Our shared responsibility for those on life support

Monday, May 10, 2010
Trenton Times
Frank Cirillo and Herb Levine

In the give-and-take of the budget negotiations that are now in process, we think it important that our governor and legislators learn that cutting $140 per month to those on General Assistance (GA) will not save the state money, but will actually cost it far more.

To appreciate their vulnerability, we need to look at who the GA recipients are. Those who are designated as "employable" receive $140 per month, but don't be fooled by that term. A significant percentage of those classified as employable are not. They are suffering with mental illness and/or problems with drugs and alcohol. Indeed, their addictions often developed to help them alleviate the pain of their mental illness and their poverty. Many have been recently released from county or state institutions. Many are veterans. Many do not have the follow-through capacity to secure the paperwork necessary to be classified as unemployable and receive the higher benefit of $210 per month. Others have limited skills for employment, and when they are employed, they work seasonally as day laborers and earn very little money. They were hard-hit by the recession and they have not yet been carried forward by the recovery.

What do these individuals do with their $140 per month? For many of them, it makes the difference between home and homelessness. With $140, they can pay a friend or relative to stay in a spare bed. With $140, they can live with dignity with a roof over their heads while they are waiting for veterans' benefits or federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI). GA cash assistance is a service that helps prevent homelessness among our fellow citizens who are most likely to become homeless, were it not for this assistance.

The fact that limited cash assistance prevents much higher costs associated with homelessness is clear from our figures in Mercer County. During the month of March, 1,763 people received $140. Of these, only 190, or 11 percent, are receiving additional homeless assistance. The other 89 percent, 1,573 people, are getting by, for better or worse, on $140 per month. If this meager assistance is cut, we can expect to see most of these people on our streets and in our shelters, at a substantially higher cost to the taxpayer. The governor, the Legislature and all taxpayers should be aware that when individuals become homeless in New Jersey and seek emergency shelter, the public pays an additional $750-$1,000 per month in shelter costs and at least $1,500 for those placed in motels. These expenses range from five to 10 times the cost of assisting our poorest neighbors with $140 per month.

At the end of 2009, throughout the state of New Jersey, there were 34,506 people receiving $140 in cash assistance. If only 75 percent of them become homeless, we can expect to add more than 25,000 people to the number of homeless in New Jersey, each one at five times or more the cost of cash assistance. Certainly, our governor did not intend that his proposed cut would force New Jersey taxpayers to come up with far more than the cut was supposed to save.

Where GA cash assistance has been cut in other states, the results have been an increase in homelessness, hunger and health problems. Few people who leave GA are able to find and keep jobs.

Rather than asking these vulnerable people who are on virtual life support to sacrifice their life lines, we should recommit ourselves to preventing and ending their homelessness. We know that New Jersey is full of good people who understand that they share responsibility for their most vulnerable neighbors. The law governing General Assistance was passed precisely to say that we have a collective responsibility, embodied in government, for the most vulnerable among us.

On that basis and on the basis of the cost savings we have demonstrated, we urge you to contact your legislators and the governor to ask that the funds for General Assistance be restored to the budget.

Frank Cirillo is director of welfare for Mercer County; Herb Levine is executive director of the Mercer Alliance to End Homelessness.