But the story of welfare reform hardly ends there. Le’Bron, a paralegal with the Queens Legal Services Corporation, says that though his clients nowadays have more complex needs than ever, they are at greater risk of being "sanctioned," or punished through a reduction in benefits. The Human Resources Administration (HRA), the city agency that administers cash assistance, “has been very proficient in sanctioning people,” Le’Bron said. “They haven’t been so successful in helping them avoid sanctions in the first place.”
A recent report by the nonprofit group Community Voices Heard (CVH), a membership organization of low-income people, found that HRA’s efforts to place work-ready clients in sustainable jobs through the three-year-old Back to Work program has hit a wall. The report suggests that the high sanction rate and poor job placement and retention rates demonstrate that HRA needs to re-think the shape of its "work-first" approach to welfare. Coming at a time when work itself is harder to find than it used to be, some are paying attention.
“There’s a prevalent philosophy that people are better off not on welfare, since it encourages dependency,” said Vicky Lens, a professor at Columbia University’s School of Social Work. “Many [welfare clients] were working but lost their jobs, and the reasons are more complex” than HRA’s current approach is designed to address, Lens said.
In an interview last week, Deputy Executive Commissioners Seth Diamond, who heads HRA’s Family Independence Administration, and Barbara Brancaccio, who heads the agency’s press office, disputed CVH’s charges point-by-point. “The numbers they have aren’t accurate. It’s misleading,” Brancaccio said. “We understand the role of advocates in city government. But the assumption that it’s the intent of people in this agency for people to fail couldn’t be any further from the truth.”
CVH’s report, Missing the Mark, is the latest of several recent evaluations critical of HRA. A recent report by Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum found that people faced a number of barriers in accessing HRA services, and an audit by Comptroller William Thompson found flaws in HRA contractor oversight.
“With a series of different reports by both government offices and NGOs, we hope there will be enough cumulative pressure to shine some light on this huge agency that serves the most disenfranchised,” said Sondra Youdelman, CVH executive director and one of the report's authors.
Diminishing returns
In the decade since welfare reform was implemented in New York state, HRA has significantly reduced the welfare rolls. As of last month, the number of New Yorkers receiving some form of cash assistance stood at 336,765—a 5 percent decrease from the same time a year ago and a 27 percent decrease since Bloomberg took office in 2002. HRA's website also points out that's the lowest number since 1963. Federal law requires welfare recipients to participate in "work activities" – which can include a job, job training, a job search or education activities – unless they are on disability or SSI, Supplemental Security Income.
