Trash? Treasure? Dumpster diving issue explored, to be voted on.

Kudos to SHOC for this item in the new [2/26] SN&R ...

An article in SN&R, titled "Trash or treasure?: Sacramento City Council considers ban on Dumpster diving" nicely gets into the back-and-forth on an ordiance revision that will be voted on on March 3 that would further outlaw dumpster diving.

The case FOR the revision is pretty much this:

According to a staff report prepared by the solid-waste division, the revision was proposed in response to increased scavenging, a practice the report says causes littering, attracts animals and pests, leads to the theft of recyclable material and identity theft.

Criminalizing the act benefits public health and safety while preventing crime, states the report.

The case AGAINST the revision is pretty well stated here:

Local community activist Davida Douglas questioned the wisdom of the ordinance, considering that the vast majority of people rifling through garbage reclaim reusable or recyclable items that would otherwise end up in a landfill. In household trash, she’s found dish drainers, clothing, toasters and other small appliances.

“When I first moved to Sacramento, I was unable to secure a full-time job,” Douglas said. “Probably about 50 percent of the food I ate came from Dumpsters. It allowed me to have enough money to continue paying my rent and prevented me from becoming homeless.”

SacHo is not happy about people eating from dumpsters; unless you are very adept at it, you can end up being pretty sick. But the reality today is that a fast-increasing number of people are becoming desperate in this economy. This is no time to push more pain on the most-deperate among us. Mayor, city council members: Vote NO on the ordinance revision.

Update 2/27/09: Here's the Agenda for the 3/3/09 city council meeting. Note that the scavenging ordinance revision is item #14.

Winter Shelter gets funding through March 31.

According to a Volunteers of America media release, Winter Shelter has secured funding to stay open beyond its tentative Mar 9 close date. The last date now that Winter Shelter will be open is March 31.

The source of the funding is a Sierra Health Foundation Responsive Grant award, for safety-net services, in the amount of $25,000. Rumours that Oprah, or her Harpo Production Company, might come up with the funds for the extention were unfounded. Recently, part of an episode of the "Oprah Winfrey Show" was filmed at Winter Shelter. That episode will be broadcast on Feb 25.

The VOA media release tells us, "The grant was one of 42 awarded by the Sacramento-based private philanthropy, which promotes improved health and quality of life for the people of Northern California."

Winter Shelter likely to stay open till end of March

We can't get confirmation, but scuttlebutt at Overflow is that the funding is likely forthcoming there to keep the shelter open beyond the tentative closing date of March 9, through to the end of March.

Rumours that Oprah chipped in to keep the shelter open three-weeks beyond the tentative close have been denied.

A portion of the 2/25 "Oprah" show is filmed at the Winter Shelter, focusing on the downfall of previously well-off Favor Whitesides and her three young children.

SN&R reports that the Sac Bee is in trouble

	Scoopy, the Sac Bee icon.

The Sacramento News & Review reports, in its Bites opinion column, titled "Exile on Q Street", in the 2/19/09 edition, that things are dire at the Sacramento Bee. It may be that as many as 33% of the newsroom staff at the Bee will be laid off as early as Mar 1.

According to the column, written by Cosmo Garvin, "Sources contacted by Bites put the number of firings around 50 to 75, with anywhere from 25 to 40 of those coming from the newsroom." In the column we are told that there are currently 268 employees who are members of the Media Workers Guild, and that there are around 1100 total employees at the Bee, headquartered at 2100 Q Street in Sacramento.

The SN&R has reason to think that numbers it has of possible firings may be low. Writes Garvin, "[H]ere's the spooky thing: A recent letter from [the Sacramento chapter of The Newspaper Guild] mentions the federal Workforce Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which kicks in whenever a company is contemplating mass layoffs" exceeding 33% by some special calculations. 33+% of the Guild workers would be 90 or more. 33+% of all the company workers would total 367.

More from the SN&R opinion piece:

The Guild’s letter attributes The McClatchy Co.'s attorney Bob Ford as saying the layoffs would be “on a scale exceeding anything before seen at the Sacramento operation.”

“It’s a very scary time,” says Fletcher. Not just for the Bee employees, but for Sacramento, too. People in town like to beat up on the daily paper, and they should. But without it, we’re screwed.

“There’s no way around it. There are fewer people keeping an eye on what’s going on. Some things are going to happen and we’re just not going to know about them,”
Fletcher explains.

“In the beginning, everybody was talking about doing more with less. Now we’re just talking about doing less.”

Reducing the number of pages in the daily paper, layoffs, pay cuts and mandatory furloughs are all said to be on the table. There’s even a persistent rumor that the Bee is considering going to a three-day-a-week publishing schedule, à la the Detroit Free Press. “I don’t know if that’s been seriously investigated, but I doubt it,” says Fletcher.

Any deep cut in its number of employees is sure to greatly reduce Bee reporting on homeless issues. Thus, furthering the neglect of aid for the homeless by the city and county.

It would be quite somethin' -- quite a very bad somethin' -- if our metropolitan area is left without a major, substantial old-style daily newspaper.

UPDATE 3/1/09: In a story on Feb 27, the Bee announced that it intended to layoff 34 Media Workers Guild employees and impose wage cuts. An unspecified number of workers outside the guild will also be laid off. If guild members don't vote to accept a cost-cutting plan, the number from their membership that will be laid off will increase to 53.

The McClatchy Co. is wanting to cut its operating expences at The Bee by an amount in excess of $100 million.

Update on Oprah Show Next Week re Sac'to Homeless

	Lisa Ling on the "Oprah Winfrey Show."

Sac News Blogger provides some updated information about "The Oprah Winfrey Show" about homelessness that will include scenes filmed in Sacramento.

The blogger of Sac News Blogger is a community college student who hopes to pursue a career in journalism. He tells us that Lisa Ling came with the Oprah film crew that was reported to have been in our town on Feb. 11 through Feb 13.

The page that gives information about upcoming shows at oprah.com now tells us that the Wednesday show is entitled "Tent Cities in America: A Lisa Ling Special Report."

A blurb at the Oprah website about the episode says this:

The spiraling economy and the foreclosure crisis are causing an increasing number of middle-class Americans to suffer. On [the Feb. 25] show, Lisa Ling investigates the emergence of tent cities—makeshift temporary shelters set up by people who simply have nowhere else to go. Our cameras follow a family that went from living in a condo and driving a Lincoln Navigator a year ago to sleeping in homeless shelters and carrying all their possessions in garbage bags. Then, hear from a woman who was making $70,000 a year and is facing eviction. Get an inside look at how more and more families are struggling every day just to get by.

Sac News Blogger tells us the Oprah Winfrey Show that will include the Sacramento segments will be broadcast on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 4 PM on KCRA, channel 3.

We shall see, but it will be disappointing if the focus of the Oprah show, and other news-related organizations, continues to be over-much about prosperous people who have been brought down many pegs at the expense of reporting on the continual suffering of long-term homeless people. But, based mostly on the episode title, it is likely to be a valuable report, informing citizens of the general circumstance of growing homelessness in our area and in our country.

UPDATE 2/23: The episode will also be broadcast on Feb 25 at 9PM on KQCA, chan. 58. Based on a report about the show at the VOA website: "The impact the faltering U.S. economy has had on the once-prosperous middle class [oxymoron?] will be brought home to local 'Oprah Winfrey Show' viewers when Sacramento-area native and 'Oprah' correspondent Lisa Ling interviews Favor Whitesides, who unexpectedly found herself and her three young children in temporary residence at Volunteers of America's Winter Shelter."

News10 Good People: UC Davis veterinarian students

News10 has a positivist weekly feature highlighting the efforts of "good people" in the Sacramento metropolis.

This week, the news organization honored 2nd-year UC Davis veteranary students who come with qualified animal doctors from the university's Mercer Veterinary Clinic to the Loaves & Fishes cul-de-sac to care for homeless people's pets.

On the second Saturday of each month nearly 100 pets are attended to, at no cost to their masters/owners/homo sapien family members.

Budget Deal will Reduce SSI Payment Amount

The budget deal that has just been agreed to in the state legislature and which Gov. Schwarzenegger will sign will cut the monthly payments of Supplemental Security Income checks from $907 to $870 for single individuals.

Many homeless people are recipients of SSI payments.

Scuttlebutt in the Sacramento homeless community had been that many homeless people from Nevada had been coming to Sacramento to receive higher payment awards in this state than what is offered in Nevada, which does not supplement the federal minimum payment to its poor senior, blind or disabled citizens as California does.

Quoting the Los Angeles Times from an article last month,

One of the provisions both parties have supported in the state Capitol would reduce the maximum monthly grant for low-income blind and disabled Californians. Individual grants would drop from $907 to $870, while couples would see their monthly checks drop from $1,579 to $1,524, according to the state Department of Finance. Those grants were supposed to increase this year and again next year to account for inflation.

It is known that Schwarzenegger had proposed a lower award -- $830/mo for individuals -- and to suspend the annual inflation bump-ups next July 1 and in the year thereafter. SacHo does not know if the final budget legislation suspends those inflation boosts or not.

UPDATE 2/20/09: It appears that the SSI cut may be reduced IF California receives stimulus money from the Federal government, in an amount in excess of $10 billon before April 1. Should California receive the stimulus money, the SSI award will be reduced from $907 to $890, instead of $870/month.

Oprah comes to Loaves & Fishes

	Oprah Winfrey.

An article in today's Bee and in the Bee blog 21Q tells us that Oprah Winfrey was in Sacramento "taping scenes [for her TV show] at Loaves & Fishes and other agencies serving the homeless" on Feb 11, 12 and 13.

The episode, that is not solely about conditions in Sacramento, is scheduled to be aired next week.

A publicist for Winfrey's production company is quoted saying, "We're going to be showing viewers the real face of the recession."

Besides Loaves & Fishes, the article tells us "[the film] crew also looked at the Mustard Seed School, Volunteers of American, the 100-tent homeless encampment [known as the Wasteland] and the St. John's Women's Shelter."

Bee's 21Q blog promises to give us the air date of the episode that will include Sacramento scenes when it is scheduled.

UPDATE 2/20/09: The Bee now tells us the "upcoming episode of 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' will feature a family that was left homeless in Sacramento after the short sale of their home." It is perhaps/probably the case that the broader story of homelessness in Sacramento was not of interest to Oprah/Harpo Productions. [FYI: Sched of upcoming shows at oprah.com. ]

UPDATE 2/24/09: Note that we now know that Oprah, herself, DID NOT come to Sacramento. Lisa Ling and an "Oprah" film crew were here on Feb 11, 12 & 13.

Loaves and Fishes helps one, forgets one thousand?

	Deanna Van Slate as pictured in the first Sacramento Bee article about her.

A story that spanned two recent days in the Sacramento Bee concerns a woman, Deanna Van Slate, whose automobile was impounded, leaving her suddenly homeless (and carless), out on the rainy streets.

More than being one-person’s story of being reduced to destitute homelessness, the news stories bring to the fore some things curious and troubling: the advantages of local celebrity status and concerns regarding Loaves and Fishes’ priorities and responsibilities.

No one cannot have feelings of sympathy for Ms. Van Slate. In the newspaper's Valentine's Day story, "Sacramento homeless woman finds some who care in her hour of need," the 50-year-old woman is pictured, in anguish, atop her motley belongings on the wet pavement.

The article recounts the woman's sad downward spiral, beginning with job loss in November; death of her housemate in December; and, more recently, loss of her apartment and the struggle to make ends, including car upkeep, meet with a paltry unemployment stipend.

But then Van Slate's luck had a fortuitous turn on Friday the 13th: a policeman impounded her car while Loaves & Fishes' Sister Libby and a Bee reporter she summoned were there to watch.

The policeman comes off as a snake in the article. Sister Libby is quoted saying, "There might be a law you are guided by, but where is your compassion in any law?" Of course, those words don't congeal into any exact meaning, but we get the gist and have to nod: Bad policeman!

Quickly, Loaves and Fishes dumps Ms. Van Slate in front of the mission, in a bad part of town, another picture is taken, and Loaves sets up a Van Slate fund to gather reader contributions.

According to the Bee's second Valentine's Day article, "Where to call to help homeless woman," people are told to call Sister Libby Fernandez to help the homeless woman - e.g., send money.

In the story the next day, "Homeless woman's story prompts offers of help," we're told that "the plight of a homeless woman ... has resonated throughout the region."

The story continues,

Loaves & Fishes, a nonprofit organization that helps the homeless – and brought Van Slate's story to light – was inundated Saturday with offers of help for the woman.

Sister Libby Fernandez, Loaves & Fishes executive director, said she had talked to about 150 people by midday Saturday. People offered help, ranging from cash to free accommodations for Van Slate. Some offered rooms for free for two weeks, some for a month, Fernandez said.

"There're all sorts of amazing people from our community who feel like they too are on furlough from the state, or losing hours from other employment, but still want to give somehow," Fernandez said.
...

Loaves & Fishes volunteers and staff members are working to recover Van Slate's car, and are seeking donations that would help pay her insurance, registration, towing and storage fees. They are also working with her to find employment and help her consider the housing options she's been offered.

Meanwhile, a local family is taking her in for the weekend.

Fernandez said her group also will continue to help Van Slate deal with past problems.

Van Slate was convicted of a felony count of burglary in 2006 and sentenced to a five-year probation term, according to online court records.

Fernandez said she is aware of Van Slate's issues. Van Slate had initially come to the attention of Loaves & Fishes through its mental health services program.

"I know her and she's trustworthy," Fernandez said.

And now, SacHo blog returns from Madison Avenue to the real world, where butts lie on the wet ground on cold nights. It's swell you care about Ms. Van Slate, Libby, but what have you done lately to rescue all those thousands who have similar sad downward-spiral stories and have been in a state of homelessness for more than a scant half a day?

What funds have you set up to pull them out of the pit of homelessness? What volunteers and staff members have been tasked with the responsibility of recovering the lives of Ivan and June and Mike and Angelica?

While you were away dancing in the kleig lights, Libby, the Park you are directly responsible for was a mud wallow. Your lunch today offered no vegetables other than tiny chards of carrot in a mound of lettuce.

I offer no solution. Again, nobody doesn't want Deanna Van Slate to have a happy life. But it may be that helping Ms. Van Slate is exactly what you should be doing, while someone is found to take proper charge of Loaves & Fishes.

Estate Sale Profits will Benefit Loaves & Fishes

Profits from a whole-house estate sale of the belongings of the Mori Family will benefit the Sacramento homeless-aid charity Loaves & Fishes.

All belongings, including personal items and furniture, will be sold, on February 20 and 21, at the South Land Park Mori family home, which is being emptied to prepare it for future sale.

The house is located at 1276 Nevis Ct, Sacramento, CA 95822 [see map]. The liquidation sale will take place between 7 AM and 6 PM on both days of the sale.

The company Jennie Krausse Estate Liquidation is handling the event. At the webspace of the company there are photographs of many of the items that will be put up for sale.

According to the company website, the Mori couple that owned the house was a 2nd-generation Japanese couple who moved to the Sacramento area after World War II. They raised "four children in the Hollywood Park area until the 1960s" whenupon they bought the South Land Park home. The Mori couple is now deceased.

The close-knit offspring of the Moris each live within scant miles of their parents' house.

Update 2/21/09: According to the Loaves & Fishes blog, there was a "Preferred Client Pre-sale" on 2/19 from 4PM to 8PM, for L&F supporters.

Does the Movie Matter (when it is screened to benefit a good cause)?

	John Leguizamo, as Frank Diaz, and David Castro as the son, Justin, in "Where God Left His Shoes."

On February 18, the film "Where God Left His Shoes" will be screened at The Crest theater on K Street to benefit Faith and Homeless Families Initiate, "a 2009 pilot program of the Ending Chronic Homelessness Initiative [which will match] ... homeless families with faith communities to mentor and help them obtain self-sufficiency and permanent housing."

Now, this new initiate of an initiate is very very likely to do good work for a good cause, efficiently and effectively rising to its ambitions, helping many homeless Sacramento families.

The little-seen arthouse film to be screened to raise money for the pilot initiative has gotten mostly good reviews [5 of 7 reviewers at rottentomatoes.com call it Fresh, whereas only two give it a thumbs-down Rotten rating.] And even in the bad reviews I've read, star John Leguizamo's performance is bountifully lauded. But I do think it troubling that the film -- about homelessness, raising funds for a homelessness cause -- is denounced by reviewers for presenting homelessness inauthentically.

The Village Voice review ends with these almost-indeciferable words, "the movie's vérité is diluted by a cozy, adult-contemporary empathy with those less fortunate that left me hearing 'Another Day in Paradise.'"

Variety says the movie "piles the pathos high as if to see how many hard-luck cliches its pugilist hero can fend off without succumbing to schmaltz."

Slant magazine ends its positive two-star review with this sentence: "It's cheap emotional manipulation for a topic that needs none: The Bicycle Thief for the Starbucks generation."

The New York Times' review of the movie begins with these words: "A fishy odor of unearned sanctimony clings to 'Where God Left His Shoes,' Salvatore Stabile’s queasy-making drama about a homeless New York family seeking shelter on a snowy Christmas Eve." And goes on to say, "The bureaucratic hurdles [the main character] encounters are real enough, but [his family], who are neither illegal immigrants nor drug abusers and who apparently have no relatives or friends on whom to lean, come across as much more helpless and victimized than they would actually be in such a situation."

Only Film-Forward demurs, writing that the protagonist's "plight is so realistic and the film’s reflection of our economic problems so devastating and direct, we can’t help but be deeply touched."

The movie did win a prestigeous award at Sundance, the 2007 Humanitas Prize. According to the Humanitas Prize website, the prize "honors stories that affirm the dignity of the human person, probe the meaning of life, and enlighten the use of human freedom." All that is all to the good, but perhaps veracity isn't an element that the prize-awarding committee values, even in a fictional film presented as being real or possible.

For us who live in Homeless World, getting news out there about the truth of our situation is of high value. Sentimental or phony or hyped depictions of homelessness can only add to the general misimpression of what life is like "out here."

I'm not meaning to criticize anyone, exactly. I mean, What can you do? The Community Services Planning Council and the folks of Ending Chronic Homelessness are wanting to raise funds and the film producers made "Where God Left His Shoes" available for that effort. The movie is well-regarded and seemingly a perfect fit to the ideals of anything called the Faith and Homeless Families Initiative.

It remains that presentations of the true nature of homeless life continue to be rare, overwhelmed by what is hyped, extreme and sentimentalized.

Schwarzenegger calls for SSI cutbacks

An article in the Feb. 5 issue of Sacramento Business Journal, "State ponders budget cuts for low-income seniors, disabled," tells us that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing cutbacks in Supplemental Security Income/State Supplementary Payment (SSI/SSP) that "help low-income seniors and people with disabilities meet basic living expenses."

The cutbacks and other reductions that Schwarzenegger seeks in SSI would impact many people in the Sacramento homeless community.

Quoting the SBJ article,

The governor has proposed cutting the grants to the minimum level required by federal law, starting May 1, and to suspend the June 2010 state cost-of-living adjustment. Together, they would eliminate $1.34 billion in grant payments [statewide].

The Central Valley Business Times breaks down statewide figures to give us this information with respect to Sacramento county: Here, 63,590 people will be impacted by a total amount of $78,728,000. That is an average $1258/person reduction in benefits during the 14-month period of May 2009 through June 2010.

The State is now earnestly, though unproductively, working on reducing expense-revenue gaps for the current budget year [which ends on June 30, 2009] and the upcoming budget year [which goes from Jul 1, 2009 to Jun 30, 2010].

A Significant Day: March 10

	Photo from VOA webspace showing opening day of the Winter Shelter for 2008-09.

On March 9, the Winter Shelter - also known as Overflow - with its 104 beds for men and 50 beds for women and children, is scheduled to close. The date of March 9 is much earlier than the closing date of the shelter in years past. In that past, the Winter Shelter was open for fully five months, from Nov. 1 to Mar. 31. Not so this year, with its opening on Nov. 24 and scheduled close of Mar. 9.

With the increase in the number of homeless in Sacramento county [the extent of which will be shown when the result of the Jan. 27 StreetCount 2009 is disclosed on approximately Mar. 10], the early close is likely to leave many unprepared homeless people out in the street at night in late winter.

As the days roll forward into March, likely a forecast of late-winter weather conditions will inform the city, the county and us all how vital it is that something happen on March 10 to prevent the suffering of many of the unhoused poor.

What can happen? Volunteers of America, which runs Winter Shelter for the city and county, can be granted funding [or might get an outside grant] to continue to operate the shelter through the end of March.

Or, the city and county might reach quick agreement with homeless-advocacy groups to settle Lehr v Sac'to and allow for a tent encampment to be established speedily to 'absorb' many of the displaced homeless.

Or, camping and rough sleeping can be tolerated by the city and county and their police forces for the period after March 9 when night temperatures can still be chilly.

Or, the Salvation Army and the Union Gospel Mission and other homeless-care facilities can be allowed to harbor many people who are loose on the street at night, giving them access to warmth and a place to just be or sleep.

Something needs to happen. The demand for beds is increasing with the increase in homelessness in Sacramento county while the supply of beds will decrease a lot with a Mar. 9 end to the Winter Shelter.

Important Feb 10 City Council Mtg

	Logo/emblem of the city of Sacramento.

A Sacramento City Council meeting on February 10 is going to be an important one for the city and for that important subset of folks, us homeless living in it. Here is the agenda for the meeting which covers many important topics, including Item 11, a proposed anti-scavenging ordinance; Item 16, a midyear city-budget review; and Item 18, a staff report on inclusionary housing

Firstly, there is a scavenging ordinance [Item 11 on the agenda], that has been forwarded by the Law and Legislature committee, that would make scavenging in dumpsters and general-waste bins unlawful due to a supposed threat of ID theft. Stealing others' ID is already illegal, as is scavenging in recycling bins. SacHo supports Muriel Strand's objections to this legislation because (1) the community at-large should support scavenging that promotes 'green' recycling of usable items and (2) the Les Misérables argument [Sacramento should support Jean Valjean over Inspector Javert!]: Productive scavenging aids the most desperate of homeless people. We must not criminalize homeless people's well-intended efforts to stay alive. Here is the city manager's argument in favor of passage of the ordinance.

Also, as Loaves and Fishes discusses at their webspace, there are (one or) two ordinances under consideration that would require more "mixed housing" in the city, thus creating more housing opportunities for poor and homeless people. Here is the Agenda Packet relating to the council's housing workshop/report on this matter.

And, finally, because of the nosediving, tailspinning, arrrrrrrgh economy, the city will be looking for ways to reduce expenses. Often, the poor [who are the least politically connected] ironically take the brunt of the hit in a situation like this. We believe the city council should seek, generally, the least painful ways of adjusting budgets. All Sacramentans should shoulder some of the discomfort of Hard Times. The city is closing the funding gap in its 2008-2009 budget mostly by a neat trick: correcting its risk-management computations, thus, reducing its risk fund and using those ghost-proceeds to alay deficits elsewhere. This is a one-time trick, putting off dealing with real pain until later. SacHo finds no proposed cuts in the staff report that unfairly impact the poor, but does find interesting data, of concern, that we will report on soon.

SN&R Supports Tent Encampment

	Cover of the 02.05.09 issue of the Sacramento News & Review.

The Sacramento News and Review joined the chorus, adding words of support for a sanctioned tent encampment for the homeless in Sacramento.

In an "SN&R Editorial" [Written by an editorial board? by the paper's owner? We don't know.], "A legal tent town," published in today's issue, hope is expressed that the city [of Sacramento] and county [of Sacramento] "give the legal tent town concept their blessing." Hooray, that. And, maybe a designated place to be, funds, an outline of what they expect, and directives restraining police exuberance.

The piece first mentions the mounting homeless population in the region and that we are at the frontline of economic decline, here, as well.

Says the editorial,

[C]ity and county officials are studying whether or not to create a legal “tent town,” where people without a roof over their heads can camp out without fear of being harassed or regularly rousted by cops for illegal camping.

To become legally sanctioned, a Sacramento tent town would come with some rules attached. But a few rules (such as no drinking and no violence) hasn’t stopped tent towns from succeeding in other cities, with Portland [and its Dignity Village] first among them.

It wouldn’t solve the intractable problems faced by homeless individuals. But it would, at least, provide them an immediate solution to their most pressing problem.

Free Entry to City Museums on Saturday

Twenty-six greater-Sacramento area museums will be offering FREE admission during the Sacramento Museum Day on Saturday, Februaryx7.

Between the hours of 10 AM and 4 PM, everyone will be let in free to participating museums. The city will also be providing free shuttle buses to get to many of the museums.

Expect long lines.

Visit the Museum Day webspace for all the details.

The Economy Nosedives, The Poor take the ‘Hit’

	Federal Administration for Children & Families logo.

A story in today’s New York Times comports to something many Sacramento poor and homeless people are experiencing or are well aware of: As the economy contracts, the poor are taking an inordinate and unconscionable share of the ‘hit.’

The article, “Welfare Aid Isn’t Growing as Economy Drops Off,” begins with these words: “Despite soaring unemployment and the worst economic crisis in decades, 18 states cut their welfare rolls last year, and nationally the number of people receiving cash assistance remained at or near the lowest in more than 40 years.”

What is the culprit for this contra-intuitive development? Welfare rolls getting cut as the economy tanks!? Answer: State and local discretion in how to respond to growing hardship. Or, more simply, the lack of political influence poor people and their advocates have.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families [formerly, “welfare”; aka, TANF], which provides cash assistance to indigent American families with dependent children, is supposed to be a vital social safety net. Rules were tightened by legislation a Republican congress passed in 1996, and which President Bill Clinton signed into law. It is only now, with the economy in a tailspin, that we see the true effect of the harsh legislation from 13 years ago.

Quoting the Times article,

Even some of TANF’s staunchest defenders are alarmed.

“There is ample reason to be concerned here,” said Ron Haskins, a former Republican Congressional aide who helped write the 1996 law overhauling the welfare system. “The overall structure is not working the way it was designed to work. We would expect, just on the face it, that when a deep recession happens, people could go back on welfare.”

“When we started this, Democratic and Republican governors alike said, ‘We know what’s best for our state; we’re not going to let people starve,’ ” said Mr. Haskins, who is now a researcher at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “And now that the chips are down, and unemployment is going up, most states are not doing enough to help families get back on the rolls.”

The program’s structure — fixed federal financing, despite caseload size — may discourage states from helping more people because the states bear all of the increased costs. By contrast, the federal government pays virtually all food-stamp costs, and last year every state expanded its food-stamp rolls; nationally, the food program grew 12 percent.

The clashing trends in some states — more food stamps, but less cash aid — suggest a safety net at odds with itself.

It is hard to parse data from the article and other online sources for just California – but here is what SacHo found:

According to a graphic display that ran alongside the article, California’s foodstamp program saw an increase from Oct07 to Oct08 that was between 10 and 20%, whereas with cash disbursements, where the state had discretionary control, there was only a 6.3% increase using the same periods of comparison.

In the county of Sacramento, basing information on the 11th page of this county document, state aid to the county for welfare programs will decrease from over $900 million in the 07-08 Budget to $872 million in 08-09, a decrease of 3.2%.

Meantime, federal aid will increase from $613 million to $652 million, an increase of 6.2%.

The information that we find supports the Times article's thesis that state and local government load the pain of an economy in decline onto the poor, who have little political clout. Even as the poor are increasing in number, it is they who take a forehead-whacking, inordinate 'hit.'