Escalating Problem: Welfare reform may push more people onto the streets, say experts.
TANYA EISERER / Abilene Reporter-News
As welfare reform is implemented, churches and charitable organizations will have to "dig deeper" into their pockets to assist individuals coming off the welfare rolls, say local providers.
"Welfare reform is going to have a tremendous impact on the organizations already serving the homeless and low-income families," said Barbara Evans, a spokeswoman with the Texas Department of Human Services. "You're going to have a higher number of individuals coming in because they don't receive" that Aid to Families with Dependent Children check.
Scott Dueser, president of First National Bank, who serves on the board of the United Way of Texas, predicts many people will fall through the cracks.
"There will be people coming off welfare who will need additional services from agencies, nonprofits and churches," Dueser said.
A Waiver
Under state welfare reforms, a person has between one and three years to reach self-sufficiency after he or she has been referred to an employment services program, Evans explained.
Texas is operating under a federal waiver, which allowed the state to begin implementing its welfare reform plan in June 1996, she said.
"It doesn't impact the entire family," Evans said. "It's only the caregiver that's taken off by welfare reform."
A mother with two children will lose $78 from her $188 monthly benefits at the end of that period, she explained.
Abilene's DHS covers 60 counties. However, only nine counties, including Taylor, have employment services programs, Evans said.
Individuals in counties without employment services programs are covered by federal welfare reform, which passed Aug. 22, 1996, she said.
Under federal reforms, AFDC went from being a federal entitlement to being a block grant called Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Evans said.
People have five years - their maximum lifetime benefit - from the date of the bill's signing to become self-sufficient, she said.
"Federally, the clock is ticking even though they haven't been referred to the employment services program," Evans said.
The consequences
Welfare reform will have far-reaching consequences for people living at the bottom of the socio-economic spectrum, said Dean Wright, a professor of sociology at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, who has studied the homeless.
"It's a ticking clock. We're going to have a much larger homeless problem," Wright said. "It's going to force a lot of people to do things they don't want to do. It may cause more crime. It may cause families to double up into one household."
Under welfare reform, a mininum-wage earning mother will be in a tough predictament, Evans said.
"At $5 an hour 40 hours a week 52 weeks a year, you're making below $10,000 a year," she said. "That's $3,000 below the poverty level."
The only way to make welfare reform truly work is to raise the minimum wage to a living wage, Evans said.
Though many believe welfare reform will have its traumatic consequences, they also see it as necessary.
"We need welfare reform," Evans said.
But, she said, "How do you change folks from being dependent on a system to being self-sufficient? I think we're going to have to go through some hurt. There's no a easy fix."
Mary Anne Sides, supervisor of the city-operated program Call-For Help, said legislators need to realize that the welfare system wasn't created overnight and can't be fixed overnight.
"Our local churches and charities are going to see more requests, and they're going to have to dig deeper," she said. "We as a community may have to develop some new resources."
Evans said the Abilene community has been great about filling in the gaps in the public assistance system.
"But how much more can the community help?" she said. "When
will the churches say, we can't afford any more money?"