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Social services organizations and welfare recipients from around Alameda County helped pack the Alameda County Board of Supervisors Monday morning meeting to protest proposed budget cuts that might leave almost 1,500 people cut off from their General Assistance (GA) welfare benefits for nine months out of the year. 

Under a proposal released by the Social Services Agency at the beginning of the month, recipients who do not qualify for an exemption will be limited to GA benefits for three months a year. Those who will qualify for an exemption include people over 60, people who can document that they have a disability, and people with a major functional barrier such as a drug or alcohol problem or a developmental disability. 

The cuts, according to the agency, will save $5.2 million. They would go into effect July 1, with enforcement starting Sept. 1. 

Those who came out to protest the cuts have asked the supervisors and agency to reconsider their options before slicing what they called the last resort for Alameda County’s most destitute residents. 

The cuts are part of a multi-million dollar deficit that the Alameda County Social Services Agency is trying to close after its funding was cut in the proposed 2004-05 fiscal year county budget. Monday’s meeting was part of on-going budget hearings in front of the board which continue today (Tuesday, June 22) and culminate in a final approval vote next Monday. Overall, Alameda County faces a $98.4 million budget deficit.  

According to County Administrator Susan Muranishi, the county is facing steep budget cuts primarily because of state actions and a slumping national economy. In particular, she said, almost $1.9 billion in county money has been captured by the state since 1992 through the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund (ERAF) which siphons off local property tax.  

Currently, General Assistance (GA) benefits are set aside for single residents who do not have dependents and who do not qualify for any other type of benefits. The maximum benefit is $336 per month for those who have a place to stay. For the homeless, the maximum amount is $28. Those who have housing receive more because the program is set up to keep them housed while they participate in a mandated employment services program, which trains them to re-enter the work force. 

“GA is a benefit of last resort,” said Patricia Wall, executive director of the Homeless Action Center, a Berkeley-based advocacy law firm. “You have to be absolutely destitute to be eligible for the benefit. Frankly, I don’t know what they are going to do. It’s going to create a whole lot of homeless people which is something we don’t need. It’s the last thing we need.” 

At the meeting, GA recipients and their advocates learned of a partial reprieve being proposed by the Social Services Agency that might delay the cuts. Since releasing their initial proposal on June 3, agency director Chet P. Hewitt said the agency reconvened and came up with a way to extend the deadline for when the cuts will be enforced.  

Instead of a July 1 starting date, Hewitt proposed moving the starting date to Oct. 1, which would push the enforcement date back to Jan. 1, 2005. The proposal, he said, would allow GA recipients more time to either qualify for an exemption or find other means of help. 

The new proposal is still not enough said many recipients. During public testimony, groups of recipients got up to jointly discuss the consequences of eventually losing their benefits. 

“I’ll be homeless,” was the quick answer for those asked what they would do if they don’t have GA benefits year round. 

“I don’t have any family where I could go, I can’t sleep under the overpass, I’m sick,” said Vera Carter, tears in her eyes.  

Carter was one of a group of volunteers from the Alameda County Food Bank who came to protest the cuts. She—along with others—is currently participating in the employment services program. She said if GA is cut off for most of the year, she and others will have no way to stay in employment programs and will have to dedicate all their time and resources to meeting their basic necessities.  

“These are people who are trying really hard to work,” said Wall from the Homeless Action Center. “This is a welfare department that is particularly focused on work. We are now going to punish the people who are trying very hard. It’s a mixed message.” 

Judy Jackson, who will be exempt from the cuts because she has a documented disability, said GA has been an enormous help while she navigated other social service programs in an attempt to get back on her feet. A two-time cancer survivor and former teacher, Jackson has a Section 8 voucher and is waiting for SSI but said she could have never applied for these program if she didn’t have GA. 

She said GA was the only way she could eat while she spent all her time shuttling between social service offices and applying for permanent housing. 

“They are making an awful lot of demands on the poor, and very few on people who can afford it,” she said. 

Before the public comment period, Supervisor Keith Carson expressed his regret for the proposed cuts and also expressed his frustration with what he said is the county’s inability to change federal tax and spending policy. 

“We prefer not to be here to make cuts, but we have been fighting every day to protect the safety net,” he said. “As a county family we’re trying to figure out how to balance all the programs that should rightfully exist.” 

Carson told the audience that they should be at the meeting to protest, and that they should also be following the federal government as they “spend most of our money outside the country to destroy another government, money that should spent here.” 

Besides pushing people to the streets, protesters said the cuts will overburden other county shelter and health care services as people scramble to survive. They also warned that crime levels could increase, citing a study done in Alameda County in 1997 that found a 15 percent increase in arrests for people after they left the GA program. 

Advocacy groups said the cuts will also disproportionately affect workers whose primary language is not English. According to agency data, 17 percent of the current “employable” GA caseload are limited English proficient (LEP). Advocates said three months is not enough to participate in employment services programs, look for work and enroll in English classes. 

As a possible solution, advocates asked the Board of Supervisors to dip into the county’s contingency fund, which this year is a proposed $32.96 million. They said that although this is usually not an option, such drastic cuts should merit use of the money. 

Anne Arkush, a law intern at the East Bay Community Law Center, also presented the commissioners with a chart detailing the Available Fund Balance (AFB), or the unspent part of the budget every year. Using the chart, Arkush documented a trend that showed tight fiscal years usually create substantial AFBs because the county cuts more than necessary. As a result, she said, the county should not cut Social Services so drastically because more than likely there will be money left over.