Welfare-To-Work Program's Demise 'Really Demoralizing'

Jaquayla Burton's job will end this week unless the Senate does an about-face and decides to preserve a welfare-to-work program that created more than 240,000 jobs as part of the stimulus bill.

"I wish they would because on Friday I'll have to sign up for unemployment. I don't feel good about that," said Burton, 20, in an interview with HuffPost. "It's hard because I have two kids to take care of. I've been working here nine months and it's kind of stable at home, and then on Friday I'll be unemployed."

Burton is one of six moms doing community outreach work for for the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition whose subsidized jobs will disappear on Sept. 30, said campaign co-director Karl Kramer. "We do community outreach to educate people about what their rights are under San Francisco's wage and benefit laws."

The 2009 stimulus bill created an "Emergency Fund" that allowed states to subsidize jobs via the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF), formerly known as welfare. The Senate voted against reauthorizing the program in March. Last week Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) blocked a request to bring up a bill that contained a $1.5 billion reauthorization. Advocates of the program are not optimistic that a change of heart is afoot in the U.S. Senate.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that the program put more than 240,000 otherwise unemployed people to work in 37 states, including 45,000 people in California. The program even has the approval of the American Enterprise Institute's Kevin Hassett, who calls it "a pretty cost-effective way to create jobs."

Burton said her job as a community organizer with the San Francisco Living Wage Coalition, which she's held for the past nine months, is the first she's ever had. Kramer said Burton and the five other moms at his nonprofit earn $11.03 per hour and work 32 hours a week. They will all be let go come Friday.

"I can honestly say they're dependable, committed, motivated in providing valuable services to the community," Kramer said. "I haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately. It's really demoralizing."

Comments

[MACJM]

06:32 PM on 11/09/2010

240,000 people unemployed. This program was what I like my taxes being used for. I'm sorry to those who lost their jobs last month due to this not getting it's funding.

[gfirmin57]

05:36 PM on 09/29/2010

Gee, Jaquayla, it's a shame you made such bad choices not just once, but twice and had children out of wedlock with a man (or men) who apparently is such a deadbeat that he won't help support his own children. I don't even know where to begin, except to say that all my pity is with your children; none is with you.You are irresponsible.

[PartyOfMaybe]

05:53 PM on 09/28/2010

I'd say her problem began much earlier.... about the time she pooped out baby numero uno

[ProgressiveOregonian]

06:56 PM on 09/28/2010

Let me guess... you are a compassionate conservative Christian, right?

[Dave Thinkster Paulson]

10:52 AM on 09/29/2010

Excellent response!

[gfirmin57]

05:37 PM on 09/29/2010

No,probably just a responsible human being. This woman made bad choices and her children are suffering for it. And we're paying for it.

[fortressfountain]

04:57 PM on 09/28/2010

I think these people should be demanding better programs and better jobs. Making a few extra dollars to work as a cashier in retail may be nice but the government can do a lot better.
They need to put the emphasis into educating the middle class and the money they are squandering on the youth.
If we are already behind other nations it is too late for the youth. We have to work on here and now-not something in the distant future that may be unnecessary as the country keeps weaking and we may even become unstable.

[whatisrightisright]

03:30 PM on 09/28/2010

BOO freaking HOO......get REAL jobs.

[SeekWisdom]

09:41 PM on 10/02/2010

Can't find anyone hiring hitmen to take out neocons - whatcha gonna do?

[ACLU Card Carrier]

02:08 PM on 09/28/2010

OT, but former President Jimmy Carter has been hospitalized..

"Jackie Mayo, a spokeswoman at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, says the 85-year-old former president was a passenger on a Delta flight to Cleveland late Tuesday morning and became ill. She says he was taken off a plane by rescue crews."

A COMMERCIAL flight... a real man of the PEOPLE.

This GREAT man has accomplished so much.. during his Presidency and AFTERWARDS...

Panama Canal treaties..

Camp David Accords treaty of peace between Egypt and Israel (the ONLY lasting Mideast Peace Treaty to this day..

The SALT II treaty with the Soviet Union

Establishment of U.S. diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China

Comprehensive energy program conducted by a new Department of Energy deregulation in energy, transportation, communications, and finance

Educational programs under a new Department of Education

Environmental protection legislation, including the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.

The CARTER CENTER

http://www.cartercenter.org/homepage.html

His detractors can't site a FRACTION of his HUMANITY.. of his FORESIGHT.. of his LOVE for the REAL AMERICA that has been demonstrated by other former Presidents like Reagan, the Bushes or any others.

He is a GIANT amongst men.. and will forever remain at the PINNACLE of the pantheon of great men he currently resides in.

GET WELL, Mr. President.. we need you now MORE THAN EVER.

[draven646]

03:34 AM on 09/29/2010

hahahahaha Carter hahahaha one termer hahahaha who lost in a landslide....hahahaha

Lets get him back - Yes

[Professor Zoom]

01:03 PM on 09/28/2010

I'll say this. My mother was on welfare for a very long time. When you hear people talking in disgust about people living off the system, they would have been talking about her, me, and my two brothers. It was because of the welfare to work program that she was made to work and got a very low paying job at a doctor's office. She was only making $12,000 a year, but she was getting up everyday and going to work. Now 14 years later, she is no longer on welfare, and moved on to another job using what she learned while working for this doctor, and is now making close to $50,000 a year and is working on opening her own business.

[gfirmin57]

05:39 PM on 09/29/2010

Good for her.

[GJCO-JMH]

12:42 PM on 09/28/2010

The program is designed for "employers" (like Kramer) to keep people on after the TEMPORARY Aid to Needy Families (TANF/welfare) money ends. If not, TANF wouldn't be called TEMPORARY. Doesn't seem like "welfare to work" WORKED.... or is a misnomer in this case.

[judgejay]

12:39 PM on 09/28/2010

The federal money had to end at some point, that the problem with the stimlus package if the states don't pick up the tab once the money is spent its all over. Government can't create anything other than temporary jobs.

[James Overlie]

12:34 PM on 09/28/2010

Alan Grayson, and people think Chistine O'Donnell is loony!

[ACLU Card Carrier]

02:10 PM on 09/28/2010

Please elucidate.

[baxtron]

03:30 PM on 09/28/2010

yeah!....what the hell are you talking about?

[jgourlay]

12:12 PM on 09/28/2010

"We do community outreach to educate people about what their rights are under San Francisco's wage and benefit laws."

As a taxpayer, I'm pretty incensed to be paying for this? This EXACTLY the kind of waste I despise: we are paying people our tax dollars to basically go out and educate people on how they can consume more of our tax dollars.

Tell me you got a "welfare to work" program that involves fixing a bridge, building a port, or that in some other way transforms a raw material into a useful product and I'll support it. But this is nothing more than waste.

[Deucejack]

11:22 AM on 09/28/2010

Typical Democratic outrage... Create a "make work" welfare program, then cry when the funding for an unsupported program dries up. These are not JOBS.

What is even more absurd is that the "work" that they were performing is letting other welfare recipeints know about additional WELFARE programs that they can take advantage of.

These people need to actually work, and contribute to society.

[rosiebond007]

10:37 AM on 09/28/2010

See the Republicans at work again.

Working hard to make the middle and lower classes really suffer.

It's beyond arrogance

[wooper]

10:29 AM on 09/28/2010

Let's keep this simple to see who the Republicans support in America.

Tax cuts for the wealthiest 3%...Yes, costing around $800 billion over ten years.

Keeping lower and middle class earners employed in a sever depression..No.

If you make $200,000 or less a year and vote Republican, you are doing yourself and your neighbor a disservice. You have been sold a lie that the tax cuts will allow the wealthiest to create jobs. Well, these tax cuts have been in place since the Bush years...Where are the jobs? What have they been doing with the money they have saved with the tax cuts? Not creating jobs...just creating more wealth for themselves.

Who needs the money more...Someone making $1 million a year getting a $40,000 refund, of someone making $50,000 a year getting a $3,000 refund? For the wealthy, they can buy a new boat, or go on a ski vacation in Aspen for a couple of weeks. For the other it's about making the house note or car payment or paying tuition for their childs college.

Wake up. Look where you fit in this picture. And don't believe the Republican lies.

[Ferris J Anderson]

10:28 AM on 09/28/2010

It's stupid to stop a program which encourages activity over laziness, that imparts experience over decline, which affirms a commitment to full employment instead of survival of the fitness in the work place, and which creates a pathway towards independence instead of dependence. It's absolutely SHAMEFUL to allow actual work programs, even if government created to end. Capitalist have no interest in achieving full employment. Simple econ 101 will let you know that full employment equals increased labour cost. It's one thing to attempt to phase out social safety net programs that do not encourage independence, it's out right foolishness to end government programs that DO encourage independence. I'm disgusted.

[HankyJoe]

10:32 AM on 09/29/2010

Well Said.
F&F.