Job Centers: NYC's diversion from aid = loss of human rights
As part of its plan to keep social workers informed of and involved in the latest developments in welfare reform, especially at the local level, the New York City Chapter's Task Force on Welfare Reform will run a series of articles in Currents, beginning with this one by Julie Carlson, a social work intern with the Urban Justice Center. Ms. Carlson, a student at the Hunter College School of Social Work, is helping to coordinate the Center's Human Rights Documentation Project. The Chapter's Task Force is doing cooperative work with the Center as well as with other area welfare advocacy groups as part of its effort to educate and activate social workers. This information was included in a recent presentation to the Chapter's Board of Directors.
The nation's punitive welfare reforms have spurred a new movement that defines the violation of welfare rights as a loss of human rights. As part of this effort, the Human Rights Documentation Project organized by the Urban Justice Center has been surveying applicants as they leave New York City's Income Maintenance Centers, now called "Job Centers."
As part of the new "work first" philosophy embodied in the latest welfare reform, the Human Resources Administration began converting its welfare of fices into Job Centers. Nine of the city's 33 welfare offices have already been converted and all 33 will be changed over within the next year. The stated goal of the Job Center is to help persons applying for public assistance, many of whom are women with children, find employment. Many observers agree, however, that the new policy's real purpose is to divert people from using the welfare program altogether. Unlike the former Income Maintenance Centers, which brought people, however begrudgingly, into the system, the Job Centers try to keep people out.
One of the most significant changes within the new Job Centers is that applicants are required to complete a complicated 35-50 day application process before they become eligible for welfare. Day One of this process begins with a five page form. Since these forms are only distributed before 9:30 am, many who arrive after that time are told to come back the next day. After completing the first form, most applicants must then wait all day to interview with a "financial planner" whose job it is to "help" applicants tap into financial resources other than welfare. That is, applicants are "encouraged" to turn to family, food pantries, soup kitchens-- anything but welfare--for help. Applicants who make it past the interview may apply for benefits. But to prove they are "truly needy," they must come back the next day to file a public assistance application form and continue meeting with a variety of other welfare officials.
While the public assistance application is being processed, the applicant must participate in mandated job search activities for seven hours a day. This consists of making calls to want ads listed in the paper and to employers in the phone book, even though these methods are well-known to be the least effective ways to find a job. If at any point during this process a person misses a Job Center appointment, s/he must start all over again. It is especially difficult to complete the Job Center requirements for those who are physically or mentally unable to maneuver through the confusing and demanding process. If no job is found within 35-50 days, the applicant is automatically placed in the Work Experience Program (WEP). WEP is New York City's version of "workfare" which requires welfare recipients to "work off" their benefits.
The Job Center may sound effective to some. However, experience shows that its main purpose is to make the process of applying for welfare so unpleasant and punitive that only the "most desperate" people will try. Prior to the Job Center conversions, the majority of welfare, Food Stamps and Medicaid applicants received benefits. Now only 25 percent do.
HRA would like us to believe that the tremendous drop in the welfare roles proves that people with dire economic needs do not want to work or aren't really in need of public assistance. However, the growing number of people utilizing food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters suggest otherwise. So do the realities of New York City's 9 percent unemployment rate, shrinking number of entry-level jobs, and lack of affordable child care.
Our data as part of the Human Rights Documentation Project remains preliminary. However, we have met many people who report they are not receiving emergency assistance (even though they qualify), child care, and other resources necessary to comply with mandated Job Center activities, such as carfare. The Center's diversion tactics have left so many without Food Stamps, Medicaid, and welfare, that federal Food Stamp and Medicaid authorities are investigating the Center process. Locally, the General Welfare Committee of the NYC Council is considering "right to apply" legislation to ensure that the Giuliani Administration obeys the law regarding the provision of social services.
Social workers see and understand first hand the devastating impact of such punitive welfare "reforms." The Human Rights Documentation Project would like to distribute our short survey to social workers. If you have contact with Job Center applicants and would like to join the effort to make the City honor its commitment to the poor, please call Tracy Morgan, CSW, Urban Justice Center, 212-533-0540 x343.
NASW's Welfare Reform Task Force welcomes new participants. For more information, call the Chapter office at (212) 668-0050.