Welfare Project Periled as Private Sector Fails to Respond

A nationwide pilot project, regarded by the Reagan Administration as a potential solution to the problems of poverty and welfare dependency, has encountered difficulties that threaten its success in Los Angeles County

Dubbed Project Self-Sufficiency, the program seeks to coordinate the efforts of government and the business community in offering housing assistance, job training and job placement to motivated poor single mothers.

However, county officials involved in the program say local corporations have so far failed to contribute so much as a dollar to assist women attending schools and vocational classes as part of the public-private sector project.

In addition, they said, many of the women have had trouble finding landlords willing to rent apartments to them, which they attribute to a belief that welfare mothers are unreliable tenants.

The director of the project in Los Angeles County said private-sector money is crucial to the program’s success because of gaps in existing local and state programs. The money is needed to cover such costs as transportation and child care for 200 women participating in Los Angeles County.

Director Mary Jane Wagle of the county’s Community Development Commission, said she sent letters in September to Southern California’s 100 leading corporations outlining Project Self-Sufficiency and its goals of helping the single mothers make the transition from welfare dependency to productive employment.

Wagle said the letters and follow-up telephone calls requesting donations of $1,000 to $5,000 have failed to raise a penny to date. She had hoped to meet an initial target of $40,000 in donations.

“We are very discouraged by the unwillingness of the private sector to help,” Wagle said. “This project envisions a partnership between the public and private sector. It won’t work unless both are willing to contribute.”

Wagle said the reluctance of the business community to help is particularly distressing in light of President Reagan’s dismantling of federal social programs and his repeated calls for the private sector to pick up the slack.

Wagle said the county, finding itself in the unfamiliar role of fund-raiser, will now turn to private, nonprofit foundations for the money.

Several corporate executives who turned down the county’s request for money said in interviews that they found the project worthy but that their companies were already committed to other programs. Some said their deadlines for giving money had passed by the time they had received the county’s request.

“There are many excellent groups submitting requests, but we simply can’t fund them all,” said Suzanne Campi, who oversees grants for Times Mirror Co., one of the corporations approached by the county. “The number of grant requests is higher than at any other time. Unfortunately, our grant resources have remained constant.”

Jan McElwee, contributions manager for Carter Hawley Hale Inc., which owns the Broadway and Neiman-Marcus department stores, said her company turned down the county’s request because it generally aims its donations at United Way and other federated campaigns.

“We have very little left over for health and human service grants,” she said.

Among the other area corporations asked to donate were Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Co., Teledyne Inc., American Medical International Inc., Occidental Petroleum Charitable Foundation Inc. and MGM/UA Entertainment Co. Wagle said two corporations, Pacific Bell and Mattel Inc., are still considering the county’s request.

Last September, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Samuel R. Pierce Jr. kicked off the nationwide project at a Los Angeles news conference. Committing $25 million in HUD funds to the program, Pierce underscored the need for a “partnership” between the federal agency, local governments and the private sector if Project Self-Sufficiency was to prove a model.

Los Angeles County is the largest of 155 demonstration sites selected by HUD to participate in the project. As such, local officials said, the county’s experience serves as a barometer of sorts for the project’s overall success or failure.

HUD officials in Washington charged with monitoring the project said Los Angeles County’s problems were similar to difficulties encountered in other demonstration sites.

HUD’s Audrey Scott, who oversees Project Self-Sufficiency nationwide, said the county would have been more successful had it secured commitments up front from the corporate sector instead of waiting until the program was in full swing.

Scott said the project director for Los Angeles also should have done more to involve elected officials, who could have assisted in raising funds.

“The sites that have had the best success are ones that had prior commitments from the private sector and where participation by elected officials was quite high,” Scott said.

Wagle acknowledged that commitments from the private sector should have been obtained before any women were selected as participants.

Early Confidence

“We were confident that we would be able to convince the business sector that this was a worthy project,” she said. “We certainly never thought $40,000 would be an unsurmountable goal.”

HUD officials said Project Self-Sufficiency grew out of a Reagan Administration belief that government programs of the past were not addressing the causes of poverty and that new efforts, combining the public and private sector, were needed.

More than 6,000 single heads of household, the vast majority of whom are women, have been selected by local governments to participate in the project. The participants must show a high degree of motivation and agree to an education or job-training plan designed to help them achieve economic independence.

In return, HUD provides a substantial housing subsidy and the local agencies offer an array of services, including job training and child and health care.

In Los Angeles County, many of the participants are receiving vocational training, child care and transportation assistance through the federal Job Training Partnership Act, which brings together government and the private sector. The salary of participants receiving on-the-job training is paid half by the business and half through Job Training Partnership Act funds.

Other participants, who are not involved with Job Training Partnership Act but are attending community colleges to pursue fields such as nursing and drafting, do not receive subsidized child care and transportation. Wagle said financing from the private sector is needed mostly for this second group of participants.

The housing subsidy and local services will continue until the women achieve their goal of self-sufficiency, which could take anywhere from an estimated six months to two years. Wagle said that with the help of the Job Training Partnership Act and college placement centers, the participants will search for jobs that pay enough to be a realistic alternative to welfare.

County officials say that about half the participants have expressed a need for emergency money during the first two months of the project. Up until now, they said, the women have been able to forestall major problems by dipping into small savings and asking friends and family for help.

“The cushion is now gone for a lot of these women,” said Maryl Paquet, who oversees the project in Hacienda Heights/La Puente, one of three target areas in the county. The other areas are East Los Angeles/West San Gabriel Valley and South-Central Los Angeles.

“Fifty dollars here and $50 there at the right time can make all the difference between these women continuing the program or having to drop out and feel discouraged,” Wagle said.

Classes Missed

Sandra Edwards, a 30-year-old welfare mother participating in the project, said she has missed more than a dozen classes at Mt. San Antonio Community College in Walnut because she didn’t have enough money to repair her car. Edwards said her teachers have told her that if she misses another class she will be dropped.

She cannot use the bus system because of the distance between the college and her children’s day-care facility, so her car must be in working condition for her to continue in the program, Edwards said.

“There’s no way I can get my kids to day care by 8 in the morning and get to classes by 9 if I take the bus,” said Edwards, a Covina resident and the mother of two girls, ages 4 and 2. “I don’t have money to hire a baby sitter, so that means I have to stay home and watch them.

“It’s like a Catch-22 situation. It’s like a chain reaction. One thing goes wrong and the whole thing’s affected. After a while, it takes a toll on you and your children.”

County officials said that of the 45 single mothers awarded housing subsidies, only 13 have found landlords willing to rent to them. They said that because most of the women are black and Latino, racism could not be discounted as a factor.

Herminia Renteria, 27, said she searched for two months for housing in the San Gabriel Valley for her and her two children, ages 8 years and 7 months. Renteria bounced back and forth between a motel and her parents’ home during the search. She said it wasn’t until a Project Self-Sufficiency director accompanied her that she found a landlord willing to rent. She will move into an El Monte apartment sometime this week.

“Some said they didn’t have time and didn’t want to bother with the government,” Renteria said. “Others were really rude. ‘Oh, no, we don’t want anything to do with that.’ They would slam the door in my face or hang up the phone.

“If the coordinator didn’t go with me, I think I’d still be looking for a landlord to rent to me.”