Mr. Walker's Bad Day at the Welfare Office

Arthur Walker is unsure where he’s going to sleep tonight. Slumped at the back of the Department of Public Social Services office on the fringe of Los Angeles’ Skid Row, he’s put in a long, restless, eight-hour day. A hint of fidgetiness emerges every so often, but it’s obvious he’s been here before. If waiting were a card game, his slump would be his tell.

Desperately poor with a lifetime of hard knocks weighing him down in his chair, the 38-year-old African American fits in well with the other people crammed into this office. Overweight and bald, glasses adding a semblance of scholarliness to a baby face notable for its soft anonymity, he cuts a sympathetic figure. His voice has an understated urgency to it, words tumbling out at a rhythmic clip, rising only when he gets frustrated.

After passing through the metal detector at the front door, Walker joins dozens of others shoehorned into the cramped, windowless office, waiting for their names – many waiting for hours – to be called out over the crackling intercom. Two large sections of faded-green, stiff-backed chairs provide the seating areas, where some have already fallen asleep, limbs uncomfortably splayed out. Two upright fans futilely recycle the rank air while a lopsided television hangs in one corner, turned off. Everyone looks miserable.

Walker is here to grasp at the last rung on the welfare ladder for single, childless adults: General Relief. But it’s a slippery rung. At just $221 a month, no one can survive on it for long, and it’s a short fall to the streets. That’s beside the point for Walker right now – he must get approved first, and the earliest the money can come will be next month, too late to help him out tonight.

He could pick up a motel voucher from DPSS, but he’s reluctant to do so. If he did, he would see a chunk taken out of his General Relief check next month. He’s already going to be docked 10 percent, or $22, because of an overpayment the last time he was on the program. If it’s impossible to live on $221 a month, it’s more impossible to live on $199. It would take a miracle to live on less.

When Walker, who is currently on parole after spending almost a year in prison for violating conditions of it, has a little extra money - which isn’t that often-he checks into Skid Row’s Weingart Hotel. At $17 a night for dorm living, he can’t afford to spend the whole month there, but when his General Relief money arrives he’ll be able to spend about half of his time there. The other half of the month is a little more touch and go.

Walker’s on parole, and recently spent almost a year in prison for violating conditions of it. He was involved in some minor white-collar crimes in the past. Ironically, this makes Walker a luckier man than most in his position – because the state is obligated to provide him with shelter while he’s on parole. He can go to his parole officer to check into housing. It costs him $300 per month, an impossible stretch for his General Relief money, but he has been able to run up a tab with them. That has helped him keep off the streets – for now. Tonight, though, is a different matter.

“Because I don’t have any money to stay anywhere, I’m going to have to call in some favors,” he says with a chuckle, listing the residences of friends, family, and old girlfriends as possible places for him to stay. “Hopefully, wherever I stay tonight I can stay at least for the weekend.”

The Broken System

General Relief, according to the DPSS Web site, is a “County-funded program that provides financial assistance to indigent adults who are ineligible for federal or state programs.”

That financial assistance, however, is paltry and inadequate, and has been at its lowest legal amount since 1996. With 60 percent of its 60,000 recipients homeless, and most going without food as well – 84 percent in a 2006 county survey said they experienced food insecurity, while more than half reported going hungry at times – it’s clear that this last ditch safety net is too poorly stitched together to prevent most from falling through.

The barriers to getting into and staying with the program are significant, making it remarkably difficult for recipients to even gain access to the skimpy sums doled out by the county, which are – technically – subject to repayment once they leave the program. While accumulating this pitiful debt, recipients are forced to navigate an infuriating bureaucracy, continuously beset on all sides by the rising tides of destitution, homelessness, and hunger that threaten to engulf them.

DPSS does, however, run three different programs aimed at helping bolster General Relief recipients’ chances of getting on their feet. The General Relief Opportunities for Work (GROW) program, mandatory for employable recipients, attempts to help them get jobs; the SSI Advocacy Program aims to transition eligible General Relief participants into receiving SSI benefits; finally, the General Relief Housing Subsidy and Case Management Project, currently a pilot program, links benefits with housing for its participants.

The responsibility for this program rests firmly on the shoulders of the county, specifically the LA. County Board of Supervisors, which bankrolls the program and has the final say on the grant level. County supervisors claim that the county lacks money to care for its indigent population, and that the federal and state governments should step in to help. Little progress has been made on that front, leaving 60,000 recipients in the lurch.

The future looks bleak. Many advocates have given up fighting for a General Relief grant increase, citing a refusal by the county to even entertain the possibility.

“In terms of a safety net, it is really an embarrassment in a county as rich as ours that this is what we offer people who can’t find anything else,” said Gary Blasi, a law professor at UCLA who has done extensive work on General Relief and homelessness. “At one time it provided the bare means to survive, which meant not being homeless and not starving. Now it doesn’t do that.”

The situation for recipients is clearly spelled out in the recommended General Relief budget, which allots each recipient just $136 per month for housing, $65 for food, $11 for personal needs, and $9 for clothing.

“How is it possible in Los Angeles for any adult to live on $221 a month?” asked Alice Callaghan, director of Las Familias Del Pueblo. “It’s not even remotely possible. [General Relief] is becoming an empty, meaningless gesture to the poor.”

Out of Shelter

Housing for the poor in and around Skid Row has been cut in half since the 1960s, when 15,000 hotel rooms and apartment units were available to poor people. Today there are 6,600 such housing units, the cheapest costing $350 a month, an exceedingly rare find in and of itself. The need for low-income housing downtown is clear to non-profit housing providers, who point to long wait lists and the speed with which new projects are filled.

When the Skid Row Housing Trust recently opened its Rainbow Apartments, with 87 units for the chronically homeless with severe mental illnesses, five applications for each unit available were received before refusing to accept any more.

Similarly, SRO Housing Corp., another low-income housing provider on Skid Row, was forced to cap its waiting list at 500 people. “If we kept it open it would easily be 1,000,” said Anita Nelson, executive director of the corporation. “We can’t even keep up with demand.”

Many participants go hungry, though most General Relief recipients are in the Food Stamp Program, which provides them with $155 of Food Stamps per month. It’s not surprising that Skid Row’s Los Angeles Catholic Worker soup kitchen sees almost a twofold increase in meals served towards the end of the month. Their numbers jump from about 500 to 600 meals a day to 1,000 meals as meager benefits dry up.

“Lots of people coming to the soup kitchen are on General Relief,” said Catherine Morris, a worker at the kitchen. “The people who know how to stretch a buck pick up their bread and vegetables that we’re giving away, which makes it possible to add a bit of substance to their little check.”

Shoved out of the program

The last time Walker was on General Relief was July, when his case was terminated for not participating in the GROW program, a requisite for employable recipients if they want to receive the monthly grant.

“Basically, I didn’t really have the time for it,” he said, arguing that by having to spend 20 hours a week in the program he would miss out on hours of valuable job searching. Started in 1999, GROW aims to transition recipients into the labor market by providing them with job skills, remedial training, opportunities for unpaid work, and supportive services linking them with potential employers.

The first part of the program is spent on learning job interview, resume-writing, and other introductory job-hunting skills, which can be redundant for someone like Walker, who said he’s been a certified electronic technician for 20 years.

He vowed to stay in it this time though, as the monthly grant means the difference between having a fighting chance at dangling above the streets and a short plummet onto them.

The program, serving the 27 percent of General Relief participants who are employable, faces a litany of obstacles in transitioning people into jobs. Walker is a case in point.

Lacking a car, and with most of his job opportunities outside of the downtown area he is forced to live in, Walker has a tough time finding the time to do a thorough job search. Clothes are also a problem. Walker said it’s difficult to keep nice, clean clothes when he’s homeless, and his weight hinders him from finding second-hand clothes that fit.

Walker says he is sometimes able to find a temporary job, which presents him with other problems. He is forced to report the job to his case-worker, but it could make him ineligible to continue receiving benefits. “If the job only lasts for two months, then I have to go through [the General Relief] process all over again,” he said. “It’s a cycle.”

According to DPSS, GROW provides 10,000 job placements a year. However, the data on job retention is limited, and it is unknown how fruitful and long-lasting the jobs are. Phil Ansell, director of program and policy at DPSS, says that since GROW was established the percentage of employable recipients in the program has decreased from 60 percent to 27 percent, a reduction he attributes to the success of the program.

However, the overall number of General Relief participants has stayed the same since GROW’s inception, casting some doubt on its success transitioning people into more stable situations.

GROW participants are also limited to nine months on General Relief in any year, after which their case is terminated, though they can reapply the next year. The average amount of time spent in the program is six months. It is unknown where most of them end up, because of the lack of tracking by the county.

Those found unemployable, who constitute the bulk of General Relief recipients, are put into three main groups: The permanently unemployable, due to a long-term or permanent disability; the temporarily unemployable, due to a disability that will afflict them for less than 12 months; and those with mental illnesses and disabilities, the proper term for whom is Needs Special Assistance (NSA). All of them are able to receive General Relief benefits year-round.

The NSA group and those found permanently unemployable are generally shuttled into the SSI (Supplemental Security Income) Advocacy Program, which aims to help them get through the complex SSI application process. There are currently just over 10,000 participants in the program, with about 5,000 making the transfer from General Relief to SSI benefits every year. Half of those within the program will eventually end up transferred, though there are significant time lags – months, if not years – to get into the program due to the sheer amount of paperwork involved.

Advocates say that the real transition success rate could be slightly lower than what DPSS is claiming – somewhere between 40 and 50 percent – but that, overall, the county has improved its handling of this in recent years. Due to the fact that there is a strong financial interest for DPSS to transition people into SSI, as they then automatically reclaim from the person’s SSI payments all of the General Relief money the participant has received, DPSS attempted to transition as many people as possible in the past. Protocol has changed since then, and tougher screening of potential SSI applicants has increased their transition success rate, helping more people receive the far higher income that these benefits offer.

“They’re moving in the right direction,” said Sherrill Martin, head of the Governments Benefit Department at Mental Health Advocacy. “It’s a humungous undertaking, and it hasn’t been done very well until now.”

The Buck Stops

Responsibility for the train wreck that is General Relief rests primarily with the Board of Supervisors and DPSS, both of which have kept the grant level at its lowest legal level while doing far too little to expand the program and link it with housing and other benefits. Critics want an immediate overhaul and a massive infusion of cash.

The county supervisors, most of whom declined to comment directly about the program, have little explanation for the continued failure of General Relief to provide the benefits necessary for even the most rudimentary survival. They point to a financial inability of the county to provide the funding necessary for its indigent citizens, arguing that the state or federal government needs to help them out.

“The county does not have the revenue to provide cash programs that are adequate,” said Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke. “From the county’s financial situation … I don’t think there’s a possibility of us providing a larger grant in the near future.”

DPSS echoed Burke. “The state and federal government have abdicated responsibility for providing a safety net for indigent, single adults,” said DPSS’ Ansell. “The county government, which does not have the authority to raise its own revenues in the way the state and federal government do, is left to provide assistance to indigent adults in our community, who represent a disproportional share of the homeless population.”

The county, however, says that the responsibility for bringing forth recommendations to raise the grant level is up to DPSS, which hasn’t done so in more than a decade.

“DPSS looks at the economic environment to determine the rate, and the Board of Supervisors is asked by DPSS to approve their recommendation,” said Tony Bell, spokesman for Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich.

Bell said the problem isn’t the amount of money that General Relief participants are able to receive, but that recipients are reluctant – or unable, due to mental illness – to access county services. He also argued that the state’s mental health laws need to be changed to allow the county to force mentally ill people into treatment.

Most people involved in working with General Relief participants, however, strongly dispute that there are enough services.

That’s just empirically false,” said Blasi. “Every month about 12-13,000 people go into the county offices trying to get on General Relief, and they turn away half of them … The notion that we don’t need any General Relief because people don’t have any needs or don’t want help is the same bogus line that’s been used to justify blaming the victims for generations.”

Blasi disagreed that there were enough services for mentally ill people as well, and joins other critics in arguing that the lack of funds for General Relief is a result of racism and other demographic issues. A disproportionate number of recipients are African American. Of 61,743 general relief recipients, 30,992 are black, 16,894 are Latino, 11,435 are white and 1,868 are Asian.

It’s primarily, in my view, racism,” said Blasi. “The other piece of it is that it’s not families, it’s single people. People have at least, to a certain age, some understanding for children. But when those children turn 18, they don’t have that empathy.”

Blasi was still “moderately optimistic” about efforts to link General Relief with housing and other longer-term, forward thinking programs that aim to eventually transition people into more stable living situations.

Other advocates agree, but note that these programs - while laudable - will likely see their development hampered by the notoriously lethargic DPSS bureaucracy. And with the numbers at a steady 60,000 people, there is reason to remain pessimistic, too.

Walker, however, said he has no choice but to remain optimistic.

“I’ve been going through it so long, it’s pointless to worry about it,” he said. “Hopefully tomorrow there will be something that will make it better than today was.”

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Growing Pains For A New Housing Program

In 2004, San Francisco County launched its Care Not Cash program, offering homeless people the choice of trading in most of their cash benefits in exchange for housing and utilities. In a bid to replicate that success, Los Angeles launched a pilot program in July 2006. Thus far, the program hasn’t generated the same success – though details are scarce due to issues of confidentiality, the program has already been plagued by allegations of mismanagement and predatory renters.

San Francisco’s program is fairly simple. Participants keep portions of their grants – $104 of an initial $422 if enrolled in the job opportunities program, and $64 of $342 if they are not – in exchange for a room of their own in an SRO hotel, many of which have been renovated. In three years, the number of people choosing to receive only money and not participate in the housing program dropped 81 percent from 2,138 to 412.

In response, Los Angeles County launched the General Relief Housing Subsidy and Case Management Project, a pilot program that aims to serve a total of 900 General Relief participants. Critics say that the program has been poorly executed so far.

“From our organizational standpoint, [the pilot program] is a good next step,” said Pete White, co-director of the Los Angeles Community Action Network, which runs a housing legal clinic. “The problem we found was that in creating this program, they have almost solely financed this mom and pop shelter program… We’re hearing reports of [participants] being taken to the cleaners.”

The Los Angeles program takes $136 off the participant’s General Relief benefit and, along with $300 of the county’s money, pays the total amount directly to the landlord. Many early reports from participants enrolled in the program have been negative.

“The homeowners are taking full advantage of this pilot program,” said Cheryl Willard, currently enrolled in the program. “I tried it out, and it’s been a nightmare since … They’re just putting anyone in these places … It’s really very stressful.”

The primary difference with the Los Angeles program is the reliance on for-profit housing providers. In San Francisco, for-profit organizations own the hotels while a non-profit leases them and provides the services, offering more assurance that renters won’t be exploited; for example, all rooms are single-occupancy.

In the Los Angeles program, however, records support participants’ complaints that landlords cram three or four people into small rooms and eight to 10 people into houses that are less than 2,000 square feet. DPSS refused to provide a list of the housing providers, citing confidentiality issues.

Also common: The same bureaucratic miscues that afflict the entire General Relief program, as well as complaints of drugs and alcohol being abused in the residences. Dino Howard and Lois Martin, an engaged couple participating in the program, were at the DPSS office because the county had neglected to send a landlord their rent subsidy checks, leading to threats of eviction.

“It’s tough living with everybody [at their house] – fighting, arguing, the people are crazy, it’s like a mental institution,” said Howard. “People steal our food, steal other stuff from us, still do drugs around us.”

One building manager, who is currently in charge of six buildings in the program and did not want his name used, said that he often passes out fliers for buildings he manages to residents on Skid Row and to people lining up outside of the DPSS offices, instructing them where to go to sign up for the program. He noted that for many of the people who own the buildings he manages, it’s easier for them to pay off their house loans by renting out their house as a “shelter” as opposed to renting it to standard renters.

“They get ‘for sure’ money from the county,” he said. “They’re going to pay you before somebody else does.”

The program, which is expected to cost just over $4 million, has contracted with two housing locators at the Weingart Center Association who have been developing a housing database. On some occasions they have had to take people off of the housing list due to the poor conditions they were providing, said Jason Mitchell, one of the housing locators.

Mitchell also said that they are now developing a process that will allow them to semi-annually inspect housing providers, something that critics say is desperately needed.

A final report evaluating the pilot project is expected in 2009, said Phil Ansell of DPSS.

– Matthew Mundy

Orwellian Task: The Demonic Paperwork

Besides the draconian rules that ensure only the most destitute obtain General Relief, would-be participants must help DPSS eligibility workers complete a 12-page form that calibrates the exact extent of their financial misery. The form is replete with legal and technical jargon, including asking applicants whether they will let Los Angeles County take a lien on their property, and includes a small barrage of confusing contracts.

“The initial difficulty that people face is the paperwork in and of itself,” said Greg Smith, an attorney at Public Counsel’s Homelessness Prevention Law Project. “Also, some individuals have difficulty reading and writing and understanding the process, and that’s a barrier as well.”

Other critics say those with mental illnesses and disabilities – the proper term for them is Needs Special Assistance (NSA) – as the ones who suffer the most in the application process.

“Asking mentally disabled people to apply for General Relief is like asking people in wheelchairs to go up to the second floor with no elevator,” said Gary Blasi, a law professor at UCLA.

Though complaints from applicants and participants range widely across the entire span of bureaucratic incompetence – from complaints about the time it takes to process paperwork, to the paperwork itself, to the requirement of additional paperwork, to being passed around from DPSS official to official in search of someone who can help them out, and so on – the sheer number of people in the program demonstrates just how desperate recipients are.

“If you have zero, $221 is worth jumping through some hoops,” said Blasi.

However, much of the county’s indigent population is not in the program.

“The number of people who are eligible for these benefits who are not on them is pretty astounding,” said Smith. “They don’t know that general relief exists or don’t want to deal with all of the red tape to receive them or continue to receive them.”

– Matthew Mundy