[Faith & Hunger] Gannett News Story on Welfare Grant Hike

[Dunleamark at aol.com]

Advocates want first hike in welfare benefits since  1990 

By Dan Osburn
Journal Albany  bureau


ALBANY —— Monthly welfare grants should be increased from  $291 for a family 
of three to $475, religious leaders said  Tuesday.

The leaders of Faith and Hunger Network said low payments  to estimated 
530,000 New Yorkers on welfare, which haven’t been raised in  17 years, lead to 
hunger and homelessness, excessive reliance on food  pantries, and poor living 
conditions.

Mark Dunlea of the network  said despite declining numbers of people on 
welfare, the basic welfare  grant is still too small.

“The base grant has not increased since  1990,” Dunlea said. The cost of 
living has gone up 60 percent since than,  according to the federal Bureau of 
Labor Statistics.

Dunlea  suggested financing a grant increase with the $1 billion surplus in 
grants  from the federal government earmarked for welfare programs by shifting  
funding of programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit, which provides  grants 
to poor people with jobs, and children’s welfare to other state tax  revenues.

The upgraded welfare would cost taxpayers about $120  million a year, with 
the federal government paying $60 million and state  and counties $30 million 
each, Dunlea said. He also said the state should  finance the cost by higher 
income taxes on the rich.

The state has  accrued the surplus in federal revenue funds because the 
number of welfare  recipients has declined by almost two-thirds over the last 15  
years.

Dunlea said that’s not all good news.

“Some people  left for work, which was good, but some people never got on to 
welfare,”  he said. Dunlea said many people eligible for welfare either don’t 
sign up  or have been removed from the system.

Dunlea said many people have  lost their welfare support for not completing 
work or job application  requirements.

“If you require people to jump through 20 hoops,  there’s a good chance that 
you will trip on one of those hoops,” he  said.

A spokesman for the state Temporary and Disability Assistance  Office, 
Michael Hayes, said while cash welfare payments have remain the  same for 17 years, 
other assistance programs, like the Earned Income Tax  Credit, and subsidies 
for heat and electricity have grown.

“Work  and work supports are the most viable package” for the poor, Hayes  
said.
Even if work and work supports are the best option, people are  still going 
hungry, another advocate said.

The Rev. Debra Jameson,  member of Faith and Hunger Network and minister of 
the FOCUS Churches of  Albany, said that food pantries are swamped due to 
inadequate welfare and  food-stamp payments.

“Inflation has taken its toll,” Jameson  said.

Jameson’s church food pantry alone services 250 families a  month in the 
Albany area.

Sadie Boyd, 44, of Albany, said she has  11 children and has been on and off 
public assistance for about 15 years.  Boyd said she supports herself and her 
three youngest children on less  than $500 a month in food stamps and welfare 
payments.

“The  churches are the ones that help us,” Boyd said. She also said that the 
 food pantry she depends on limits the needy to a single visit per month,  
that yields enough food for about two days.

Boyd said she wants a  job more than anything, and has taken 
computer-training courses and wants  to work in office.

“We need a hand up, not a handout,” Boyd said.  “Give us a chance, at least, 
to be independent.”

Assembly Social  Services Committee Chairman Keith Wright, D-Manhattan, said 
he supports  the hike.

“With corporate America making so much money, its hard  for me to believe 
that there would be any resistance to raising the public  assistance,” he said.

There was no comment Tuesday from Senate  Republicans, who in the past have 
opposed a hike in welfare  benefits. 



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