Schwermer, the social minister at St. Pius X, lobbied against the reform changes and still views them as overly harsh, she sees a positive that could come with it. As more people move into jobs, we will all share more of the same problems: surviving the workplace, finding good child care, making ends meet. ``It won't be a we-them situation anymore,'' Schwermer said. ``Maybe it will unite us.''

The people on Chavis' caseload are taking a wait-and-see attitude.

From Hayes, who believes he'll have a job soon, to Bogart, who hopes to be able to work and go to school at the same time, to Fisher, who thinks her work-experience job will lead to a paying one. ``I want to be independent,'' Fisher said. ``I don't want my children to see me rely on the system.''

Chavis, meanwhile, hopes for the best. ``Change brings challenge,'' she said. ``But it also brings hope.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot

Domergue Chavis of Norfolk's Department of Social Services says most

welfare recipients ``want to work. But they think there are no jobs

out there for them.''

Photo

BILL TIERNAN/ The Virginian-Pilot

Eleanor Fisher, 31, prepared for the changes by taking high school

equivalency classes and working in an unpaid job. ``I'm ready,'' she

says. ``I'm tired of being part of the system. It's depressing

sitting at home waiting for a check.''

Graphics

THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN PUBLIC WELFARE PROGRAMS

ROBERT D. VOROS/The Virginian-Pilot

Photo

President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. Some of his welfare

reforms are still in use today.

[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]

FAMILIES FACING WORK MANDATE

Total AFDC (now Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) cases,

July 1997:

Chesapeake: 1,535

Hampton: 2,094

Norfolk: 4,357

Newport News: 2,501

Portsmouth: 2,572

Suffolk: 860

Virginia Beach: 1,913

Isle of Wight: 213

Southampton: 102

Franklin: 164

Charles City: 36

Gloucester: 191

James City: 129

New Kent: 37

York/Poquoson: 132

Williamsburg: 28

Source: Virginia Department of Social Services

Total cases that will fall under work mandate program, which will

go into effect Oct. 1. Estimated from July 1997 statistics:

Chesapeake: 817

Hampton: 1,268

Norfolk: 2,368

Newport News: 1,426

Portsmouth: 1,550

Suffolk: 512

Virginia Beach: 936

Isle of Wight: 99

Southampton: 53

Franklin: 99

Charles City: 22

Gloucester: 96

James City: 69

New Kent: 18

York/Poquoson: 50

Williamsburg: 13

WHAT'S NEXT

During the next several months, The Virginian-Pilot will explore

changes in welfare in Hampton Roads under the new Virginia

Initiative for Employment not Welfare program. The occasional series

begins with the following stories:

Monday:

How welfare reform promises the most sweeping changes in a

half-century.

This week:

A historical look at welfare: To understand where we're headed,

it helps to know where we've been.

Employers gear up for the growing work force. How many jobs are

available in Hampton Roads?

Upcoming:

The challenges of moving from welfare to work: child care,

transportation.

The impact of welfare reform on cities. What will their

responsibilities be?

The role of churches, civic groups and individuals in mentoring

the newly employed.

How does welfare reform affect the average working person?

Welfare reform's impact on the role of the social worker.

The many faces of welfare.

The impact on the children who make up more than half the

region's welfare population.

Has prevention been lost in the shuffle? KEYWORDS: WELFARE REFORM

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu