Public Assistance
The Michigan Foreclosure Task Force (MFTF) . . .
. . . announced its newest project–April 23, 2012, the Community Foreclosure Response Toolkit, a free, comprehensive, online toolkit to help Michigan citizens – from elected officials to neighborhood groups to individuals facing foreclosure – address all issues related to foreclosure in their own communities. Visit the web site: Michigan Foreclosure Response Toolkit. Read the printable version of Foreclosure Toolkit.
More than 46,000 kids cut from cash assistance
More than 46,000 children in Michigan are in families that have lost cash assistance since September. The Department of Human Services hasn’t released reasons for the case closures but new time limits became effective in October.
A Genesee County judge ruled in March, however, that the Department of Human Services exceeded its authority in using a 60-month limit with different rules than the 48-month limit enacted by the Legislature. Read more.
See table: Number of kids cut by county.
Michigan’s Food Assistance program
The Michigan Food Assistance Program provides benefits to low-income families to increase their access to food. Funded through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Michigan food assistance caseloads have experienced a 50 percent increase over the last few years. Read more.
Drug Testing: Solution Looking for a Problem
Michigan is currently contemplating creating a drug testing policy for recipients of cash assistance. The evidence of widespread drug use among those who receive benefits is unsupported by the data and the legality of such policies is also questionable.
Read the report.
Executive Summary
Also, the League board has signed on to an amicus brief in a Florida drug testing lawsuit. See the press release.
Act now to stand up for families and kids in Michigan
On Oct. 1, two new state policies impacting economically vulnerable families and children in our state took effect. The strict enforcement of time limits on cash assistance and the new asset testing for food assistance will hurt struggling families and people across our state.
Please call Gov. Snyder’s office at 517-373-3400 or email him at Rick.Snyder@michigan.gov. Thank the governor for modifying the asset test when it comes to vehicles but ask him to eliminate the asset test for food benefits. Voice your opposition to the new time limits. Now is not the time for these harsh policies.
See We are the 30,000 on Facebook
County breakdown: FIP closures due to time limits
Fact sheet: More hurt for Michigan families
Fact sheet: Real People, Real Facts, Real Fallout
Fact sheet: Michigan’s Food Assistance Program
Update on heating aid
Michigan lawmakers have reached a solution to restore $58 million for the Low-Income and Energy Efficiency Fund to keep the heat on this winter in thousands of homes. A long-term fix for LIEEF must still be reached, however. In the meantime, an important federal support for heating aid remains on the chopping block.
Let the Michigan delegation in Washington know that the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program is important and needs to be passed. LIHEAP pays for Michigan’s home heating tax credit and other assistance in Michigan.
Updated! Fact sheet: Heating Aid
Food Bank Charitable Donation Tax Credit (Frequently Asked Questions)
Letter to Gov. Snyder signed by 115 organizations calls for end to risky policy
Sept. 28 press conference on asset test that will hurt seniors, kids and put state tax dollars at risk
A letter to Gov. Rick Snyder signed by 115 nonprofits, statewide policy groups and others call for him to reconsider the asset test that will hurt kids and seniors and risk state dollars. On Sept. 28, major policy organizations held a Lansing press conference to unveil the letter and to point out that the asset test will save no state dollars but it puts them at risk if the state has high error rates.
Oct. 11 testimony on HBs 5032 and 5033 that would put asset limits into law
*Read the report, Bucking the Trend: Michigan to Add an Asset Test for Food Benefits,
Executive Summary, and
League Opposes Move to Cut Families from Safety Net
More than 11,000 families — including nearly 30,000 children — will lose cash assistance in November under strict new time limits, including House Bills 4409 and 4410 that were finalized Aug. 24 and signed by Gov. Snyder Sept. 6. The bills enact stricter time limits on the Family Independence Program (cash assistance for families) that will hurt vulnerable children and families in Michigan.
Fact sheet on cash assistance time limits
League Sept. 6 statement: With few jobs available, it’s the wrong time to cut kids from safety net
County breakdown from DHS on families losing cash assistance Oct. 1.
See the League’s statment after the July 13 vote: Vote hurts vulnerable children
See an earlier statement from the League and the Center for Civil Justice: Cash assistance time limits will hurt vulnerable families with children.
CCJ has analyzed the bills. See the executive summary of Leaner and Meaner.
MPSC Public Hearing on Decline in Michigan LIHEAP Funds
Testimony from Gilda Jacobs, President and CEO of the Michigan League for Human Services before the Michigan Public Services Commision on the decline in Michigan LIHEAP funds.
Fact Sheet: Michigan’s Family Independence Program: Offering Help to Needy Families
The Family Independence Program (FIP) provides cash assistance to low-income families with minor children as well as pregnant women. It is designed to help families become self-supporting.
Survival Toolkit
Due to high unemployment rates and a suffering economy, many Michigan residents are struggling to make ends meet. This Survival Toolkit brochure can be downloaded, printed, folded and offered as a resource to help people determine if they are eligible for state and federal assistance programs.
It also has a list of other resources to call for help through these troubled times.
Michigan’s economy continues to cause pain: Communities of color take a harder hit
A decade into the 21st century, Michigan’s longbruised economy continues to generate high unemployment and shove more families into poverty.
Michigan’s Incredible Shrinking Safety Net
Public assistance caseloads and grant levels have declined precipitously since the recession of the early 1980s, the last time unemployment exceeded 12 percent. read more>> – May 2009
Walking a Tightrope Without a Net
These are difficult times for Michigan. Our state’s unemployment rate has led the nation for much of the past several years, with massive job losses in a number of sectors. read more>> – Executive Summary>> — Press Release>> — Feb 24, 2009.
Recent TANF Changes Are Favorable to Education and Training
On February 5, 2008, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published a Final Rule pertaining to the TANF reauthorization provisions in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. These new policies supersede those in the Interim Final Rule, under which TANF had been operating since the Act went into effect. The new policies will go into effect October 2, 2008. Following is a summary of the new policies and their implications for Michigan, as well as a discussion of several proposals that were not incorporated. read more>> May 2008
