Retooled Welfare Program in Place

After four years on welfare, Karen Mahoney said she has had enough. She wants a job, and on Wednesday she began her search, not at an employment service, but at an Inglewood welfare office.

What she encountered there convinced her that for the first time, there may be hope.

“I definitely see a change,” she said, remarking on the new surroundings and upbeat attitude. “The office is not as run-down, not as crowded and cramped. They seem more willing to work for you, to give you one-on-one attention and treat you as an individual.”

With much fanfare and optimism, Los Angeles County on Wednesday began implementing the state’s new welfare program, CalWORKS, and both supporters and detractors acknowledge it marks the start of a new era in public assistance.

More than 1.5 million county residents receive some form of public assistance, with 738,794 people enrolled in the largest cash-assistance program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which was formerly called Aid to Families With Dependent Children.

The new welfare system is no longer predicated on providing benefits to poor families, but on moving them into jobs. The emphasis now is on responsibility, and young mothers are hit with that message at every turn.

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New applicants will now have to sign a contract promising to follow an individualized welfare-to-work plan that might include treatment for mental health or substance abuse problems, motivational counseling, vocational assessment and job search activities. At that point the clock will start ticking and most recipients will have up to two years to find work.

But the new pressures run in both directions. The 1996 federal welfare overhaul sets out a rigorous timetable by which states must get people into jobs--half of all recipients must be working by 2002, for example--or the states face steep financial penalties.

The success or failure of those goals will fall on counties, though, and local officials have set a benchmark of moving 60,000 recipients into jobs by June 1999.

“Before, our role was to decide if someone qualified for benefits,” said Department of Public Social Services Director Lynn W. Bayer, who visited workers and recipients at the Southwest district office in Inglewood on her first stop in a tour of several county offices. “Our main mission now is to help participants work their way out of poverty. We finally have the resources to do that.”

The county Board of Supervisors has approved funding for 700 new positions in her department to help implement CalWORKS, and she said recipients will see “a real new spirit, a new attitude from our employees.”

Bayer acknowledged, however, that the county faces a daunting task. Although welfare caseloads have been dropping in the last two years, most recipients who find jobs make so little that they still qualify for some cash assistance.

County officials estimate that a worker must earn an hourly wage of at least $7.82 to discontinue aid.

“The challenge is going to be working with them to go beyond entry level, to get a new, better job,” said Bayer.

Many advocates question whether the county’s main welfare-to-work program, Greater Avenues for Independence, or GAIN, can accomplish that progression. GAIN downplays training and education in favor of job search.

At a welfare office in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, about 200 recipients and advocates protested what they asserted was the county’s failure to act vigorously in creating job opportunities.

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County officials are developing a job creation plan that will be submitted to supervisors in June, but advocates want the county to deal with training issues and job placement services now. The advocates say they also want the county to be more proactive in informing recipients of the array of new supportive services available, such as subsidized child care, treatment programs for substance abuse and mental health problems, and emergency help for victims of domestic violence.

“We think our requests are reasonable,” said Anthony Thigpenn, who heads an advocacy group called AGENDA. “We also think Lynn Bayer is a reasonable person. But we are dealing with a bureaucracy that needs pushing.”

But Thigpenn and other advocates agreed that the county is in for big changes. Perhaps the most significant one initially, for both recipients and caseworkers, will undoubtedly be a new, more supportive attitude and environment, say officials.

For recipients like Mahoney, 33, mother of a 7-year-old son, the first day held promise. The security guard and metal detector were still there, but the office had been given a face lift. There is new paint and flooring, color-coordinated seating, potted plants and magazine racks--designed to give the participants, as they are now called, a more professional setting.

Inside the lobby, applicants can watch a television monitor that details the new requirements of CalWORKS. Staff periodically canvass the area to ensure that applicants spend no more than a half-hour waiting to see a caseworker. The office has also opened a new playroom for children.

Mahoney said she feels like she may be able to regain control of her life. She has some experience in medical services and said she would eventually like to go to school to become a pharmacy technician.

“I’m just tired of sitting at home and not being productive,” she said. “There are things my son wants that he can’t have right now. When he says, ‘Mommy, I need $5’ or ‘Mommy I want a game,’ I want to be able to give it to him.”

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Highlights of New Program

Most new applicants for public assistance will now have to enroll in the county’s main welfare-to-work program, Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN).

Features of the program include:

* Screening: Applicants who say they are victims of domestic violence or have substance abuse or mental health problems are sent to an eligibility worker who has specialized training in these issues and will schedule a clinical assessment. Other applicants are sent to a regular eligibility worker.

* Orientation: Eligible applicants receive information about the requirements of CalWORKS, their responsibilities and an appointment with a GAIN services worker.

* Job club/job search: Recipients must spend at least three weeks attending workshops on topics such as motivation, dressing for success, work ethics and resume development and must then actively look for work.

* Vocational assessment: Recipients who cannot find jobs undergo basic education testing and may be assigned to attend classes to obtain a high school equivalency diploma or instruction in English as a second language.

* Welfare-to-work contract: Recipients will meet with a caseworker to review their options and agree on an individualized welfare-to-work plan that might include treatment, basic education or other services.

* Employment / community service: After two years, recipients must be engaged in a some sort of work. If they cannot find employment in the private sector, they may be assigned to a community service job.