Albany -- State-subsidized program would aid
thousands reaching end of 5-year benefits limit

Labor unions and activists on Tuesday called on
lawmakers to approve a $190 million program to
provide 8,000 state-subsidized jobs for people who will
hit a five-year time limit for federal welfare benefits in
December.

The program proposed in a bill sponsored by Sen.
Nicholas Spano, R-Yonkers, and Assemblywoman
Catherine Nolan, D-Queens, is designed to help
longtime welfare recipients who have few or no skills
prepare for the job market by providing them with
experience and training.

It would offer an alternative to Workfare, which requires
people to work to receive welfare benefits. Many
recipients complain they were placed in menial jobs
under Workfare that did not prepare them for the "real
world.''

"Just to have people out there working for benefits, I
don't know how that's ever going to move them to
self-sufficiency,'' said Sandra Killett-Williams, a
39-year-old Manhattan resident and mother of two, who
worked answering phones and making copies at a state
agency through Workfare. She is still on welfare, but no
longer at the agency.

As of February 2001, approximately 63,000 New
Yorkers were scheduled to reach the five-year lifetime
limit for federal welfare benefits in December. The limit
was imposed under federal welfare reform in 1996.

State officials say they are working to move as many
welfare recipients as possible into work before the
deadline. They have also pledged that anyone who
remains unemployed by December will be automatically
enrolled in New York's "safety net'' program and
continue to receive support through an electronic debit
card rather than cash.

New York currently has programs that offer subsidies to
companies and agencies that hire welfare recipients. But
those tend to help people who are most employable
rather than those most in need, said Hunger Action
Network organizer Mark Dunlea.

"Other programs cherry pick -- they go after the people
most likely to succeed,'' Dunlea said. "We want to go
after the people who aren't likely to succeed.''

Supporters propose the state use $142.5 million in
surplus federal welfare dollars and $27.5 million from the
general fund to pay for the program. New York has
used few of its welfare dollars -- as of December, it had
$1.5 billion left. State officials say they are holding back
in part because they don't know what the effect of the
December deadline will be.