Mark A. Dunlea
Feb. 4, 2002

The Hunger Action Network of New York State is a statewide membership organization of direct food providers, advocates and other individuals whose goal is to end hunger and its root causes, including poverty, in New York State.

Hunger Action believes that the State Legislature must do more to address the growing problem of hunger and homelessness in New York State. We are concerned about the effort by Governor Pataki to divert more and more of the federal welfare block grant to fund programs that have traditionally been supported by the state's general revenue funding. We support using the multibillion TANF surplus to fund the Empire State Jobs Program, raise the welfare grant, and increase funding for child care. We urge the legislature to restore the funding cut from a wide range of non-profits and human service programs in the 2001-2002 state budget. We urge adoption of the Empire State Economic Security Campaign, dealing with issues such as child care, health care, transportation, education, and housing.

Rather than continue to cut funding for vital human service programs, we urge the State Legislature to make large corporations and wealthy New Yorkers to pay their fair share of the tax burden. Hunger Action urges the Legislature to postpone a number of the multi-year tax cuts that have not yet been phased in, and enact a small increase in the personal income tax rate for the wealthiest New Yorkers, as outlined by the Fiscal Policy Institute.

Restore the Cuts in Funding for Emergency Food Programs
Raise HPNAP to $28 Million

We urge the State Legislature to raise funding for the Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program to at least $28 million to reflect the growing demand for emergency food. Last year the Governor and State Legislature cut funding for the HPNAP program by $2 million, despite the increased demand for food and the existence of a multibillion dollar surplus from the federal TANF program. While the state's contribution to EFPs is only a fraction of the estimated $200 million cost of operating the emergency food network, HPNAP is invaluable is obtaining food with higher nutritional quality than that which is donated.

A new report by the national Second Harvest Network found that 900,000 different individuals receive emergency food assistance each week in New York State. Seventy percent of food pantries and 60% of soup kitchens report an increase in the demand for food. Of the households in New York using EFPs, 34.6% have at least one adult working. Many of the estimated 100,000 jobs that have been lost as a result of September 11th were in the low-wage job sector.

Homelessness, which contributes to the demand for emergency food, has increased in the last year. In New York City the total homeless shelter population - which includes both children and families as well as single adults - has surpassed the highest level in the city's history. As of October, the shelter census reached 29,498 children and adults, the highest point in New York City's history; more than 6,500 homeless families reside in shelters and hotels each night. Statewide, the trends are the same: homeless shelter providers are seeing increasing demand for services - even from people who are employed. Data show that shelters in every region in the State are seeing more people, and that those people need to stay longer periods of time.

Empire State Jobs Bill

We believe that the goal of welfare reform should be to assist individuals in becoming economically secure, including helping to move welfare participants in jobs that enable them to escape poverty. New York has failed to achieve this goal. While the state boasts repeatedly of the decline in the number of welfare participants, this is a relatively easy goal to accomplish. Ending hunger and poverty is far more difficult.. New York has failed to move participants into living wage jobs. Participants with the largest barriers to employment, such as lack of education and lack of job skills, have not been assisted in moving into gainful employment, and instead have used up their five-year limit on federal welfare benefits and are now in the 100% state-county-funded Safety Net program.

For most of the last decade New York's job growth lagged behind the nation. Job growth has slowed significantly in New York State in 2001, and more than 100,000 jobs, many of them low-income, were lost in New York City following September 11. In many areas of the state there is a severe shortage of entry-level positions relative to the number of people seeking such positions. Unemployment and underemployment are especially a problem for the population most likely to receive welfare, young adults under 35 with at most a high school diploma, people of color, and individuals who are not English speaking.

Many of those who need to make the transition from welfare to work face serious barriers to successful employment, including lack of marketable skills, education, work experience, affordable child care and transportation. In order for these individuals to successfully compete for good-paying jobs in the private sector before they reach the federal time limit on public assistance, the state should aggressively develop model programs that provide them with on the job training, real work experience and a paycheck.

We urge the State Legislature to pass and fund the Empire State Jobs Program (A6179 / S5292), which is being sponsored by Assemblymember Cathy Nolan and Senator Nicholas Spano, along with dozens of other legislators. The bill would create 8,000 transitional jobs in the public and not-for-profit sector for hard-to-place welfare participants who have exhausted or are close to their five-year limit on federal welfare benefits. The participants would be actual employees, with the right to receive Earned Income Tax Credit and unemployment insurance.
The State Legislature over the last several years has allocated $80 million to wage subsidy programs at the request of the supporters of the ESJ initiative but unfortunately the Department of Labor has used the money to duplicate existing initiatives targeting job placement in the private sector rather than the model transitional job programs outlined in ESJ, which includes access to education, job training, and mentoring. Since nonprofits and the public sector provide services to the public, they are better recipients of government aid than the private sector. In addition. non-profits and public agencies are more willing to perform the social work (e.g., soft work skills) needed to assist these individuals in becoming productive workers, along with the on-the-job training.. The Department of Labor has also imposed significant barriers to participation by many non-profits, such as requiring non-profits to front a significant portion (20%) of the salary costs, with the remaining funds being made available only after the participants complete three months of unsubsidized employment. There are similar restrictions on the administrative support that will be funded.

Restore Welfare Benefits to their 1990 Level

An increase in welfare benefits is long overdue. The basic grant has not been increased since 1990; the shelter allowance hasn't been raised since 1988. For a typical family of three living in New York City, the monthly welfare grant is only $577 - only 47% of the federal poverty level. Even with food stamps ($263), the combined $840 income comes to only 69% of poverty. At a minimum, the budget should include a cost of living adjustment for welfare benefits bringing it up to its 1990 level. Hunger Action supports restoring the welfare package to its mid-1970 purchasing power of 125% of the federal poverty level, with food stamps included.

Invest the TANF Surplus in Services for the Poor, Not Fiscal Relief

The first priority for welfare funds should be to lift existing participants out of poverty, and to help them become economically secure. This includes funding for child care, food, housing, jobs and higher welfare benefits. We oppose the Governor's proposed cuts in TANF surplus funding for English as Second Language programs for non-native speakers, Adult and Family Literacy, wage subsidy, VESID, Homeless Assistance, transportation, and summer youth employment. We oppose the Governor's ongoing effort to raid federal TANF funds to pay for programs that have been paid out of the general revenue stream in the past, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Tuition Assistance Program.

But if the Governor is going to raid the welfare funds to balance the budget by paying for existing college and education programs, he should at least have the decency to allow welfare participants to attend college. A recent national study found that the only welfare participants who participated in college were able to find jobs that paid them enough to escape poverty. The Governor is proposing using $345 million welfare funds for the Tuition Assistance Program, as well as diverting an additional $133 million of TANF funds for other educational programs.

Assemblymember Ed Sullivan, Chair of the Assembly Higher Education Committee, has introduced legislation to allow welfare participants to attend college in any county which is meeting the federal work participation requirements. The Sullivan bill would allow college to count toward work participation. Since the enactment of the federal TANF program five years ago, the number of welfare participants attending college has dropped dramatically. Assemblymember Deborah Glick, Chair of the Social Services Committee, has introduced a bill in to give welfare participants the right to participate in basic education programs.

One of the major barriers to moving welfare participants into jobs is the lack of access to child care. We believe that the Governor's proposed increase of $37 million in child care funding (to $877 million) is inadequate. The number of subsidies will only be increased by 3,500 (to 177,500). Just today in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle is a story that Monroe County will seek to cut child care subsidies to 2,000 individuals due to a lack of funding. We note that Monroe County is the only county even doing a decent job of enrolling welfare participants into transitional child care when they find employment. If the other counties were to do an adequate job like Monroe does, the Governor's proposed funding for child care would be woefully inadequate.

Invest in the Empire State Economic Security Campaign (ES2)

The experts say we are in the midst of a period of unprecedented prosperity. But millions of New Yorkers are not sure where their next meal will come from, whether they are secure in their homes, of what they will do if a family member becomes ill. Prosperity must mean more than ensuring that Wall Street is booming. It must also mean that the rest of our State's people are surviving - and thriving.

ES2 addresses a broad range of issues critically affecting the well-being of New Yorkers, from jobs to the welfare grant to transportation to housing; from health care to child care; from education and training to the minimum wage. We have attached some background information about the ES2 campaign. We urge your support.

One of the initiatives that the ES2 campaign supports is the use of TANF funds for a rental subsidy program, to recognize that housing in many communities is way too expensive for most low-income households. Many states are doing a better job of using TANF funds for housing subsidies than New York. We envision a rental subsidy program that would be available to households under 200% of poverty.

Governor Pataki is proposing a new, limited, targeted housing subsidy program (targeted to the long term homeless). Few details are available yet. The Governor states that "localities will have the authority to provide an additional rent subsidy to homeless families that have successfully completed needed housing service programs and are ready to move to permanent housing and employment. Targeted use of this new program, which can provide an additional monthly benefit equal in amount to the maximum public assistance shelter allowance, is expected to curtail use of more expensive emergency hotels and homeless shelters." We support a more expansive program that would provide a housing supplement to families transitioning off of welfare for up to a year so that the families can successfully transition to employment.

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