Giuliani Plans to Put City Back to Work by 2000

By 2000, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani hopes to wean virtually everyone--including drug addicts, young mothers and the disabled--from city welfare rolls.

Giuliani said workfare initiatives already have cut the number of welfare recipients by 400,000 since March 1995. He said the nearly 800,000 still receiving benefits can expect further scrutiny.

In June, the city began evaluating the job qualifications of disabled welfare beneficiaries.

Giuliani conceded that the severely disabled and children receiving benefits could not be expected to work, but he refused to speculate on how low the city’s welfare payouts would drop.

The mayor also said drug addicts on welfare would no longer be excused from work if they receive benefits, and he called for phasing out methadone treatment centers.

Charles King, spokesman for the AIDS advocacy group Housing Works, called the proposal “very typical of this mayor and shows his attitude toward poor people: that they are all undeserving malingerers that need to be coerced into the job market, instead of recognizing the reality of peoples lives.”