But despite the passage of years since the Giuliani administration launched welfare reform, and substantial policy changes under Mayor Bloomberg, a fundamental issue still divides city welfare officials on the one hand, and some New Yorkers receiving welfare and the social-service workers who advocate for them on the other: Is the city blocking people from receiving benefits to which they are entitled?
The dispute was on full display last week at a much-delayed hearing of the city council's General Welfare Committee, at which advocates had far more questions about the city's benefits system than the Bloomberg administration had answers.
The concerns about eligible people being denied help was first raised in days of Mayor Giuliani, whose tactics included sending fraud-detection workers to visit applicants' homes unannounced and issuing worker manuals defining "diversion" (i.e., keeping people from applying for welfare) as welfare workers' primary goal.
Bloomberg eliminated many of those policies, and has massively expanded outreach on food stamps and Medicaid access, with the result that both programs now reach many more New Yorkers than when Bloomberg took office. Yet the number of cash assistance recipients, after a slight rise at the start of the economic crash, is again falling, and some welfare experts charge that the city's "work first" policies present too many roadblocks for those seeking aid.
At times, the Council hearing itself seemed to face insurmountable obstacles. Initially slated for June, it was hurriedly re-slotted into the council's September calendar just a couple of weeks ago—so hurriedly that all of the Council's usual meeting rooms were already booked. As a result, when committee chair Annabel Palma opened last Monday's session, the overflow crowd was squeezed into a kitchen on the 16th floor of the government building at 250 Broadway, with some spectators perching on tables alongside signs reading "Do Not Unplug The Ice Maker—IT WILL CAUSE A FLOOD."
A picture of progress
First to testify was Human Resources Administration commissioner Robert Doar, who painted a customarily upbeat picture of the city's efforts to aid its needy. Increased outreach has succeeded in providing food stamps and health insurance benefits to hundreds of thousands more New Yorkers; job placements are up, he said, because the "health, education, and hospitality sectors" have rebounded well from the recession, while the city's "work first" approach to welfare applicants "has been successful, even during the economic downturn, largely because certain job sectors have remained strong." He also revealed that HRA will soon begin working to send welfare recipients to the Small Business Administration's Workforce 1 job centers (which funnel job seekers to small businesses seeking employees)—an announcement that brought a loud "Yay! Finally!" from Councilmember Gale Brewer.
"We have one of the highest grant levels in the country, yet have one of the most lenient sanction policies," said Doar, referring to policies on when recipients have benefits reduced or suspended for failing to comply with work rules. "HRA will continue to meet the needs of the city's low-income families, while remaining committed to the lessons of welfare reform, and our work-first approach to fighting poverty."
