Jennifer Mezey, Supervising Attorney

Ed Lazere, Executive Director of the DC Fiscal Policy Institute

A recent story in the Washington Examiner intended to highlight changes the District is making to its welfare-to-work program (formally known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF) opened with the following misleading sentence: 

In a city where nearly half of residents receive some kind of government handout, District officials are working to find ways to get residents off public assistance.

This statistic and its use in this context are highly misleading if not outright deceptive, and we thought it would be worth spending a moment to explain why. 

The term “nearly half” unnecessarily overstates the actual numbers, and the term “handout” is unnecessarily provocative.  As the article goes on to say, actually, 40 percent of District residents receive TANF, Food Stamps and/or Medicaid.  These are very different programs, and to group them all together as “handouts” is loaded and irresponsible.  

The largest share of the 40 percent figure reflects Medicaid coverage, because DC has a program that covers many lower-income working families who get little or no health insurance from their job.  The District has the second lowest rate of uninsured adults (only Massachusetts’ rate is lower) and the lowest rate of uninsured children.  This is something to be proud of, not criticized.   Food stamps provide nutrition assistance to low-income households, from the elderly to the working poor.  Our food stamp participation closely matches the city’s poverty rate, so there’s no surprise there. 

Beyond that, these programs are intended to expand as the economy worsens.  DC’s current unemployment rate continues to grow three years into a recession.  In Ward 8, for instance, the unemployment rate is upwards of 30 percent.  With unemployment at the highest level in 30 years, we have many more residents without health insurance and who need assistance feeding their families.  

Finally, just eight percent of the District’s population receives TANF.  Let’s remember that these TANF recipients are among the youngest and most vulnerable District residents – poor children and their parents or other caretakers who often face many serious barriers to employment, including disability, domestic violence and limited education.  And as the District itself acknowledges, the TANF program has not adequately met the needs of the families it serves.  The city is rolling out new efforts to better identify employment barriers and provide education and training.  We are hopeful this will lead to the response we all want – TANF caseloads falling not because vulnerable families are kicked off but because they are ready to work.  Early results from the program show that families are eager to get the skills needed to get off welfare. 

Mayor Gray’s administration is trying to turn this around by offering better comprehensive and individualized services to families.  These efforts are important and should be supported.  But the justification for them should not be some vague sense that too many individuals and families rely on government “handouts.”

Lucy Newton, Supervising Attorney

Interim Disability Assistance (IDA) offers $270 per month to individuals who are unable to work due to a disability and who have applied for and have a high probability of receiving federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI).  Once an application is granted, the recipient receives Social Security benefits back to the date of application, a portion of which the federal Social Security Administration (SSA) gives to the District as reimbursement for IDA.  As explained in this short video from So Others Might Eat and the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, IDA is often the one resource keeping individuals with disabilities from sinking into utter destitution and homelessness.

Currently, the District is reimbursed about 40% of the money it spends on IDA – one of the highest reimbursement rates of any of the 38 states that have a similar program.  For FY 2011, the District expected to receive $2 million in reimbursement from the federal government for IDA; the District has already outperformed this estimation by receiving $2.5 million.

Despite the relative success of the program’s reimbursement process, Mayor Gray has pointed to the 40% reimbursement rate as a reason to dismantle the program.  The Mayor has proposed slashing up to 75% of the funding for IDA, which would cut the current caseload of 1,500 to about 600 by the end of FY 2012. (The program’s caseload has already been drastically reduced from its peak of 2,900 in 2008, and there is currently a lengthy waitlist for the program.)

At the April 6 budget briefing, the Mayor complained that when the program was conceived eight years ago, “there was supposed to be an effort made to ensure that there was compatibility at the front end, the front door of eligibility, so that people who were accepted were clearly going to be accepted by SSI.”  Because of the number of people in the program who are denied SSI, the Mayor maintained that IDA has meant “the recreation of a general public assistance program for a lot of these people in the city.” (Mayor Gray was likely referring to the District’s former General Public Assistance program, which served a similar purpose but was ended in 1997 in part because its recovery rates were around 20% — half the rate of the current IDA program.)

The Mayor’s thought process and approach to IDA are puzzling.  First, the denial of an individual’s SSI application does not necessarily mean that the application lacked merit and cannot be considered evidence of flaws in the IDA program.  Legal Aid and other service providers frequently represent – and win benefits for – clients with severe disabling conditions who were incorrectly denied benefits by SSA.

Second, leaving individuals with disabilities penniless while they wait several months to receive SSI is not a reasonable solution to concerns about eligibility screening.  Rather, the Mayor should work with the Department of Human Services and advocates to think more creatively about ways to improve the program and, if necessary, the screening process.  Legal Aid stands ready to participate in such discussions.

We encourage you to reach out to Councilmember Jim Graham, Chair of the D.C. Council’s Committee on Human Services, in support of IDA.  You can reach Councilmember Graham at (202) 724-8181 or jim@grahamwone.com.

Previous Making Justice Real posts on IDA:

Mayor Gray’s Proposed Budget Cuts Would Hit Legal Aid Clients Hard (Apr. 15, 2011)

New Video on the Importance of the District’s Interim Disability Assistance Program (Mar. 22, 2011)

Individuals with Disabilities Assistance Program on the Chopping Block (Mar. 17, 2010)

Eric Angel, Executive Director

Legal Aid is pleased to announce the DC Fiscal Policy Institute (DCFPI) as the 2011 recipient of Legal Aid’s Partnership Award. Legal Aid’s Partnership Award was created to recognize non-legal organizations or individuals whose work directly increases our ability to serve our clients. Ed Lazere, Executive Director of DCFPI, will accept the award on the organization’s behalf at Legal Aid’s Servant of Justice Awards Dinner, scheduled for Tuesday, April 28, 2011 at the JW Marriott Hotel. Brooksley E. Born, of Arnold & Porter, and The Honorable Thomas E. Perez, of the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice, will be honored at the same event.

The DC Fiscal Policy Institute is an extraordinary resource for anyone concerned about policy analysis in the District. DCFPI conducts research and public education on DC budget and tax, with a particular emphasis on issues that affect low- and moderate-income residents. By preparing timely analyses that are used by organizations such as Legal Aid – as well as policy makers, the media, and the public – DCFPI informs public debates on budget and tax issues and helps to ensure that the needs of lower-income residents are considered in those debates. DCFPI’s areas of work include: analyzing the impact of tax and other revenue policies on the District’s long-term fiscal health and on the equity of its tax system; working to ensure that programs serving low- and moderate-income residents are well designed, effective, and adequately funded; and conducting research on income and poverty trends in the District and on serious problems facing low-income residents, such as the growing shortage of affordable housing.

DCFPI’s extraordinary, sustained commitment to providing accurate, detailed, practical, and effective policy analysis on issues affecting Legal Aid’s client community have been invaluable to our efforts to serve our clients and better protect their rights. One of Legal Aid’s signature advocacy efforts—to preserve and enhance the workings of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program—is one of among many initiatives that has benefited from DCFPI’s work over the past several years. DCFPI’s research has dispelled damaging myths about District families who rely on TANF, educated policymakers and advocates about best approaches to the program, helped stave off some of the most punitive and ineffective approaches to moving families off TANF, and inspired a program redesign that should be more responsive to the needs of the most vulnerable District families.

 We are truly delighted to be able to present this award to DCFPI and hope that you will join us on April 28 for what promises to be a wonderful event!

The Campaign has three primary goals: 

• (1)     To promote awareness of the federal and DC Earned Income Tax Credit and other tax benefits to ensure that eligible residents know how to claim them.
• (2)    To promote free and affordable tax preparation for DC residents.
• (3)    To connect low-income taxpayers with programs and services to improve their financial security. 

According to the DC EITC Campaign, approximately 50,000 DC residents claim the federal EITC each year, channeling more than $90 million in federal funds into the local community.  Additionally, roughly 46,300 of these taxpayers claim another $30 million through local EITC refunds.  

Although these numbers are substantial , the DC Fiscal Policy Institute estimates that there are still roughly 7,000 to 11,000 EITC-eligible DC residents who may not be claiming the federal or local credit, and an additional 3,600 who claim the federal credit, but not the local EITC.  In addition to the EITC, there are numerous federal and DC tax benefits of which taxpayers may not be aware – from education and first-time homebuyer credits to deductions for pension benefits.

Don’t take the risk of missing out on a refund or getting all of the tax benefits you deserve.  Get help with your tax returns this year and make sure you’re getting every dollar you’ve earned! 

Free tax sites are open now!  For locations/hours and more information, go to www.dceitc.org.

Eric Angel, Acting Executive Director

As was clearly underscored by the Census Bureau’s recent release of poverty statistics, poverty remains a significant – and growing – problem in the nation and the District. The DC Fiscal Policy Institute just released an excellent analysis of poverty in the District entitled “Who Is Low Income In DC.” The report provides a detailed demographic profile of persons living in poverty in the District and proposes policy solutions that will help to move poor and low-income persons out of poverty. It is worth a read.

For a detailed review of what is at stake, go to:  http://www.dcfpi.org/category/blog.   You can watch the Council meeting, which begins at 10 at:  http://www.dccouncil.washington.dc.us/watchhearinglive.

Below is a list of the locations, times, and dates for the scheduled budget briefings (some have already been sent to the FBC listserve by the event sponsors). Please note that some briefings ask for an RSVP and questions to be submitted in advance. That doesn’t mean you can’t ask questions at the briefing, but it helps give agency directors an idea of the types of questions people are interested in.

Department of Mental Health

April 8th, 3-5pm

64 New York Avenue, N.E., 4th Floor Conference Room

• Submit questions to Shannon Hall at shall@dcbha.org by April 7th

Department of Human Services

April 13th, 10am-12pm

True Reformer Building, 1200 U St. NW

• RSVP to Katie Kerstetter at kerstetter@dcfpi.org by April 11th

Department of Disability Services

April 13th, 4-6pm

True Reformer Building, 1200 U St. NW

• Submit questions to advocacy@arcdc.net by April 12th

Child and Family Services Agency

April 14th, 4-6pm

DC Primary Care Association 441 4th Street, NW, Room 1114, Washington, DC 20001

• Submit questions to Yolanda McPhail-McKinley at yolanda.mckinley@dc.gov by COB Friday, April 9th

Department of Housing and Community Development and DC Housing Authority

April 15th, 12-2pm

Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development, 1432 U St. NW

• RSVP to http://cnhed.wufoo.com/forms/please-rsvp-to-cnheds-budget-briefing/

Department of Health Care Finance

April 15th, 10-11:30

DC Primary Care Association, 1411 K St. NW

• RSVP to Anastacia Arons at Aarons@dcpca.org by April 12th

• Send questions to Jenny Reed at reed@dcfpi.org by April 12th

Executive Director

With the Mayor poised to release his proposed budget on April 1 and the prospect that the growing projected gap between expenses and funding needs, advocacy groups are gearing up for the budget process.   There are a number of important events coming up that address the needs of low-income or other vulnerable communities.

Defeat Poverty DC:   A broad coalition, including Legal Aid, has come together to push poverty reduction onto the political landscape.   The campaign launch event is March 24 at 9:00 at the True Reformer Building.   For more information, see our prior blog posting on the event.  

 Also on March 24, activists concerned about how the government disposes of surplus property will have a briefing.  The Demand the Plan Campaign event is March 24^th, 6:30-8:30 PM, Reeves Center, 14th & U Sts, NW.   The event will cover:  “How the absence of a facilities plan has assisted the give-away of public property and cost taxpayers hundreds of millions in wasteful leases; How this plan could help under-served communities get the resources they are demanding and deserve; What DC residents can do in the next 60 days to pass legislation requiring the plan, and hold the city accountable to carrying it out.”  RSVP or for more information contact Parisa (parisa@empowerdc.org) at Empower DC.  (202) 234-9119, . 

The ARC of DC and the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute are holding a forum on What’s in the Proposed 2011 Budget for the DC Department on Disability Services? on Tuesday April 13, 2010,  4:00 PM – 6:00 PM at   1200 U Street, NW – True Reformer Building, Marsh Conf. Room (U St./ Cardozo Station on the Yellow/Green Line).   Please send any advance questions for the Department Director to advocacy@arcdc.net or 202-636-2963 by 12 noon on Monday, April 12^th.  Sign language interpreter services will be provided.   More info at:  www.arcdc.net · www.dcfpi.org

Defeat Poverty DC:
Putting Economic Opportunity on the 2010 Political Agenda

What:
Panel discussion, moderated by NBC News4 political reporter Tom Sherwood, and release of new report on growing poverty in DC during the recession.

When:
March 24, 2010, 9:00 –10:30 a.m.

Where:
The True Reformer Building,
Lankford Auditorium
1200 U Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20009

Defeat Poverty DC is a new coalition of organizations and residents in the District of Columbia working to bring greater focus during the 2010 election season and beyond to the damaging effects of poverty on our entire city. The District’s long-term economic vitality depends on helping families obtain good jobs, affordable housing, and quality health care and child care.

The 2010 mayoral and city council elections give us a chance to have a serious discussion about what our city must do to make work possible for low-skilled DC residents; make work pay enough to support a family; and make basic needs like housing and health care affordable for all.

The event will include a lively panel discussion among local officials and community leaders about the need for the city’s elected officials to formulate clear policies for defeating poverty in DC. We need leaders who will make defeating poverty in our city a priority!

Refreshments will be served.

Please RSVP by March 19 to Tamanna Mansury at Tamanna@thehatchergroup.com or 301-656-0348.

——————————————————————————–

Defeat Poverty DC is a non-partisan initiative that is bringing together advocacy groups, business, labor, faith organizations and residents throughout the city. It is led by a steering committee made up of organizations with a long history of advocating for those in need: the Children’s Law Center, the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development, DC Appleseed, DC Fiscal Policy Institute, DC Hunger Solutions, the Moriah Fund, the Washington Area Women’s Foundation, and Wider Opportunities for Women.

With the District’s budget in free fall, the next few months will be critical to preserving safety-net programs.   Please consider attending this important briefing:

 ******************************************
What’s In Store
For FY 2011?

 A forum on the D.C. budget outlook
for fiscal year 2011.

 ******************************************

 Monday, March 8, 2010

Registration and Coffee: 9:00 a.m.
Program: 9:30 – 11:30 a.m.

Charles Sumner School, Great Hall
1201 17th Street NW

Speakers include:

•  Ed Lazere, Executive Director, DC Fiscal Policy Institute
• Eric Goulet, Budget Director, Council of the District of Columbia
• Fitzroy Lee, Chief Economist, Office of the Chief Financial Officer
• Dawn Slonneger, Chief of Staff, Office of the Honorable Vincent C. Gray
• T.J. Sutcliffe, Director of Advocacy & Public Policy, The Arc of the District of Columbia

 R.S.V.P. requested to Tina Marshall, marshall@cbpp.org

Sponsors:

The Arc of DC
DC Fiscal Policy Institute
Fair Budget Coalition
Think Twice Before You Slice