Thread: 20% in L.A. County receive public aid

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 7048.story

From the Los Angeles Times
20% in Los Angeles County receive public aid
The figure matches the total at the height of the 2001-03 recession, and officials expect it to rise significantly.
By Garrett Therolf

February 22, 2009

One in five Los Angeles County residents -- nearly 2.2 million people -- are receiving public assistance payments or benefits, a level county officials say will rise significantly over the coming months as the fallout from the recession continues.

The percentage of people on county aid already equals the figure at the height of the 2001-03 recession and far exceeds the one in seven who needed help during the economic downturn in the early 1990s and the one in nine assisted in the collapse of the early 1980s.

The rise in welfare recipients in the county is the first sustained uptick since welfare reform under the Clinton administration imposed strict time limits on benefits in 1996.

County officials warn that tens of thousands of additional frustrated job seekers -- unemployment in the county currently stands at 9.5% -- are expected to seek aid to weather the persistent recession once their other benefits run out.

The total includes those receiving food stamps and general relief as well as other county-administered aid programs, such as in-home healthcare. The cost -- shouldered by the county, state and federal governments -- was $334 million a month by the end of last year, according to the latest report by the county's Department of Public Social Services.

The rising demand has left public assistance offices ill-equipped to deal with the growing multitude of indigent people. In some locations, lines routinely snake hundreds of feet outside entrances.

"We have the highest human service burden of any county in the country in sheer numbers," Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said.

"Two million people is the size of some countries; that's how big our problem is," he said.

To have reached the point of receiving county aid, recipients usually have little left.

Qualifying for help most often means they already have run out of unemployment insurance and drained their bank accounts and other assets.

In other cases, low-wage workers or those whose hours have been cut can earn so little that they qualify for Medicaid or food stamps.

The steepest increases in need have been in the Pomona Valley, the Lancaster area, the San Fernando Valley and East Los Angeles.

By June 2010, officials estimate, the number of people participating in the county's general relief program, now at 74,143, will reach 91,000. That would erase 11 years of reductions in the caseload. The program provides $221 monthly to individuals who qualify for no other programs. Roughly 60% of those served are believed to be homeless.

Also by June of next year, the number of people receiving payments through CalWorks, the welfare program for families, is expected to rise to 400,000 from the current 367,173. That would erase three years of reductions.

In a sign of how stressed the economy is, county officials report that just as many applicants are denied as are approved; these denials reflect strict qualifications in place for most programs.

For years, declines in the welfare rolls had been offsetting the costs of steady increases in numbers of people qualifying for healthcare assistance through Medicaid and other programs. The demand for those programs has been driven by a growing number of senior citizens and increasing numbers of people going without employer-based health and disability insurance.

That welfare and healthcare demands are increasing at the same time is worrisome to officials.

In an attempt to halt the increases, Miguel Santana, a county deputy chief executive, said he hopes in the coming months to place general relief recipients in jobs or in federally funded programs that provide cash and medical assistance.

"We need to act more aggressively than ever to stem the tide" in general relief, Santana said.

Many of those getting help say they have done everything they can think of to find work.

In the waiting room at the welfare office in Rancho Dominguez, where late last week even the line for a parking space was dozens of cars long, 32-year-old Erlinda Romero held a rolled copy of the Pennysaver, dogeared on pages listing jobs she pursued.

"I can't get a callback," she said, noting that training last year to become a medical clerk has not yet yielded a job. Meanwhile, she receives Medicaid benefits and $500 in monthly welfare for herself and four children.

Nearby, 50-year-old Ed Baldwin slumped in his chair waiting for his name to be called to renew his food stamps. He has been unemployed for three years, since being laid off from his job as a mechanic for heavy trucks.

"This is getting scary," he said. "There are no jobs."

County officials say they are worried that just as the need for county aid surges, the treasury is dwindling.

Property tax revenue, usually stable, is shrinking for the first time in 13 years.

This comes at a time when the county, the region's largest employer, has ordered a strict hiring freeze that will include the Department of Public Social Services. The department's director, Philip Browning, has been ordered to draft a budget for the next fiscal year that is at least 5% less than the current year's.

Although the federal government is acting to increase food stamp and unemployment insurance benefits, programs that are wholly funded by the county -- including general relief -- remain static.

The monthly benefit of $221 has not increased for more than a decade, and no one is proposing that it increase now.

"We've got to be able to do the basics. We are not going to be able to do it in the same way we have in the past," Yaroslavsky said.

"If the hiring freeze in effect shuts down an office," he said, "we are going to have to look at an exemption. But we do not print money in the basement of the county Hall of Administration."

garrett.therolf@latimes.com

Thanks to the illegals invasion.

They have NO ONE to thank/blame but themselves!

CALIFORNIA IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN FOR BALANCED BUDGET

SACRAMENTO, CA (KGO) -- State lawmakers unveiled a package of 20 bills, aimed at saving money and balancing the state budget by targeting illegal ailens.

Assembly members want to chip away at the state deficit by checking the immigration status of those getting state-funded social benefits and jobs. They especially want to crackdown on those who have committed crimes.

"California is on a financial life raft that is sinking, but at the same time, we continue to pull on more and more people on board," said Assemblyman Jim Silva (R) of Huntington Beach.

Many of the proposals concentrate on criminal activity because in 2006 - 2007, it cost the state roughly $850,000,000 million dollars to incarcerate more than 17,000 illegal immigrants.

Among the proposals:

- Adding ten years to prison sentences for felonies if the illegal had been previously deported.

- Checking the immigration status of DUI offenders

- Requiring local law enforcement to cooperate with INS

- Denying bail for gang-related or violent crimes

- And reporting dangerous juveniles to Immigration and Customs

Enforcement for deportation.

"To the extent we have criminal activity in our state, we should address it very, very vigorously" said state Senior Gil Cedillo (D) of Los Angeles, Vice-Chairman of the Latino Caucus.

"I think the law enforcement agencies in my city should be focused on crime and violence, which is starting to creep up," said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Assemblyman John Benoit(R) of Bermuda Dunes is a law enforcement veteran-turned politician, who says it's time cops are part of the solution.
"I have been involved in stopping, finding, and in some cases, deporting people here illegally. I think the rule of law is the reason the United States stands out among nations," said Assemblyman Benoit.

The federal government is supposed to help pay for jailing illegal immigrants who commit crimes, but California got reimbursed only $100,000,000 dollars last year, less than 13 percent of the actual costs.

http://abclocal.go.com:80/kgo/story?sec ... id=6042094

Study: 25% of LA's Welfare Goes to Undocumented Immigrants

May 6, 2008, 5:42 AM PDT

L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich says the county spends more than $1 billion a year on benefits to undocumented immigrants.

According to new data from the Department of Public Social Services, nearly twenty five percent of Los Angeles County 's welfare and food stamp benefits goes directly to the children of undocumented immigrants, at a cost of $36 million a month -- for a projected annual cost of $432 million.

"The total cost for illegal immigrants to County taxpayers far exceeds $1 billion a year - not including the millions of dollars for education," said Antonovich.

"With $220 million for public safety, $400 million for healthcare, and $432 million in welfare allocations, illegal immigration continues to have a devastating impact on Los Angeles County taxpayers."

The supervisor said, in March, undocumented immigrants collected over $19 million in welfare assistance and over $16 million in food stamp allocations.

Story from KHTS

Copyright (c) 2008, KTLA

This article originally appeared at:

http://ktla.trb.com/news/ktla-welfare-a ... 1573.story

I need to bring up one more


REFUGEES: Many of these people start the welfare doles just as soon as they can. THEN HAVE 5 kids!!!


They're tanking us.

If the federal government had done it's job and prevented millions of illegal aliens from entering the country

things wouldn't be so bad in the city of L.A., L.A. County, California and the entire rest of the country.

And now due to the recent tax increases in CA Los Angeles residents will have to pay around 10% sales tax.

Originally Posted by jean

And now due to the recent tax increases in CA Los Angeles residents will have to pay around 10% sales tax.

The California sales tax was 6.75% and is being raised to 7.75%, but cities and counties can and do have their own tax increases making it more than that in some locations. At least they dropped the plan to raise the gas tax by 12 cents per gallon. The car registration fees are still going to double. The income tax rates are going up too.

I just looked up the current tax rate for L.A. city and it is 8.25% now, so it will be going up to 9.25%.

It looks like most other communities are already at least 7.75%, or more, and will be going up by at least 1%.