Adults on Welfare Decrease by Half in 4 Years

The number of Ventura County adults on welfare has dropped by nearly half during the last four years--from 10,074 to 5,203, according to a report released Tuesday.

The number of adults on government assistance has fallen by 1,228 since California’s welfare reform program--known as CalWORKS--was launched in January 1998. New reform measures mandate that recipients find work within two years.

Those new to welfare rolls are restricted to 18 months on aid at a stretch. In all, people can spend no more than five years on welfare.

But while fewer people are receiving cash assistance, the number of welfare recipients placed in jobs each month has risen only slightly during the past year.

In January 1998, 237 people were placed in jobs, compared to 278 last month--or a 41-person increase, according to the report prepared by Craig Ichinose, a senior researcher in the county’s Human Services Agency.

That number, however, still falls short of the 363 people placed in jobs in January 1997, the year before new welfare reform measures took effect. Ichinose said people who get jobs on their own and leave the welfare rolls are not included in the monthly tally.

“Other times, people stop receiving cash aid because they get married or their families start helping them out,” Ichinose told county officials during a special meeting Tuesday. “Or they’re moving out of California--going from a welfare-poor state to a welfare-rich state.”

In an interview, Ichinose said the monthly job placement numbers can be deceiving. For example, during a particular month, a new company could move into the county and hire a group of recipients.

He pointed out that for the full year of 1995, 1,844 recipients were placed in jobs, compared to 3,174 last year--or an increase of 1,330.

Randall Feltman, deputy director of the CalWORKS implementation, said the county is off to a good start.

“We were in a transitional year,” he said. “Our goal is to increase the number of job placements. That’s why we are opening our one-stop centers. We’ve already made an improvement and we hope to dramatically improve over the next few years.”

Already two of seven planned job and career centers are in full throttle, one in Oxnard and the other in Simi Valley, Feltman said. Directors of the remaining centers are working in former welfare offices until their centers open over the next few months.

At the “one-stop” centers, recipients--96% of whom are single mothers--can tap into a variety of resources, such as work listings, child care, educational and vocational training opportunities, and job transportation.

Two more career centers will open in Oxnard, one at Oxnard College and the other in La Colonia. The others will open at Ventura College, west Ventura and Santa Paula.

Barbara Fitzgerald, director of the county’s Human Services Agency, said, “Overall, we’re making a difference.

“We’re still working out the kinks,” she said. “Right now, most of our successes are people who are job-ready when they came into the system. They’re not clients who have multiple problems. When we get our relationship worked out with other departments, we’ll get the clients with multiple problems employed.”

County Supervisor John Flynn, who attended Tuesday’s meeting with welfare officials, said he was pleased with the report.

“The early numbers look very good,” he said. “It’s a good healthy start and it shows that the system is working.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

County Welfare Services

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Service 1995 *1998 Families receiving cash assistance 10,727 6,752 Children receiving cash assistance 20,584 13,665 Adults receiving cash assistance 10,074 5,203 Total receiving cash assistance 30,658 18,868 Those registered in CalWORKS 2,767 4,069 Job placements 1,844 3,174

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* All figures are through November, except for job placements, which include December.

Source: Ventura County Human Services Agency