Pulling Up by Bootstraps Takes Time : Meet Veronica, who’ll make it if she survives Gingrich.
I knew that if I searched long enough, I’d find Newt Gingrich’s poster welfare mom. You know the kind, someone who got off the dole before the congressman felt compelled to throw her off. Veronica fit the bill. I met her Thursday at the Harbor Interfaith Shelter, an oasis in San Pedro that puts up homeless families for two or three months until they can get it together to rent an apartment of their own.
Veronica, a fortysomething African American (who didn’t want her last name used), had benefited mightily from the Harbor Interfaith program and was back now, two years later, to thank the people working there. She has an apartment and a job; she is enrolled in a training program for a better job, along with her eldest daughter, and her two younger children are doing well in school.
Like most women on welfare, she hadn’t wanted to be there. She had managed two years of college and always worked hard. But business slowed for the trucking company in Wilmington and she lost her receptionist job. Around the same time, she broke up with her husband and was evicted from her apartment. They say in the welfare business that many of us are only two paychecks away from homelessness; in Veronica’s case, that proved true.
Her unemployment insurance supplemented by Aid to Families with Dependent Children didn’t leave enough for the necessities plus rent, let alone a deposit on an apartment. Desperate, three kids in tow, she went first to the YMCA in Wilmington and just sat there crying. One of the volunteers took pity and referred her to Harbor Interfaith, which has converted an old Army barracks into 17 tiny one-room apartments, each with a fold-out bed.
Problem was that Harbor Interfaith had a waiting list of 250, and Veronica and her kids had to get in line. For months, they stayed in rundown motel rooms until they got their shot at a safe environment. For three months, they lived rent-free at the shelter while Veronica saved enough from her AFDC check for a security deposit. But that was only the first step.
There was no way she could afford the rent even in the most rundown neighborhoods. Fortunately, the Harbor Interfaith people were able to help her get a Section 8 housing grant, which means her landlord gets $371 a month from Veronica and $579 from the federal government. Once situated, Veronica started working part time for a janitorial service cleaning office buildings. Eventually, it became a full-time job. She went off AFDC, and she now earns $250 to $300 for a six-day work week. What keeps her going is the hope that through a federally sponsored six-month job-training program she will be able to actually move out of poverty.
Hopefully hers will be a success story. But contrary to the assumption of Gingrich and the other welfare-bashers, it’s a tribute not only to Veronica’s resolve but also to the AFDC program, food stamps, child care, job training, Section 8 housing and other government safety-net programs. Most of those programs need to be expanded for welfare reform to work. For example, Section 8 housing is available to only 10% of the people on welfare.
The Harbor Interfaith Shelter, her first lifeline, typical of not-for-profit charities, gets the majority of its money from government sources. But, strapped for funds and swamped by applicants, the shelter has stopped keeping a waiting list. In all of Los Angeles County, there are only 2,900 shelter beds available for families. That’s now, before the cuts everyone expects the new Congress to impose. “It’s great to be able to help somebody like Veronica,” said Beth Steckler, the director of client programs at Harbor Interfaith. “If Gingrich’s welfare carnage passes, what we do will make no difference at all--we’ll be totally overwhelmed with lines of homeless families going around the block.”
Last week, The Times editorialized that welfare reform must come soon because “America’s patience is running out.” Odd, given that the AFDC program, which keeps more than 9 million children alive, costs the federal government $15 billion a year, compared to $174 billion in interest on the Reagan/Bush run-up of the national debt. And the patient voters have just granted the supply-siders a second chance.
What about the patience of all the Veronicas who persist against monumental odds with very little support? And what about the patience of the wonderful folks at places like the Harbor Interfaith Shelter who persevere despite cynical politicians to help people get back on track? What nerve for members of Congress, with all their taxpayer-supported benefits and perks, to lose patience with the poor.