Welfare Numbers Up Most in Valley : Aid: Officials attribute the 59% increase to a high concentration of poor immigrants who recently became eligible for some benefits and to the weak economy.

The number of people on welfare is increasing more rapidly in the San Fernando Valley than anywhere else in Los Angeles County, the latest sign that urban problems have spilled over into the once-privileged suburbs.

The number of people receiving welfare benefits countywide grew 29% between January, 1991, and June of this year, but the increase was 59% in the Valley, said Paul Fast, research director for the county Department of Public Social Services. The number of welfare recipients in the Valley grew from 79,800 to 127,200 during that period, compared to a countywide increase from 1.1 million to 1.4 million, he said.

In addition, of the county’s 30 welfare districts, the East Valley office in Panorama City in June aided the most welfare recipients--77,977 people, Fast said.

Officials attribute the increase to a high concentration of poor immigrants who recently became eligible for some welfare benefits under a new federal law and to the economic malaise affecting the area.

“Things in the Valley have really changed, but people still judge the area from the days when it was an affluent little suburb of Los Angeles,” said county Supervisor Ed Edelman, who represents most of the region. “Now it’s a cosmopolitan area with . . . some very poor folks.”

“There are no Valley Girls around here” is the way Brinley Lee, an administrative deputy in the East Valley welfare district, characterized the change.

Liz, a 20-year-old Pacoima resident with two toddlers, is one of thousands of local residents who recently turned to welfare for the first time after being laid off by a Sun Valley import/export firm, where she worked for two years.

“I’ve tried to find a job, but it’s real hard,” said Liz, who asked that her full name not be used. “I applied for a receptionist job, and there were, like, 50 people in line for one interview.

“I want to work, but I feel like I have no choice anymore.”

The unemployment rate in the city of Los Angeles has more than doubled since the summer of 1990--from 6% to 12.5%, said Jay Horowitz, a labor market analyst for the state Employment Development Department. No separate figures were available for the San Fernando Valley.

But about half of the 735 Valley businesses that responded to a Times Poll this summer said they cut their work forces during the past year, and others have closed, including the General Motors plant in Van Nuys.

The 2,600 workers who lost their jobs at GM will receive at least 85% of their salaries until their labor contract expires next September. But the plant closure is already having a ripple effect on suppliers, as well as on nearby bars, restaurants and shops that relied heavily on the dollars spent by workers.

Other Valley businesses that have cut their work forces include Lockheed--which employs only 2,800 people at its Burbank plant, compared to 10,500 two years ago--and Keebler Co., which last week announced plans to close its Van Nuys plant and lay off 106 employees.

“The way the economy is, it’s not surprising there has been an astronomical increase in the welfare caseload out here,” said Ike August, director of the West Valley welfare district office in Canoga Park. “You can’t keep shutting down industry unless you replace those jobs, and we’re not doing that.”

The recession has even affected the local striptease business, said Bridget Traxel of Van Nuys, a 25-year-old topless dancer who now earns about $450 a week. Tips are down, she said, forcing her to apply for Medi-Cal benefits for her 5-year-old daughter.

Medi-Cal is the fastest growing program in the Valley, helping to boost the total welfare caseload to an all-time high, officials said.

A key reason for the Medi-Cal increase is a change in federal regulations that permits undocumented immigrants to receive emergency and pregnancy-related benefits, said James Weathers, a county DPSS administrator.

The new law took effect in California in 1988 and is partly responsible for the recent increase in the number of welfare recipients in the Valley, officials said.

Countywide, the number of immigrants who received welfare benefits jumped 87%, from 69,184 in January, 1991, to 129,639 in June of this year, Fast said. No separate figures were available for the Valley, but officials said there was a similar jump.

If the change in regulations had occurred in 1980, the Valley would not have been as strongly affected because it was 75% Anglo then, said Peter Morrison, a RAND demographer. But Anglos now make up only 58% of the area’s roughly 1.5 million residents, whereas the percentage of Latinos jumped from 19% to about 30%; their numbers nearly doubled from 234,819 to 461,269. About half the families receiving welfare benefits in the county are Latino, Fast said.

Moreover, two northeast Valley communities--Pacoima and Arleta--have the third-highest concentration of illegal immigrants in the state, after South-Central Los Angeles and Bell Gardens, said Immigration and Naturalization Service analyst Michael Hoefer. The ranking is based on the number of people applying for citizenship under the amnesty program.

Rosa, a 33-year-old Sepulveda resident from Mexico City, recently applied for medical benefits at the West Valley welfare office after learning from a friend that she was eligible. The $6-per-hour salary she earns as a sales clerk at a discount clothing store will not cover medical bills for her three children, two of whom were born in Mexico, she said. She and her husband, a day laborer, live in a two-bedroom apartment with their children and three other people.

“Thank God, my children are healthy,” said Rosa, who asked that her full name not be used. “But this will pay for their immunizations and take care of them if anything goes wrong.”

To cope with the increased caseload, welfare officials are asking the County Board of Supervisors to reopen an office in Reseda that was closed 10 years ago because there were relatively few Valley residents seeking food stamps, housing vouchers, Medi-Cal, Aid to Families with Dependent Children and General Relief. The supervisors are set to vote on the proposal Sept. 15.

But officials hold little hope that the supervisors will approve the third district office because of budget constraints. The Reseda office would cost the county about $354,000 annually, with the rest of the $2.1 million tab picked up by the federal and state governments, said Ann Jankowski, chief of budget and management services for the DPSS.

“The caseload figures certainly demonstrate the need, but the problem is finding the funds to do it,” Edelman said. “I’d have to say with the budget problems, it is unlikely.”

In the meantime, the welfare offices in Canoga Park and Panorama City are being remodeled.

The reception area at the Canoga Park office was recently doubled to accommodate 200 clients. Now people no longer have to stand in lines stretching into the parking lot, August said. But there is still so little room that records at both Valley offices are stored in 40-foot-long steel bins in the parking lot, and welfare workers can barely keep up with the increased caseload, said Melvin Kuznets, director of the East Valley district.

Welfare officials say that aside from computerizing files, they’re not sure how they will cope if the caseload continues to skyrocket.

“I really don’t see any reason why it won’t keep on growing,” August said. “I see the economy in the Valley really going under unless some drastic changes are made. What’s out there that’s going to turn it around?”