DATE: Wednesday, October 1, 1997            TAG: 9710010010

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   69 lines

WELFARE REFORM: UNCHARTED TERRITORY A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY BEGINS TODAY, AND NAVIGATING THE ROCKS AND SHOALS WILL REQUIRE COMMUNITY COOPERATION.

With hope, resolve and tremulousness, Hampton Roads today embarks in earnest on the kind of welfare reform that is sweeping the nation.

The task of linking up some 9,000 local welfare recipients with jobs is a daunting one. But the economy is favorable. And results pouring in from elsewhere in Virginia hold promise of at least initial success.

The fact that reform has been promoted locally as a communitywide undertaking also is good. Gov. George F. Allen was in town last week to rally business support through formation of the Governor's Business Ambassadors for Welfare Reform. Churches, synagogues and civic groups are being urged to help shore up needy individuals in a time of transition.

There are roles for everyone to play as Virginia and the nation dismantle a half-century of social welfare policy in which financial support for the poor came to be regarded as an entitlement.

In today's new order, welfare is emerging as a temporary safety net (maximum lifetime benefits are limited to five years) for which work is a prerequisite.

The failures of the old system are reason enough to look for a new way. But the new approach is surrounded by perils as well. Public officials and community leaders must stay alert to them as they navigate the new course.

Welfare rolls are down 30 percent or more nationally since the reform movement took wing two years ago. But that laudable achievement has been boosted by a remarkably strong economy. It also reflects a little-heralded fact: A substantial portion of the welfare population always were short-termers, moving back into the work force after some personal catastrophe was resolved.

The critical tests will be (1) what happens, over time, to the one-third or so of the welfare population who are most dysfunctional, either because of limited intelligence or drug addictions or other disabling life circumstances and (2) what happens when the economy declines.

Only now are we beginning to get our first glimpse of the results when large groups of former welfare recipients are forced to exist truly on their own.

Outside Hampton Roads, some individuals have been engaged in work-for-welfare programs for the past two years. But in many cases, their public assistance has increased, not decreased during the period. Even now, child-care assistance and extra help with transportation continue for many. That is just beginning to end.

The greatest hope of ultimate success lies in viewing welfare reform as a communitywide commitment to a better life for those on the bottom rung. Open-ended handouts have stifled initiative. But expecting poor women and their children to exist on sporadic, minimum-wage jobs may prove equally untenable.

Public officials must vigilantly monitor job opportunities and the availability of child care, transportation and health services for the poor. If public assistance in such areas can spell the difference between independence and failure, then the greater good may argue for continued government involvement.

The question posed by Ofelia Wattley, who is coordinating an interfaith welfare mentoring program for the Virginia Beach Social Services Department, is an important one:

``Do we really want the betterment of all of society or do we just not want to subsidize welfare anymore?''

Cutting off welfare benefits can be done with the stroke of a pen. But building a society in which everyone functions requires more than issuing a ``swim-or-sink'' ultimatum.

It means a collective commitment - by businesses, churches, individuals and, yes, even government - to making sure that some life preservers still exist when the sea billows roll.

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