Signal for a Return to Court? : County Board Slashes Aid to Homeless 58%

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors, forced by a court decision to extend the welfare benefits it provides the homeless, has slashed benefits by 58% for those unable to find promise of lodging after 30 days--on grounds that the chronically homeless do not need money to pay rent and utility bills.

The new rule, which takes effect Monday and will drop benefits from $225 a month to $95, drew outrage and bewilderment from advocates for the poor and homeless, creating the possibility that the Legal Aid Society of San Diego would file another lawsuit to change the situation.

“This is a penalization for being homeless,” said Merkel Harris, director of the Welfare Rights Organization, who called the move an attempt by the supervisors to save money at the expense of the homeless. “I don’t know where these homeless people can find homes. What is available to them for $130?”

Supervisors and county officials defended the move as an attempt to force the homeless to search for lodging and said that the rules are so lenient that a small effort will insure the receipt of a full welfare payment.

Sees Money Misused

“We’re penalizing them for not trying,” said Supervisor George Bailey. “It’s very easy as long as they’re getting paid to go out and use that (money) to buy a bottle.”

Pat Pickford, the Department of Social Services program assistant who wrote the new regulations, said that the rule is an attempt to treat the homeless the same way the county treats general relief recipients who are living rent-free with relatives and friends. That group, whose size is unknown, also does not receive the $130 allocation for rent and utility costs.

“Our view is that we’re not penalizing (the homeless person),” Pickford said. “We’re treating him just the same as other people.” Pickford acknowledged that being homeless is a less desirable situation than living rent-free with friends or relatives.

Under current rules, homeless people receive the $225 monthly general relief payment for two months if they show up for their government-created jobs and seek full-time employment. The monthly payments are cut off after two months if they do not show they have obtained lodging.

Legal aid lawyers challenged that so-called “fixed address rule” in 1985 and the 4th District Court of Appeal struck it down in March. On July 8, during a meeting dominated by discussion of jail overcrowding, the supervisors approved the new rules.

Starting Monday, the homeless will be eligible for benefits every month. But after the first month’s payment, they must show that they will have at least a day’s lodging other than a homeless shelter or their relief payment will be cut by $130 to $95.

“Here is a perfect example of how a system creates and maintains homelessness,” said Colleen Fahey Fearn, the legal aid lawyer who successfully filed suit to end the fixed address rule. “What they’re stating is that on the one hand we require that you have a home to get full aid, and on the other hand we’re going to make sure that you can’t get it.”

Fearn said the Legal Aid Society may sue again on grounds that the rules are unclear about how homeless people will prove to welfare workers that they will have lodging.

Supervisor Leon Williams agreed that the low payments make it extremely difficult to find lodging for any length of time, but he said he went along with the rule change after he was assured that a study would be conducted to determine the minimum costs of finding lodging.

“The rationale is that (if) a person is not spending (the welfare grant) for housing, then the county should not be giving it to them. My position is that if it’s not enough to get housing, it’s a futile gesture.” Williams added that the cost of benefits for the homeless was also a factor in the supervisors’ decision.

Bailey said: “We don’t want to give away the store and say ‘Anyone who wants to sleep on the beach is going to get paid for that piece of beach he’s sleeping on.’ ”

County officials said that homeless people need only show a receipt for a night in a single room occupancy hotel or a written promise of housing from a landlord to qualify for the full $225 grant.

“The key is to have some demonstrative commitment to pay for housing,” said Deputy County Counsel Leonard Pollard. “And that having been done, with an SRO for example, I don’t think the proof will be too stringent.” Pollard also said that Social Services Department data indicates that many homeless people are on the streets by choice.

But homeless advocates predicted that the new provision will cause new complications. Father Joe Carroll, president of the St. Vincent de Paul Center, said that the homeless will find it difficult to secure a promise of housing for the month without paying in advance.

No Real Chance

“The reality is that they can’t get a reservation without the money up front. (The county) won’t give (them) a check until (they) get a reservation, but (they) can’t get a reservation without a check.”

Harris, of the Welfare Rights Organization, said that she doubts that homeless people will be adequately informed of the new rules, although county officials said that it will be publicized in the offices where they pick up their checks.

“Is this going to be explained to the client?,” Harris asked. “That (office) is constantly filled with people. There’s not a lot of time for things.

“Some of these people are not functioning very well. They don’t know how to go and do things for themselves,” she said.

In May, 840 homeless people were listed on the general relief rolls, part of a population of 3,949 people who received $828,522 in benefits, Pickford said. The payments are a last resort program for poor people who do not receive federal welfare payments intended for families with children and disabled people.

Pickford said it would be impossible to predict how many more homeless people would qualify for the program now that the fixed address rule has been eliminated, or how much more the county will pay out in benefits. But he said he suspected the welfare rolls will swell now that the homeless are entitled to ongoing monthly benefits.