Committee Unveils Plan to Reform O.C. Welfare

The county’s most detailed proposal to date on dealing with welfare reform calls for the state to provide more funding for job retraining and social services programs and attempts to soften the blow to children, poor families and the disabled.

The plan, released Wednesday, affects more than 100,000 Orange County residents who receive some form of welfare and comes as leaders in Sacramento debate the merits of at least five competing reform plans.

A committee made up of county health and social services officials, educators, law enforcement experts, community leaders and representatives of nonprofit agencies produced the study.

“We tried to come up with sound and humane recommendations that were workable within the funding limits available,” said Angelo Doti, director of financial assistance for the county Social Services Agency. “We tried to protect the health and safety of the residents as well as the county treasury.”

The Board of Supervisors will consider adopting or modifying the 27 findings at a meeting next Tuesday. But it will probably be several months before the governor and Legislature agree on a final reform package.

Until then, Doti said, the county won’t know exactly how many people will be forced off the welfare roles or how the changes will affect the county’s tight budget.

The committee expressed strong support for “the principles of work over welfare [and] self-reliance over dependence” at the heart of the reforms, which were approved by Congress last year and immediately embraced by Gov. Pete Wilson.

But the committee differs with Wilson on some specific proposal reforms.

The report, for example, said that illegal immigrants should receive prenatal care and that immigrant children in protective custody should receive medical care. The governor’s plan does not recommend either benefit.

Doti said it makes sense to fund such preventive care programs because the children of illegal immigrants born in the United States will be eligible for other forms of medical assistance.

The committee also suggested that a state and federal rule be dropped that provides less aid to families whose parents don’t attain high school diplomas.

Eligibility rules restricting some types of aid to families where one or both parents are unemployed or absent should also be dropped, the committee concluded.

Doti said that county officials have long suspected that the rule contributes both to welfare fraud and the breakup of families.

Victims of domestic violence, the disabled, parents with children younger than a year old, elderly people who care for grandchildren and others should not lose their welfare benefits if they cannot find work, the committee said.

A related recommendation suggested that some welfare recipients be given more than one or two years to get off welfare, as Wilson has proposed. The committee suggested that the state follow federal guidelines that allow up to five years.

“We determined that among our core recipients, there are significant barriers to [leaving welfare], such as cultural and language difference,” Doti said. “They may need a little more time.”

The report also said that full implementation of welfare reform might have to be delayed beyond Wilson’s goal of Jan. 1, 1998, to give officials time to create programs and train staff.

Another key recommendation deals with general relief, a $240 monthly benefit paid to people who don’t qualify for other forms of welfare. Counties now fund the program, which serves about 3,000 Orange County residents.

County officials fear that demand for general relief will rise dramatically as welfare reform renders many people ineligible for other forms of assistance.

The study calls for the state to take responsibility for funding general relief but to give counties full responsibility for administering the programs locally.

Wilson, however, has proposed that the county deal with increased general relief cases by simply reducing payments or eliminating the program altogether.

The committee also called on the state to provide more funding for job training, which will be a key component in getting people off welfare.

Board of Supervisors Chairman William G. Steiner said Thursday that he is still reviewing the report. But he agreed with the committee that the success of reform depends in large measure on whether the economy can produce enough jobs.

He noted that about 100,000 people in Orange County receive Aid to Families with Dependent Children. But the county is expected to create only 31,000 new jobs this year, some of them at a skill level too high for most welfare recipients.

“It’s a significant barrier to the goal of welfare reform,” Steiner said. “And local governments have it in their laps.”

Besides more job training funds, the committee said that welfare reform will require more money for child care, community colleges and public transportation.

On the issue of child care, the committee urged the state to allow “local flexibility” in creating programs. Rather than establishing a large and expensive statewide child care program, the government should allow parents to make their own arrangements, the panel said.

“We have recipients who don’t like big institutions,” Doti said. “They often prefer to have family members take care of their kids.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Welfare Plan Highlights

Orange County officials Wednesday unveiled their preliminary plans for dealing with welfare reform. Here are some of the policy guidelines outlined:

* Allow victims of domestic violence, the disabled, parents with children younger than a year old, elderly caring for grandchildren, and others to receive welfare even if they fail to meet a work requirement

* Provide prenatal care for illegal immigrants and medical care for illegal immigrant children in protective custody; governor’s plan does not provide either benefit

* Drop state and federal rule providing less aid to families whose parents don’t attain high school diplomas

* Drop eligibility rules restricting some types of aid to families where one or both parents are unemployed or absent

* State, not the county, should finance general relief, a $240 monthly grant to those ineligible for other kinds of assistance; state should also increase funding for job training

* Full implementation might have to be delayed beyond governor’s Jan. 1, 1998, goal to give officials time to create programs and train staff

Source: Orange County Social Services Agency