Welfare Cases in O.C. Rise to a Record High : Crisis: Latinos seeking public assistance outnumber whites, and the county leads in growth of aid recipients.

Orange County’s welfare cases have reached an all-time high, and for the first time, Latino welfare recipients now outnumber their white counterparts, according to the latest statistics compiled by county officials.

The welfare caseload is growing at a rate faster than the county can handle, and officials warn that this could lead to delays in issuing benefits, a loss of state funding for some programs, and frustration among welfare recipients if steps are not taken to deal with the situation.

“If the caseload trends continue as forecast, by the end of the year we will be overloaded enough that we will have to begin taking shortcuts,” said county Social Services Agency Director Lawrence Leaman. “We will begin making mistakes. . . .”

In the last three years, Orange County’s welfare cases have increased from about 51,000 to about 94,100. And late last year, the number of Latino welfare cases edged past the number of white cases by about 2%.

Officials blame the spiraling need for public assistance on social forces such as the increase of single-parent households, demographic forces, the depressed economy, changes in eligibility for some welfare programs and expanding immigrant and amnesty populations.

Though Orange County’s poverty rate remains fairly low compared to the rest of the state, the county leads the state and other California counties in growth of welfare cases, officials say. For example, Orange County food stamp cases jumped 53% in 1989-90 compared to a 6% average increase in the rest of California. Medi-Cal cases increased 32%, compared to 17% in the rest of the state, and Aid for Families with Dependent Children went up 16% compared to 6% elsewhere in California during the same period.

Orange County officials are hard-pressed to explain why welfare cases are growing so rapidly here. In part, they suggest, the county may merely be suffering growing pains, combined with a rapid onslaught of the kinds of problems that have long afflicted other urban centers.

“The demographics of California and the county are changing; society is changing, and perhaps we’re being more heavily impacted here than other parts of the state because we were so far out of the mainstream,” Leaman said.

Whatever the reasons, the growth of welfare cases in almost every category of public assistance has been steep. From 1987 to 1990, the participants in Medi-Cal, the state’s program for senior citizens and low-income residents, grew by 67%; general relief cases, assistance usually for single adults, grew by 54%; Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) increased 37%, and food stamp cases soared 128%.

The impact of the explosion in welfare cases is already hitting caseworkers in the field.

At the Anaheim welfare office, each worker is supposed to handle 137 cases, but that number frequently soars to 150, said district manager Kathy Tahilramani. The office has installed a walk-up desk where clients can pick up benefit checks without having to see caseworkers and now has a lobby information worker and supervisors who work the lines to ease congestion.

Still, Tahilramani estimates that a typical new AFDC client must wait an average of three to four hours before seeing a caseworker. Many are women with young children who have limited means of transportation.

The staff has chipped in with donations of diapers, food and toys to ease conditions, Tahilramani said.

Sharon Clinton, a caseworker who deals with general-relief clients, said the process of welfare--already demeaning and dehumanizing for clients--is made worse when the system is overloaded.

“The last thing we want is an angry client,” she said. “The interviews are not going to go very well, and if there are long waits and delays and other problems the client is going to be frustrated.

“I try not to look too far ahead. If I knew what it was going to be like a year from now it would probably frighten me to death. . . . You know the (cases) are never going to stop but now it doesn’t even slow down. They just keep coming at you.”

In about November of last year, the county reached somewhat of a milestone: for the first time, the numbers of Latino welfare recipients outnumbered white recipients. Fueled by unprecedented levels of Latino and Asian immigration, the county’s welfare cases are now about 39% Latino, 37% white and 16% Asian. Blacks and other ethnic minorities make up the balance of the welfare cases.

According to the 1990 census, Orange County is 65% white, 23% Latino, 10% Asian and 2% black.

While identifying demographic changes as a force in caseload growth, social service officials also point out the problem is not one of ethnicity.

“It would be easy to take these numbers and turn the issue into some redneck viewpoint that minorities are pulling us down, but that’s not the picture,” Leaman said.

John Webb, director of research and planning for the county Social Services Agency, agreed, saying the most important factor is the growing numbers of children borne to indigent women.

“This is what is driving the caseload and will create new cases far into the future, regardless of the ethnicity or characteristics of the parents,” Webb said. “If a child is born in the U.S., it is eligible for a full range of services.”

Social service officials say that the Latino and Asian refugee populations tend to have a lower level of skills and educational resources and that more are likely to become part of the working poor.

Both groups tend to have high fertility rates, though they differ in terms of age. Latino families that must depend on public assistance tend to be younger, with few assets to fall back on; Asian refugee families typically are older, with larger households.

“In the past the boat people came out alone or with one or two children, but the political refugees come with all the family and the family size is sometimes seven or more,” explained Loc Nguyen, director of refugee services for the Viet Community Center of Orange County. “These families have difficulty in finding jobs with a salary level to support them.”

What to do about the escalating welfare caseload is vexing, in part because of the forces driving the growth. Officials surmise that economic conditions have increased welfare and food stamp recipients, as have rises in single-parent households and out-of-wedlock births.

But they point to the county’s changing demographics as the major force affecting welfare cases. According to county and census numbers:

* From 1980 to 1990, the Asian population increased 117% and the Latino population about 97%.

* Medi-Cal caseloads include more than 12,000 illegal immigrants or amnesty applicants.

* There are more than 3,000 children of illegal immigrants in the AFDC caseload.

* More than 25% of the Indochinese and Vietnamese population in the county is on welfare.

To keep pace with the caseload growth, welfare officials have projected that an additional 200 staff members will be needed by the end of next year. However, officials maintain that so far they have been able to meet all state requirements in processing benefits on time.

State and federal regulations mandate that the county process and release benefits in a timely fashion. If funding and staffing needs are not met, the county risks exceeding these time limits, which could threaten state and federal funding.

Other consequences are just as dire, county welfare officials warned in a March report to the Board of Supervisors detailing caseload trends:

* County residents will not receive services and financial assistance to which they are legally entitled.

* The county faces a greater risk of lawsuits stemming from injury or death to clients.

* Lower standards of performance could lead to the county’s programs being taken over by the state or the courts.

* Public unrest due to crowded conditions, longer waits and delays in issuing benefits will heighten tensions, increase safety concerns and lead to a public outcry.

* The medical community will increasingly refuse to serve welfare clientele because of delays in reimbursements.

* Growing frustration on the part of caseworkers could result in considerable labor unrest.

Others outside the welfare system agree that the need for public assistance is approaching crisis proportions.

“We certainly see a very serious situation, and it is getting worse and worse,” said Andrea Zigman, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Orange County who deals daily with welfare recipients.

Zigman said many of the problems predicted by welfare officials have already emerged.

“We routinely see clients who have to wait a very long time in welfare offices; we see errors being made in the processing of cases that result in delays and improper denial of aid (that is) perhaps due to overwork on the part of technicians,” she said.

More funding for staffing and other needs is the most obvious solution for immediate needs, but the occurrence of that is unlikely because of the massive budget crises facing both the state and the county.

Orange County political leaders, while voicing concern about burgeoning welfare cases, offer little support.

“I am very concerned about what is going to happen to the poor, those who can’t help themselves,” Supervisor Don. R. Roth said. “I would love to give them 5,000 employees, but who is going to pay? The picture is bleak now, and it looks like it is going to be worse.”

Orange County Welfare Cases

March, 1991: 94,155