Excerpts from The ROWEL Reporter Summer, 1998
In this Issue:
ROWEL Members Rock St. Louis & DC
NPA Conference A Hit for ROWEL Members
BreakThrough and ROWEL Combine Newsletters
Against the Rules: ROWEL Fights Unfair TANF Regulations
By Amy Smoucha
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Over 200 people attended a rally to draw attention to the disastrous effects of welfare reform. The rally took place outside of the St. Louis City DFS office June 16 and was sponsored by ROWEL, Southside Welfare Rights Organization and many co-sponsors including Justice, Inc. and Lutheran North St. Louis Outreach.
Children wore life preservers to emphasize the Titanic theme, welfare reform as a disaster in the making. ROWEL members from across the state and co-sponsoring organizations throughout the city brought people to join the outcry.
Speakers at the rally described the crises that families are facing as new "reform" rules are applied at overcrowded DFS offices. Community members testified about the dire circumstances many families are in because of harsh policies, confusing rules, and too little staffing at DFS.
ROWEL Executive Director, Jeanette Mott Oxford, pointed out that while Missouri brags about thousands of people who are "off the welfare rolls," no one knows what happened to those families.
Glen Koenen, director of a west county food pantry, said that the food pantries know what happens to those no longer on welfare—they are going hungry. Koenen cited reports from area food pantries that the number of requests for food rose 15% in the past year. Some food pantries show even larger increases of 30% to 50%.
In the St. Louis metropolitan area, over 17,000 households are receiving Temporary Assistance ( formerly AFDC). Of those, well over 10,000 are likely to be required to participate in a work activity if they receive 24 months of assistance on a clock that began in July of 1997.
Rally planner Eddie Mae Binion of Southside Welfare Rights Organization spoke about the true needs of the welfare population. She pointed out that welfare recipients want to work, but face great difficulties. She pointed out the need for assessment. "They need to address the entire family situation before they make decisions," Binion said, "We don’t want a handout, we just want a hand."
CWA, the Missouri State Workers Union, was well represented at the rally, declaring that unreasonable policies hurt caseworkers and recipients. Patrick Malin, a DFS caseworker, pointed out that high caseloads and constantly changing rules make it increasingly difficult to complete applications or assist families in any way.
"Our paperwork is piling up, our stress levels are at an all-time high, and our clients are not being properly served, Malin stated. "We are here to tell the public what is really going on out there," he continued.
Chapters Organizer Robin Acree brought the rally to a close with energy and chants. She challenged the community to tell the truth and push the system, noting that people are suffering already. "There are no clear rules in place, yet people are being punished for breaking them," she concluded.
By Cynthia McFadden & Amy Smoucha
Twenty-five ROWEL members from across the state boarded a plane that carried them from St. Louis to Washington, DC to experience the 27th NPA (National People’s Action) Neighborhoods Conference in April. A lot of hard work and fundraisers made this trip possible, including sponsorship from many allied organizations (see donor list on page 10).
Twelve-year-old ROWEL member, Ashley Gibson, who was sponsored by her state senator, Joe Maxwell, described their arrival as more than she expected: "When I first got there I thought there would be a couple of people with some ideas about how to fix just the problems in their own communities, Ashley said. "But I was wrong." she continued, "Instead, there were a lot of people who wanted to hear about what was happening all over America, and they wanted to fix everything!"
Members who attended the conference felt energized by the knowledge they gained and the actions they supported.
"I’ve been to a lot of conferences," said Cynthia McFadden of Jefferson City, "and NPA was the best, because NPA is about the people, for the people, from the people."
The conference had several focus areas. National experts presented information about using the Community Reinvestment Act to benefit communities, utility deregulation, organizing to create jobs, preserving low-income housing, youth development, and other issues.
There were several activities going on at the same time, and ROWEL had a member at each meeting. Throughout the conference, neighborhood groups presented inspiring testimonies that proved communities can make a difference if they try.
Barbara Willis, who is championing Missouri utility deregulation issues for ROWEL, noted that NPA gave her ideas for "hits" (a strategic confrontation with someone accountable for policies or practices that affect our well-being) and methods that can work in Missouri. "We just have to get ready and adapt it," she commented.
Conference participants came in every color, every ethnic background, and from almost every corner of the country. The overwhelming diversity showed that poverty does not discriminate. Almeta Crayton, from the Columbia chapter, said she was amazed because, "there were thousands, all across racial lines."
Cynthia McFadden described how the conference empowered ROWEL chapter members to become stronger leaders: "This is a very important experience for people. It helps them to see what they can do with knowledge and determination. Most poor people do not realize the power their voices have. ROWEL has made a difference in people’s lives by educating us here in Missouri. They make it even better by sending members to Washington to be empowered by other activists and to meet our representatives in Washington to let them know our concerns."
With this first issue of the new ROWEL Reporter, BreakThrough and ROWEL begin producing our combined newsletter. We are sure that this way we will get more good information to more of the people who need it. BreakThrough supporters will benefit from the information. ROWEL’s work is strengthened by looking at the underlying economic system.
Here is how BreakThrough began. Three years ago, several women who had been working on issues of community economic development came together, trying to understand why it is so difficult for grassroots efforts in economic development to move forward. We began to understand that while most community groups are very savvy about the political process, many feel overwhelmed when it comes to addressing economic problems. Often, what is needed is a fundamental understanding of how our economic system works and how we, as individuals and as communities, fit into it. Out of that discussion, BreakThrough: Education for Economic Action was born.
The primary activity of BreakThrough is to support low-income communities by offering training in economic literacy. Through a process of dialogue, role-plays and exercises, we explore our places in the economy and increase our understanding of the systems that create poverty and wealth. We consider how our experiences fit into the social and political context of the U.S. and global economies, and we begin to put together strategies for continued action and reflection.
The training facilitators are not economists, any more than the participants are. In our workshops, we learn from each other and come to understand that we all are economic experts, based on our own life experiences.
Since 1996, BreakThrough has conducted workshops with broadly varied groups, including the St. Louis Women’s Support Group, neighborhood organizations, ROWEL and a group of Lutheran teens.
One group we enjoyed working with are senior citizens at Kingdom House who provide home health care in their neighborhood. Their greatest concern was whether there would be secure health care in the future. We looked closely at what and who affects health care decisions, and as we followed the cycle of costs and payments we began to see the basic economics of health care emerge, along with strategies for change.
By the end of the session, what had been a major fear surrounded by feelings of powerlessness became a well-defined problem that could be addressed in a variety of ways. One man planned how to share the information with others in his building. Six people signed up to lobby at the state legislature on health care needs. The seniors felt they had been able to name more clearly what they already knew and were now ready to act on it. That transformation is at the heart of BreakThrough.
So, please watch for the BreakThrough arrow on articles and calendar items that are linked to our program of education for economic action. We will focus on how the concerns of low-income people are affected by the way our economic system works on the local, national or international level. More importantly, we’ll also look at how things can be different! So, stick with BreakThrough and ROWEL, and together we’ll make a difference.
Why is it that at a time when state and federal governments are pushing people from welfare to work there are fewer jobs that pay a decent wage? Actually, there are several pressures in our economic system that tend to keep wages low, and a few that make them rise. Wages aren't rising now because the pressures to keep wages down are stronger than the pressures to make them rise.
Wages rise when there are so few people available to fill a job that a business has to pay more. For example, fast food restaurants in the far suburbs sometimes pay $7/hour, or offer daycare in order to find enough workers. Also, people who can write complicated computer programs are needed by so many companies right now that they can ask for very high salaries .
Another reason wages rise is when most of the people with a certain skill refuse to work until they have better wages or working conditions. For example, in the 1920's, coal miners formed a union and went on strike. Unions also negotiate raises when they renew their contracts.
The last way wages can rise is when a state or federal government raises the legal minimum wage. When the minimum wage goes up, other wages tend to go up as well.
There are two pressures that keep wages low — a company's need for profit, and inflation. The only way a business can survive in our economic system is to make a profit. If it loses money, it cannot pay its bills and goes bankrupt. If it only breaks even it cannot reward investors or keep up with improvements made by other companies and will eventually have to close. That is what happened to many of the small grocery stores in St. Louis as Schnucks and Dierbergs kept getting bigger.
In order to make a profit a company must make a product for as little cost as possible and sell it at as high a price as possible. If competition in the market makes it hard to raise prices above what others are charging for similar products, there is a lot of pressure to reduce costs. Usually the fastest way to make a big difference in costs is to layoff workers, or to pay them less.
In the last twenty years changes in technology and in international trade agreements have made it much easier for businesses to hire workers where wages are much lower. A company with offices in Los Angeles can do its billing in South Dakota and have an assembly plant in the Philippines. Employers can also save money by having "temporary" employees do a lot of the routine work in their company. All of these things keep wages down for the worker, even though workers in the U.S. are more efficient and productive than ever.
Inflation is the tendency for prices on goods to go up as companies try to keep profits high. At the times when prices are rising the value of salaries falls. In 1950, when my parents got married, my father was earning $37.50/week. Inflation since then has made that salary useless.
In the 1980's and 1990's, wages aren't rising as much as they used to because many companies have access to enough workers who will work for low wages. Much of the reason for that access has to do with changes in trade agreements our government has made with other countries. In the last twenty years our government has also changed labor laws and how they enforce them, so that labor unions have less power than they used to. Also, in the last twenty years the value of the minimum wage has been allowed to drop severely. In 1976 the minimum wage kept a family of three at 120% of the poverty line. Today it keeps that family at only 80% of the poverty line — and we all know that the federal poverty line is way too low, anyway!
Many business and government people say that raising the minimum wage means businesses can't afford to hire as many workers and means there are fewer jobs for the poor and unskilled. It is important to know that in fact, when the minimum wage has gone up in stages it has not caused job losses and has increased the number of minimum wage workers.
by Jennifer Hill, Legislative and Policy Advocate
When Missouri’s
early welfare reform law, HB 1547, was signed in 1994 many of us believed that we were
creating a system that would change the lives of welfare recipients.
After the 1996 passage of PRWORA, the federal welfare reform law, we realized that there is a long way to go.
Without much guidance from our state senators and representatives, the Department of Social Services (DSS) has set out to implement policy that meets the federal mandates and unquestionably declares Work First.
One way DSS is radically changing welfare policy in Missouri is through the rule-making process. By February of this year DSS, under the direction of Gary Stangler, had introduced a set of "emergency" rules. According to DSS, Missouri had to comply with federal mandates or risk losing funding, so they submitted formal changes to the state’s welfare program.
However, the rules contained many things that are not required by the federal law or by existing state welfare law, so ROWEL members and advocates questioned both the rules and the "emergency."
With invaluable assistance from ROWEL’s Gateway Legal Services attorneys, ROWEL members realized that the new rules could cause extreme hardship to welfare recipients and to those applying for welfare. Many of the rules were not only harsh, but also contradicted current state law.
Full family sanctions, teen parent provisions, Learnfare, Shotfare, and a twelve month lifetime exemption limit were among the rules that were unnecessarily harsh and unreasonable. ROWEL sent out an Action Alert to our supporters and scheduled a meeting with DSS officials Tom Jones and Gary Stangler. After a peaceful protest outside of the Broadway building, members and staff of ROWEL offered demands. Thankfully, the first set of emergency rules were withdrawn.
The next set of emergency rules were filed with proposed rules following soon.
Advocates across the state, especially Gateway Legal Services’ attorneys Joel Ferber and Rachel Storch, and David Tushaus of Legal Services of Western Missouri, continued to work on understanding and explaining the rules, doing nation-wide research, and discussing other options for reasonable and effective policies.
March and April were filled with negotiations and meetings as changes were proposed and made. ROWEL and other justice organizations demanded that the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules hold a public hearing about the rules to determine if DSS was acting outside of their authority.
With the pressure continuing, DSS finally agreed to some changes and to continue formal negotiations about additional changes to the rules. Because DSS indicated that they were willing to change the rules, the public hearing was cancelled at the last minute.
ROWEL members and other advocates plan to continue to shadow all of DSS’ decisions and to push for positive rules and policies. A legislative and policy action team has formed to work on these issues one by one. The team has been re-energized by DSS’ push for harsh rules and by our ongoing negotiations.
Although negotiations continue today, DSS seems less interested in improving the rules further.
ROWEL leaders have vowed to step up the pressure to push for fair rules and positive policies, instead of more punishment and greater barriers.
Some of the more important changes to programs are described in common language on page13.
For an excellent technical and legal explanation of Missouri welfare reform to date, see the special pull-out section of this newsletter, written by Joel Ferber of Gateway Legal Services.
by Moria Byrne, Chapters Organizer
Many ROWEL members and welfare recipients are experiencing new problems in understanding and receiving benefits. From food stamps to Medicaid, application procedures are becoming more difficult. In addition, there will be many, many new rules and new programs, such as Work First, that people must understand.
Currently, very few people affected by changes in the welfare programs understand what is happening to them and why.
As an organization known for creating positive changes in our welfare system, many people have turned to ROWEL for our expertise on the welfare system and its rules. The overwhelming numbers of welfare case problems flooding the ROWEL offices inspired members to dream of and create a "Peer Advocacy" project.
Peer Advocates will be available to each other when they are having problems getting benefits, understanding requirements, challenging unfair rules, and asking for hearings. Anyone who has survived the system is an experienced advocate; you may already know how to cut through all the red tape and the endless paperwork. ROWEL can strengthen that experience by offering resources and technical assistance, including information on the rules.
The Peer Advocacy Project will allow members to create a network of experts who can help with similar problems throughout the state. The network will also provide a way for new members to get involved. For example, a woman having trouble with the new three-month food stamp re-certification could receive help from a peer advocate. That advocate will tell her what steps to take to get her food stamp case resolved, from providing paperwork to calling her state representative or requesting a hearing, if necessary. When her case is completed, she may be willing to become a "peer advocate" for the next person who has a similar problem.
The Peer Advocates network will help ROWEL keep up with the increasing demand for help and the quickly expanding growth of our membership.
On its Internet page this July of 1998, DSS (Department of Social Services) brags that since January of 1993 over 111,415 people left the welfare rolls. They also list that the monthly number of recipients who have been sanctioned (had their TANF grant reduced) for not looking for work has increased from 27 in 1993 to 7,345.
Many people are very concerned about DSS’ bragging. Their happiness is quite far away from the experience of many welfare recipients and many low income communities.
Food pantries and shelters in Missouri have experienced a startling 20% increase in the past few years. According to the the Food Pantry Association’s Glenn Koenen, cutbacks in food stamp and TANF grants will cause three times as many pantries to run out of food this summer compared to last.
Social service providers and advocates have also noted that the number of transitional Medicaid recipients hasn’t grown enough to make up for the dramatic cuts in cash grants. So people are getting "off welfare" somehow, but they are not keeping the Medicaid and other benefits still needed to protect families.
Most welfare recipients rely on caseworkers’ knowledge of the programs. The recipients don’t know how to follow up on case closing and sanction notices. A survey done in Iowa shows 40% of sanctions and case closings were done incorrectly. ROWEL members suspect that there are similar errors committed in Missouri.
In the past, over 50% of Missouri welfare recipients who took their case to a hearing WON the hearing!
None of this can be achieved without you. ROWEL is searching for people interested in spending time as a peer advocate. We have received start-up funding from the St. Louis Archdiocese Catholic Campaign for Human Development.
Right now, materials are being created to help us understand the rules and the steps to take to solve problems.
Peer advocates will need to do some of the following tasks: inform welfare recipients about public assistance programs, help them through self-advocacy steps, gather information about what’s happening to families, help with general mailings and phone calls, train each other, and assist with outreach.
For more information, please call 314-361-3400. Low income members can use the toll free number, 800-689-3401. We need you!
ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER!The ROWEL Reporter is published three or four times each year. It is created by REA (ROWEL Education Association), sister organization to Reform Organization of Welfare. The ROWEL Reporter has been completely changed to meet two goals: 1. To get specific information into the hands of the people affected by welfare changes and other economic justice issues. 2. To provide a place for people and organizations to publish things they are learning, letters to the editor, and the REAL stories of Welfare Reform in Missouri. Through advocacy and education, ROWEL and REA fight poverty and prejudice--and those are big jobs these days. We are involved in many areas that affect the lives of families with low incomes, from welfare reform to utility deregulation. YOU can make a difference and get involved by:
Send letters, information or articles for this newsletter to: ROWEL Reporter, 5300 Delmar, St. Louis, MO 63112 |
We have grown from a staff of one to five, plus consultants and interns, scattered across the state. In addition, we need to equip our chapter leaders to keep in touch and get information quickly. We are also seeking approval for VISTA positions to possibly start in late fall. We hope you will consider giving REA used office equipment if you have items that have years of service left in them.
- Ё Fax machines
- Ё Computers (486 or Pentium)
- Ё Phones (especially 2 and 4 line models)
- Ё Answering machines
- Ё Copy machines (especially those that can sort and collate)
- Ё Printers
- Ё Volunteers to enter data into several important databases
- Ё Simulation volunteers
- Ё Speakers Bureau volunteers
- Ё Volunteers to design and maintain an Internet web site
Any gifts that are not used by REA will be passed on to members with low incomes or sold at our annual Junk Sales.
We are thankful to Human Development Corporation and Christian Service Center for recent gifts of room dividers that have allowed us to create some order in the chaos of our headquarters office.
