Jeanfromfillmore
02-25-2011, 02:13 PM
I find it astounding that with all the cries of "help the poor" there is no mention of kids, whose parents are on welfare, wearing $100 sneakers with IPods and cellphones. Not all have these items, but those that do is not a very small number. I've seen those that claim to be "poor" and what cars they drive. I've been in their homes and seen the flat screen TVs, the WEEs and all the toys they've supplied their homes with. I've seen, as many of you have also, them standing in line at the market with high end meets and seafood that most people only buy on special occasions. But what is the real kicker is that just after purchasing these items with their WIC & foodstamps, they then purchase an 18 pack of beer or a $5 bottle of shampoo.
There are many who actually can use some help, but when you have over 30% fraud (this is a figure given to me by a person who handles welfare fraud for Ventura County) I think it would be much better to first clean up welfare than continue to bloat its cost and expect the taxpayer to keep on funding it. These sob stories perpetuate this system of fraud.
REGION: Poverty day gives community leaders a reality check
Pay the mortgage or feed the family? Pawn the television to keep the lights on, or forego prescription drugs to pay the gas bill? Those are questions that thousands of Inland families are forced to answer every day.
On Thursday, doctors, teachers, social workers and others had to make similarly painful choices in a poverty event in San Bernardino.
It was designed to stir empathy for the people they serve -- families who live on the financial edge -- and it worked. Within minutes of assuming the identities of poor families, their calm disintegrated into frustration marked by shoving and yelling.
"People may have a sense of what it means to be poor or to not have the resources necessary to make it from month to month, but when you go through a simulation like this, it becomes very real," said Ken Sawa, chief executive officer of Catholic Charities of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, which sponsored the event. "It gives you a level of understanding and also compassion for people who live under that sort of stress constantly."
Catholic Charities USA, the social services arm of the Catholic Church, has a campaign to cut poverty in half by 2020. The group will repeat the Community Action Poverty Simulation in May in Riverside.
The exercise has become more valuable in the faltering economy as the gap between middle incomes and poverty shrinks, Sawa said.
FAMILIES FORMED
Thursday started in the gym at the Boys and Girls Club of San Bernardino. About 60 people drew a name tag and found their pre-determined spot in a "family." Among them were lone seniors, single adults with children and two-parent families with in-laws.
Each family was given a packet with information on their income and expenses, identification and a description that defined who they would be.
For the Knowles family, which included a father, mother, teenage daughter and a mother-in-law in poor health, there was a full-time minimum-wage job that brought in $1,360 per month, plus $330 in Social Security. Their mortgage, utilities, food, car loan, prescriptions and clothes were $1,775 a month.
Deniece Marshall, of San Bernardino, a program director at Lutheran Social Services, who played the mother of the group, quickly grasped the problem.
"We don't have enough money to make these bills," she said. "Let's just get through today."
The group jumped in with solutions: skip the $60-per-month clothing allowance, give up the second car that wasn't paid off, delay paying the utilities in favor of the mortgage. They would have a "month" to pay their bills and stay afloat.
Around the room were booths representing school, work, jail, a pawn shop, bank, grocery store and a check-cashing business. Also there was a homeless shelter, agencies to provide child care and social and community services where they could get marginal help with utilities, rent and food vouchers.
"Expect paperwork," they were told.
Each person who visited each booth had to turn over a transportation pass, which were issued in short supply. They also received luck-of-the draw cards for life's little surprises, good and bad.
Marshall and her family wasted much of the first "week" waiting in lines. The father, played by Cynthia White-Piper, of Riverside, a director of social and health services for the San Bernardino City Unified School District, missed getting to her job the first week. The second week she was fired.
"Let's go pawn everything so we can pay the rent," she said. "I already told them to turn off the phone."
By the second "week," the frustration in the room had become palpable. People pushed and hollered as they grew desperate. Some families grew closer while others fell apart under the stress. Chairs were overturned to signify eviction.
In a post-skit debriefing, they summed up their experiences: scary, hopeless, exhausting.
"Our life was upside down. There was no peace at home. We were on the edge," Marshall said. "It felt too real, just knowing that there aren't enough services."
Participants called for a one-stop shop where families can get what they need, rather than struggle with transportation to numerous offices. They also found the need for a centralized database so they aren't filling out the same paperwork for multiple services.
And most of all, they discovered the need for understanding -- for why a parent doesn't show up at a parent-teacher conference or is late to a medical appointment.
Leaders urged them to go forth and find solutions.
"When we learn from the gut, it's a little closer to the heart," said Liz Lilly, of Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County, who led the training.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_poverty25.221b38d.html
There are many who actually can use some help, but when you have over 30% fraud (this is a figure given to me by a person who handles welfare fraud for Ventura County) I think it would be much better to first clean up welfare than continue to bloat its cost and expect the taxpayer to keep on funding it. These sob stories perpetuate this system of fraud.
REGION: Poverty day gives community leaders a reality check
Pay the mortgage or feed the family? Pawn the television to keep the lights on, or forego prescription drugs to pay the gas bill? Those are questions that thousands of Inland families are forced to answer every day.
On Thursday, doctors, teachers, social workers and others had to make similarly painful choices in a poverty event in San Bernardino.
It was designed to stir empathy for the people they serve -- families who live on the financial edge -- and it worked. Within minutes of assuming the identities of poor families, their calm disintegrated into frustration marked by shoving and yelling.
"People may have a sense of what it means to be poor or to not have the resources necessary to make it from month to month, but when you go through a simulation like this, it becomes very real," said Ken Sawa, chief executive officer of Catholic Charities of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, which sponsored the event. "It gives you a level of understanding and also compassion for people who live under that sort of stress constantly."
Catholic Charities USA, the social services arm of the Catholic Church, has a campaign to cut poverty in half by 2020. The group will repeat the Community Action Poverty Simulation in May in Riverside.
The exercise has become more valuable in the faltering economy as the gap between middle incomes and poverty shrinks, Sawa said.
FAMILIES FORMED
Thursday started in the gym at the Boys and Girls Club of San Bernardino. About 60 people drew a name tag and found their pre-determined spot in a "family." Among them were lone seniors, single adults with children and two-parent families with in-laws.
Each family was given a packet with information on their income and expenses, identification and a description that defined who they would be.
For the Knowles family, which included a father, mother, teenage daughter and a mother-in-law in poor health, there was a full-time minimum-wage job that brought in $1,360 per month, plus $330 in Social Security. Their mortgage, utilities, food, car loan, prescriptions and clothes were $1,775 a month.
Deniece Marshall, of San Bernardino, a program director at Lutheran Social Services, who played the mother of the group, quickly grasped the problem.
"We don't have enough money to make these bills," she said. "Let's just get through today."
The group jumped in with solutions: skip the $60-per-month clothing allowance, give up the second car that wasn't paid off, delay paying the utilities in favor of the mortgage. They would have a "month" to pay their bills and stay afloat.
Around the room were booths representing school, work, jail, a pawn shop, bank, grocery store and a check-cashing business. Also there was a homeless shelter, agencies to provide child care and social and community services where they could get marginal help with utilities, rent and food vouchers.
"Expect paperwork," they were told.
Each person who visited each booth had to turn over a transportation pass, which were issued in short supply. They also received luck-of-the draw cards for life's little surprises, good and bad.
Marshall and her family wasted much of the first "week" waiting in lines. The father, played by Cynthia White-Piper, of Riverside, a director of social and health services for the San Bernardino City Unified School District, missed getting to her job the first week. The second week she was fired.
"Let's go pawn everything so we can pay the rent," she said. "I already told them to turn off the phone."
By the second "week," the frustration in the room had become palpable. People pushed and hollered as they grew desperate. Some families grew closer while others fell apart under the stress. Chairs were overturned to signify eviction.
In a post-skit debriefing, they summed up their experiences: scary, hopeless, exhausting.
"Our life was upside down. There was no peace at home. We were on the edge," Marshall said. "It felt too real, just knowing that there aren't enough services."
Participants called for a one-stop shop where families can get what they need, rather than struggle with transportation to numerous offices. They also found the need for a centralized database so they aren't filling out the same paperwork for multiple services.
And most of all, they discovered the need for understanding -- for why a parent doesn't show up at a parent-teacher conference or is late to a medical appointment.
Leaders urged them to go forth and find solutions.
"When we learn from the gut, it's a little closer to the heart," said Liz Lilly, of Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County, who led the training.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_poverty25.221b38d.html