Supervisors Delay General Relief Cutoff

As they approved a sweeping new $850-million plan for delivering social services in the era of welfare reform, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday delayed cutting off General Relief benefits, which were initially scheduled to expire during the politically unfortunate week of Thanksgiving.

Now the benefits will run for another three months before recipients are pushed off the rolls in February.

The county also recently balked at cutting families off welfare. In both circumstances, officials say they will enforce time limits, but believe aid recipients should get some extra time because job training programs have not been put into operation quickly enough. The county’s job-training program for the 41,000 General Relief recipients who are deemed “employable” and are subject to time limits has a mere 19% job-placement rate, and welfare officials say they hope it will increase dramatically before the February deadline. The officials were ordered to report to the supervisors on ways to improve the program.

Some activists praised the board for the reprieve, which covers about 4,000 General Relief recipients whose aid was to expire in the next three months. “By this motion, you have avoided an unnecessary man-made disaster,” said the Rev. Gene Boutilier.

But others warned of potentially dire results in February. “I’m not here to thank anybody,” said Herman Jones of the Los Angeles Family Housing and Homeless Service Center. “Because three months after this, people will be hungry again.”

Supervisors said the reprieve was likely to be the last. “It’s because we failed that we’re adjusting” the time limits, said Supervisor Gloria Molina, who authored the motion for the reprieve with Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. But, she added, “I’m not expecting any great outcomes. There are always going to be a series of people who are unemployable.”

Yaroslavsky said the extra three months gives the county crucial time to better its programs. “We need an opportunity to see if this works,” he said.

Lynn Bayer, director of the county’s welfare office, acknowledged that the agency’s job-placement program for relief recipients got up and running three months later than the expected February 1999 start date. “When you start a program like this there are start-up pains,” she said.

Bayer said that the job-placement program has kicked into high gear, with intensive case management beginning last month. She said 32% of all recipients who actually complete the program have won jobs, which she calls “a good start,” and said she expects that number to rise.

George Priest hopes he will be one of the successful ones. The 53-year-old man has been on relief for eight years, but quickly joined the new job-placement agency. He said he had to wait two months before even being routed to a vocational training program, precious time since his benefits were scheduled to expire Dec. 26.

“I’ll have a lot better chance at employment if I have more time,” he said.

The reprieve on General Relief came as supervisors approved a massive plan on how their welfare agency will spend more than $280 million in surplus funds it has accumulated to date.

After months of consultation with nonprofit agencies and experts, the county approved a massive “Long-Term Family Self-Sufficiency Plan” to funnel $850 million over five years into a wide range of programs, from those dealing with substance abuse to $50 million annually to help teenagers in low-income areas. Details on how all the money will be spent have not been worked out, but the plan provides a framework on how to use the surpluses that have been accumulating due to changes in law brought about by welfare reform.

Across the country, welfare agencies have stockpiled billions of dollars in unspent funds, often stumped by how to allocate the unexpected resources. Now, said Bayer, the county will become a national model as it tries to shift its social services from old bureaucratic structures to programs helping families.

Although some immigrants rights groups criticized the plan for not accommodating non-English speakers, it won praise from other activists for its breadth and community support, as well as avoiding funneling money into traditional bureaucracies. “It’s so much better than anything we’ve done before,” said Sharon Watson, executive director of the county’s Children’s Planning Council.