18 Counties Given Food Stamp Reprieve

The Clinton Administration, citing job shortages that make it harder for the poor to find work in California, agreed Wednesday to give 18 counties and the cities of Stanton and Santa Ana a six-month exemption from welfare reform requirements that would cut off food stamps to nonworking single adults.

But the administration rejected a request by Gov. Pete Wilson to exempt the entire state so that all 58 counties would have time to create public service jobs that would allow recipients to avoid the cuts.

“While we appreciate the state’s goal of . . . providing work opportunities to recipients, [federal law] does not give [us] the authority to waive these requirements to give the state time to design and implement such programs,” said Yvette S. Jackson, deputy administrator of the federal food stamp program.

Jackson said only those areas of the state that showed high unemployment or a lack of jobs could escape the food stamp cuts mandated by Congress. In addition to the 18 counties, she said several cities, including Oakland, East Palo Alto and Sacramento, would qualify for the exemption because Department of Labor studies showed they had job shortages.

Corinne Chee, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Social Services, said that the decision was a “disappointment” and that the Wilson Administration would continue to press for a broader exemption.

“The bottom line is that we are not asking for a change in policy, we’re just asking for more time,” she said.

Of particular concern, Chee said, was the decision to exempt parts--but not all--of certain counties. “It’s just another administrative burden to the eligibility workers who have to figure all of this out,” she said.

Chee estimated that the latest federal decision, coupled with an earlier exemption granted to 25 small counties with high unemployment, will now mean that at least 124,000 adults will get a reprieve from federal food stamp cuts.

Southern California counties given the exemption were Los Angeles, Ventura, San Bernardino and Riverside. In addition to Santa Ana and Stanton, seven communities surrounding San Diego got the exemption.

Angelo Doti, director of welfare reform for the Orange County Social Services Agency, said Stanton and Santa Ana have the largest populations of welfare recipients in the county. And while he welcomed the decision, he predicted more confusion.

“Every time there is a change, there are consequences, and the county and our clients are the ones who suffer the consequences,” Doti said. “We have near hysteria out there now with these impending changes.”

Doti said the county staff must meet today to decide whether to restore benefits to those from Santa Ana and Stanton who already have been cut from the rolls.

“The problem we face is some of the recipients are homeless, they do not have a fixed nighttime address. Then the question will be, will people migrate from one area to another where benefits are allowable for them.”

A similar situation occurred about four years ago, he said, when welfare was reduced in Michigan and a number of those residents moved to Orange County.

“So far, this is not being handled very well,” Doti said. “We seem to be rushing into things, when there is the opportunity to navigate for a compromise with the federal government. . . . We should be implementing these policies in a humane and systemic approach.”

Some advocates of the poor consider the cuts affecting able-bodied single adults to be the harshest part of a new federal welfare act signed into law in August. Starting this spring, adults who fail to find work within three months are scheduled to lose federal food assistance.

The act provides exemptions for areas within a state if unemployment exceeds 10% or jobs are scarce. It also allows counties to provide public service jobs that will permit individual recipients to fulfill the work requirements.

Many county officials and advocates said the decision would give much of the state relief from a requirement in the welfare act that they were having to implement quickly.

“It buys us time,” said Laurie True of the nonprofit California Food Policy Advocates. True said most counties in the state would now have sufficient time to create community service jobs that would prevent recipients from losing food stamps.

Said Margaret Pena, a lobbyist for the California State Assn. of Counties: “Given the complexities created by the new welfare law, the more time we have to implement the changes the more equitable will be our treatment of those in need of aid.”

Also contributing to this report was Times staff writer Tina Nguyen.