Media Release

For Release: October 30, 2007

For More Information:
Rev. Debra Jameson 518 443-0460
Mark Dunlea 518 434-7371 xt 1# 

Faith Groups Urge Governor To Raise Welfare Benefits
Basic Grant has not been increased since 1990

Representatives of faith groups gathered at the State Capitol in Albany today to urge Governor Spitzer to raise welfare benefits in his 2008-09 state budget.

The grant, which has not been increased by lawmakers since 1990, has fallen to less than 50% of the federal poverty level and is a significant factor in the high rate of poverty in New York, especially among children and in upstate inner cities. An entire generation of children has grown up since the last increase in the basic grant was approved as part of the state budget 18 years ago.

The basic welfare grant is now $291 a month for a family of three; the shelter allowance varies by county. The groups are asking for the grant to be increased to $475 to reflect inflation of more than 60% since 1990 and then to have a commission examine how to raise the grant to a reasonable level in the future. The federal poverty level for a family of 3 in 2006 is $17,170; for a family of 4, it is 20,650.

The groups presented hundreds of letters signed by faith leaders and members to the Governor asking for an increase.

“As representatives of faith communities from across New York State, we are deeply concerned about the devastating impact that inadequate State funding for the basic Public Assistance (welfare) grant is having on families in New York.  Today, after set-asides for landlords and utilities, many families have little or no money left to meet expenses for clothing, food, school supplies and other necessities,” said Arleen Urell, Chair, Reform Jewish Voice of New York State.

The faith leaders noted that low public assistance payments contribute to:

• Hunger and homelessness
• Whole families living in unsafe conditions, in apartments with lead in the paint and other dangerous conditions
• Children who regularly come to school too hungry and ill-clothed to learn, resulting in unequal learning opportunities
• Chronic malnourishment in children and adults, which raises health care costs
• Excessive reliance on food pantries
• An increase in criminal activities fueled by desperation

Speakers at the press conference included: Rev. Debra Jameson, Community Minister, FOCUS Churches, Albany; Robert Smith, Executive Director, Interfaith Impact; Rev. Jim Reisner, Westminster Presbyterian Church; Rev. Robert Linder, President, Interdenominational Ministers Conference of Albany and Vicinity; Earl Eichelberger, Director for Human Services, NYS Catholic Conference; and Mark Dunlea, Faith and Hunger Network.

“New York’s constitution requires that State and local governments provide for the aid and care of the needy (Article XVII).  Yet, the public assistance grant has not been increased since 1990.  The Catholic Conference recommends restoring the grant to its 1975 value, beginning with increasing the basic grant to restore the value lost since 1990, noted Mr. Eichelberger of the state Catholic Conference. “It is important to provide a level of financial assistance that allows families to live with dignity while they move toward work.  As welfare caseloads have been reduced, our Catholic agencies report increased demand for emergency assistance.  Based upon our experience, the Catholic Conference recommends increasing the public assistance grant and shelter allowance so as to provide basic necessities and increased access to safe, decent housing.”

The Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions speak for the dignity of people in poverty in God’s sight. These traditions insist that it is society’s responsibility to address and alleviate such inequities, and we as a state are failing. Every week in our congregations we see a terrible loss of hope among those who depend on the State for the necessities of life. We see the despair of families pressed to the limits of endurance. Slowly but surely, New York's inadequate support for the poor and the marginalized has developed into a social crisis. Today, the New York State Constitutional mandate to support the poor is no longer being met.

With many low-income New Yorkers spending two-thirds or more of their income on housing, many welfare participants are forced to use their basic grant to subsidize their illegal shelter allowance payments from welfare. Since 1987, the state’s court, including the Court of Appeals, have ruled five times that welfare benefits for housing for children are illegally low, but the case continues to bounce around from court to court while a few band aids have been applied. (This included some small administrative changes to the shelter allowances for children two years ago but that fell far short of resolving the litigation.)

“Raising the welfare grant would not only help poor New Yorkers but would put more money back into the local economy. Most of the welfare grant goes directly to landlords and energy companies. There are of course many steps that our state needs to take to reduce poverty: create more living wage jobs; increase affordable housing; strengthen education and training programs; restore progressivity to the state and local tax system. But an increase in the welfare basic grant is long overdue,” said Mark Dunlea, Associate Director of the Hunger Action Network of NYS and coordinator of the Faith and Hunger Network.

“It is immoral that in the richest nation, New York leads in the growing gap between the poor and rich. Nothing illustrates that gap better than the decline in value of welfare benefits to only half of the federal poverty level. No industrial democracy fails our children more than the United States,” stated Rev. Debra Jameson, Community Minister of the FOCUS Churches of Albany.

The value of the welfare grant has now fallen to less than 50% of the federal poverty level. The Assembly did include a small initial increase in its 2007-08 proposed budget; Senate Democrats have introduced legislation calling for a 25%.

Since the last grant increase in 1990, there has been a major transformation of the state’s welfare system. Those now on welfare (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families and Safety Net) can be described as the working poor, the disabled and children. Those on welfare are required to participate in various work-related activities. Despite the 68% decline in the public assistance rolls since 1998, nearly 530,000 New Yorkers including more than 300,000 children, still require public assistance to meet their most basic needs.

In testimony last week to the State Budget Division, NYS OTDA Commissioner pointed out that half of the welfare caseload are now “child only cases”, where only children are receiving benefits (e.g., their caretaker is a grandparent). The state pays much higher assistance if the child is removed from the home and placed in foster care.  Hansell said that the rest of the caseload are those with significant disabilities or face major barriers to employment that require significant investments in training and education.

"Judaism teaches us that poverty is destructive of human dignity and that helping people in need is a matter of fundamental principle, responsibility, righteousness and justice, not an act of charity. The Bible commands us to give to the poor, and to advocate on their behalf. Members of Congregation Beth Emeth in Albany act on these fundamental Reform Jewish ideals by providing volunteer and financial assistance to a broad spectrum of community agencies serving the poor. As important as these efforts are, they are only a band aid. We also advocate for systemic public policy change, in this instance, an increase in the welfare grant. We urge the Governor to include in his budget an increase in the welfare grant to cover the cost of inflation since 1990,” added Barbara Zaron, Co Chair Social Action, Congregation Beth Emeth.

"By ignoring the need to increase the basic welfare grant for poor and marginalized individuals and families, New York State has created a social crisis. Failure to provide for the necessities of life is especially hard on children and other highly vulnerable members of our society.  As individuals and congregations from Protestant, Reform Jewish, Unitarian Universalist and other faith communities across the state, we recognize that it is society’s responsibility to address and alleviate this suffering. We embrace the biblical mandates to support the widow and the stranger, feed the hungry and clothe the naked. We urge the Governor and the Legislature to take inflation into account and address the urgent need to raise the basic public assistance grant during the 2008 Legislative session."  Robb Smith, Executive Director, Interfaith Impact of NYS

“The state budget is about our choices and our lawmakers have chosen for too long to keep poor children and their families in abject poverty. For too long we have balanced the state budget on the backs of the poorest and most vulnerable. We hear from state budget officials that they face a revenue shortfall, so they can’t make needed investments. But revenue shortfalls are a political decision, not an act of God or nature, and can not be offered an excuse for failing to help the poor,” added Mark Dunlea, Associate Director of Hunger Action Network.

Hunger Action pointed out that under the federal block grant for welfare (TANF), the state receives more than a billion dollars a year in excess of the benefits they provide to welfare participants. Many other states have used the savings from the reductions in the welfare caseload since 1996 to raise welfare benefits. In addition, much of the state’s revenue shortfalls result from tax cuts to the wealthy in recent decades. Such cuts have shifted the state and local tax burden onto low and moderate income households through increased use of regressive sales and property taxes. For instance, if the state went back to the tax system in the 70s, adjusting the brackets for inflation, 95% of New Yorkers would receive a tax cut while close to additional $8 billion in revenues would be raised.

One possibility is to do a grant increase as a food allowance adjustment. Even for households receiving food stamps, part of the basic grant is supposed to go to pay for food. Most households just at least part of the basic grant to subsidize their shelter allowance, since many low-income households spend two-thirds or more of their income on food. In addition, food costs have risen significantly in recent years, partially due to increased competition for corn for biofuels. If the grant is not done as a food allowance, every three dollar increase in welfare benefits would reduce the household’s food stamps by $1.

The state’s low welfare payment is one reason why 10% of the residents of Buffalo, Albany, Syracuse and Rochester now “officially” live in extreme poverty – defined as below 50% of the poverty level. New York City’s poverty rate of 19.1% in 2005 was considerably higher than the state’s overall rate of 14.7% (itself higher than the national average of 12.7%). But upstate cities fare even worse: Syracuse rate was 31.3%, Rochester 30.0%, Buffalo 26.9% and Albany 26.5%.

Comparing the HUD Fair Market Value for rent throughout New York State to OTDA’s Shelter Allowance Schedule, there was an average $317 disparity between the allowance and the fair market rent. This gap is more than the maximum cash grant for a family of three.

In 1975 public assistance for a three-person family was equal to 110% of the Federal Poverty Level. The rate of inflation from 1990 to 2006 is 55% -- and the cost of many items has risen above that. 

In addition, the price of fuel oil and natural gas prices have on average more than doubled since the fuel for heating allowance was adjusted in 1987. Since that time average prices for electricity have increased by 84%, the cost of natural gas has increased 160% and the cost of fuel oil has increased 239%. For example, public assistance families in Albany using fuel oil to heat their homes are given only $828 per year to pay for home heating costs.  Families heating with natural gas are given only about $700.

In addition, many families must use a portion of their basic allowance to pay the rent, because the shelter allowance in the public assistance grant is rarely sufficient to meet the housing cost. For example, in Monroe County a family of three with children heating with gas has a shelter allowance of $397 per month, while the HUD Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $687. In New York City, a family of three with children has a shelter allowance of $400 per month, while the HUD fair market rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1075. In New York City it is estimated that by 2007, 86% of families living in private housing will have a rent level that is higher than the amount provided for rent in their welfare grant.