Welfare Time Limit Boosts Hunger and Homelessness, 2 Studies Find

Los Angeles County’s imposition of time limits on general relief welfare benefits has done little to help recipients find work and instead has plunged many of them into greater homelessness, two surveys released Tuesday have found.

The loss of benefits has also increased hunger and forced recipients to rely on soup kitchens, shelters and other community organizations for their well-being, according to the independent surveys conducted by researchers at UCLA and the nonprofit Shelter Partnership.

The findings are based on surveys of 276 people who were terminated from the general relief program after the county Board of Supervisors last year restricted cash aid to five out of 12 months. About 15,000 people lost their monthly $221 cash grant, although they remained eligible for food stamps and health care.

“We believe the adverse impacts of general relief time limits, especially in the areas of such basic human needs as food and housing, are substantial enough to warrant reexamination of the county’s policy,” said Ailee Moon, an associate professor of social welfare and coauthor of the study. The survey was funded in part by the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness and the Institute for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty.

At a joint news conference, Assemblyman Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) called for the elimination of time limits on the cash benefits. Cedillo has introduced legislation that would provide a state match to the federal food stamp employment program for counties that eliminate time limits. The funds would be used to boost job training and education programs and for transportation and other social services.

In a statement read at the news conference, Cedillo said: “Time limits on the receipt of aid increase the misery and despair that very impoverished people experience; it clearly does not lead them to successfully find and keep employment.”

Although general relief is a state-mandated program, legislators allowed counties to impose time limits in response to the financial squeeze of growing caseloads. More than half of all people on general relief in the state reside in Los Angeles County. In February, the caseload numbered about 58,000 people, down from 80,000 a year ago. Cash aid is restricted to unemployed adults with no dependents who are generally ineligible for other forms of aid.

Many advocates had predicted more hardship after the introduction of time limits, but surveys released Tuesday were the first to document the strains.

Moon interviewed 174 recipients throughout Los Angeles County. Among the findings: 15% of the respondents lived on the streets before the cutbacks, while 38% lived on the streets afterward; 81% of the respondents ate at least twice a day before the cuts, but only 32% ate two meals a day when the cuts were imposed; 61% were able to get where they needed to go before the cuts while 23% said they could not get around afterward.

Shelter Partnership conducted 102 interviews. Most of the results closely resembled the UCLA findings. The number of respondents who reported living in a homeless shelter doubled from 31% before the cuts to 61% after. Additionally, many of the respondents were extremely socially isolated, with 38% saying they had no friend or relative in Los Angeles.

In one area where the surveys diverged, a lower percentage of the UCLA respondents, 65%, reported looking for a job after losing general relief benefits compared with 72% before the cuts. In the Shelter Partnership survey, 45% of all respondents reported looking for work more often after losing benefits. However, 84% said they failed to find work.

Most said they were hampered by having no fixed address, no means of transportation, and a lack of training and skills. Both studies found that participation in a job training program led to more successful job searches and increased self-sufficiency.

County officials cautioned that the surveys were small and might not be representative of the entire welfare population. And Patricia Knauss, who is in charge of general relief programs for the Department of Public Social Services, said the surveys did not take into account a new job training program launched in February that provides more aid for welfare recipients.

The new program provides welfare-to-work services, such as skills assessment, classroom training, job search assistance and motivational support. Recipients can receive aid for six months and if complying with all requirements can receive an additional three months of cash benefits.