How will they pay rent?
Celia Kane of Dearborn Heights isn’t in one of the 14,000 families being warned by the state that they no longer qualify for cash assistance under the Family Independence Program.
Her family has been on assistance for three years after she lost her job and watched her husband’s construction business implode. But she’s close enough to understand what losing that assistance would do to the security of her family. It would mean uprooting her boys, ages 3 and 5, from their home.
“We would have to find a relative willing to take in the four of us,’’ she said.
Celia, 25, is studying for an associate’s degree in human services. Her husband is also going to college to learn a new skill — web development — and has looked hard for work for two years with no luck. Cash assistance has helped hold her family together, she said.
“It’s very important. It’s our only source of income that we have. Food stamps only go so far. FIP provides food for the children, shoes, rent and utilities,” she said. The $597 a month doesn’t cover everything — the rest is provided by family members. Celia said she worries about the families who don’t have relatives able to help them.
The Michigan Legislature is looking at 48-month, retroactive lifetime limits. Gov. Rick Snyder called for the limits to save money. The budget that starts Oct. 1 counts on 15 percent fewer families receiving cash assistance. The legislation has been delayed with the Legislature’s summer vacation. In that vacuum, the administration made a suprise announcement that it will start enforcing a 60-month federal limit. There’s nothing requiring states to set limits, but states cannot pay for cash assistance with federal dollars after 60 months.
The letter went out Tuesday, according to the Detroit Free Press. Though the two-page letter to recipients says rental help is available, the list of programs contains none that would help pay rent. A recent demographic report from the Michigan Department of Human Services shows that the average age of a child on FIP is age 7 — about the age of a first or second-grader.
Celia says it’s a “tough decision” whether to keep people on cash assistance indefinitely. She says she wasn’t always sympathetic to those on welfare — a view that has changed now that she’s struggling.
“The majority of people right now are in the same situation as me — middle-class working individuals until the economy crashed,” she said.
Celia predicts children will be negatively affected by welfare time limits. “The number of people on the streets and living in homeless shelters is going to go up,” she said.
– Judy Putnam
Comments (2)
This legislation is such a blow to our children. When the federal legislation passed, we all panicked back then, and we were able to ward off the effects of it for this long. I do not think I will ever understand having lifetime limits for a program. I understand the government THINKS they are saving money, but the ripple effect of this legislation is far reaching. Families WILL become homeless, no agency will be able to assist to house them because they can’t pay the next month’s rent; Landlords will not be recieving rent; utility companies will not receive payments, just as a few examples.
This is a perfect opportunity to let people know the average length of time a family is on assistance–its not years, its months. Cash assistance is used as a gap filler, not as long term income.
The language that the administration is using is dated and offensive–the program is called ‘Temporary Assistance to Needy Families”, not welfare–we haven’t used that language in years!!
I am appalled and saddened at the decisions made….over and over and over. It just proves to our Michigan children that the government does not care about them..from TANF to schools to basic needs. They continue to put our most vulnerable at higher and higher risk with every decision they make to cut services and supports.
Busting the Myths on Welfare Recipients
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myth: Welfare recipients are lazy and have a poor work ethic.
According to the Michigan Department of Human Services (2003), a parent who is receiving welfare benefits most likely works a part-time job and earns minimum wage. The family may earn an average of $700 to $800 per month, which places them at 50 percent of the federal poverty income guideline for a family of three.
Poor people do not have a decreased amount of motivation, nor do they have poor work ethics as compared to their wealthier counterparts (ASCD 2008). According to the National Center for Children in Poverty (2004), “…83 percent of children from low-income families have at least one employed parent; close to 60 percent have at least one parent who works at least full-time and year round.” Many poor adults are forced to work two, three, or four jobs due to the decrease of living wage jobs. The Economic Policy Institute (2002) states that, “poor working adults spend more hours working each week than their wealthier counterparts.”
myth: Welfare recipients receive benefits for a long period of time.
Families headed by able-bodied adults can collect TANF benefits for only 60 months –a total of five years – in their lifetimes. Nationwide, only about two percent of TANF families reach that limit and lose their benefits each year. More than 70% of women on welfare stay on the rolls for less than two years. 50% of recipients exit TANF in the first year of welfare, and 75% of recipients exit TANF in the first two years of welfare.
myth: Welfare is full of fraud and no one is doing anything about it.
Welfare is not full of fraud. A large number of welfare recipients are innocent women and children who have fled from abusive living situations. In these particular situations the women and children may be left with little to nothing. Therefore, they would qualify for section 8 housing, food stamps, and welfare money in an attempt to begin a new life. Welfare attempts to present its recipients with new opportunities. Some individuals get “lucky” and do not need the benefits long, while others struggle to get on their feet due to the lack of resources available to them (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003).
myth: Most of the people on welfare are unmarried mothers who have extra children so that they can get more money.
Although one in four children under 18 receives welfare benefits, that does not mean that a few women on welfare have lots of children. “The average monthly number of TANF families was 3,176,000 in fiscal year (FY) 1998. The estimated total number of TANF recipients was 2,631,000 adults and 6,273,000 children. The average number of persons in TANF families was 2.8 persons. The TANF families averaged 2 recipient children, which remained unchanged. Two in five families had only one child. One in 10 families had more than three children.”
myth: People on welfare are there because they are addicted to drugs.
Welfare recipients are no more likely to use drugs than the rest of the population. In 1999, Michigan created a law that required all welfare recipients to undergo mandatory drug testing. Only 10% of recipients tested positive for illicit drugs and only 3% tested positive for hard drugs such as cocaine and amphetamines. These rates are in line with the drug use rates of the general population. The Michigan policy was struck down as unconstitutional in 2003 (ACLU, 2008).