• State not paying bills: Social services in doubt, By Andre Salles, November 18, 2009, Geneva Sun: “Every day, Cindy Worsley looks through her mail, hunting for a check from the state of Illinois. And every day, she comes up empty. Worsley is the executive director of Fox Valley Older Adult Services. The not-for-profit company, based in Sandwich, has been providing help and care to seniors in the Fox Valley for 37 years. It operates three adult day care sites — one in Aurora (called Rachel’s Place), one in Sandwich, and one in DeKalb — and provides in-home care, meals and transportation services to more than 200 seniors each day. But now, Worsley is preparing for the worst. The services she provides are dependent on state funding to continue, and those payments are months late. She did receive a check from the state about six weeks ago, she said, which paid the state’s obligations through June. But she’s essentially been operating since July with no state cash at all, and she’s owed about $140,000…”
• Budget cuts will imperil state’s poor, By David Abel, November 17, 2009, Boston Globe: “Maria Bonilla - who has trouble walking because of a congenital heart defect - feeds, houses, and clothes her two young children with $942 of state and federal cash assistance every month, though it barely covers her rent, utilities, and everything else her family needs to survive, from diapers to subway fare. But in a few months the 27-year-old victim of domestic violence expects to be homeless. The Bonilla family is one of thousands of low-income families who will suffer from steep budget cuts. The state estimates that the children of 9,100 families with parents so severely disabled that they qualify for federal Supplemental Security Income benefits will lose their state cash assistance as a result of the $600 million in budget cuts that Governor Deval Patrick announced late last month. The $15.8 million reduction of the Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children program, on top of $8 million in cuts made earlier this fiscal year, means families who receive the assistance will lose an average of more than $400 a month…”

• More people turn to state to fill basic need: food, By Angie Basiouny, November 2, 2009, Wilmington News Journal: “The number of Delawareans receiving food stamps has jumped by 27.5 percent in the past year, another sign of a recession cutting deeper into household budgets for the most basic of necessities. A total of 98,346 residents — 1 in 9 Delawareans — were enrolled in the food assistance program as of July. Officials said they expect that number to shoot up another 40 percent in the coming year as severance packages offered by many of the state’s biggest employers to laid-off workers expire…”
• Grand Forks County Social Services sees 30 percent spike in assistance, By Kevin Bonham, November 1, 2009, Grand Forks Herald: “North Dakota might not be feeling the full effects of the economic recession that has crippled the nation over the past year or so, but local taxpayers are feeling the pain. Some symptoms are surfacing in the Grand Forks County Social Services Department. The total number of households in Grand Forks County receiving some type of assistance has increased by nearly 30 percent in just two years. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps, represents the largest increase, with the number of households growing by 35 percent since 2007. In October 2009, 5,677 residents were receiving SNAP benefits. That’s about 8.5 percent of the county’s population, which the U.S. Census Bureau estimated at 66,585 in 2008…”

Scattered in suburbs, and in need, By Julie Bosman, October 2, 2009, New York Times: “It is hard enough for the unemployed and others struggling financially to figure out how to obtain social services like food stamps, counseling and utility assistance for the first time. It can be even harder in the suburbs. There, many residents, including middle-class people unversed in the welfare system, have trouble making use of the shelters, government offices and nonprofit agencies that are less visible than in cities, spread out across a larger area and harder to reach using public transportation. So needy people are commonly sharing rides, walking and riding buses, often with small children in tow, in larger numbers than before the recession, officials said. And for advice on how to get help in the first place, they are seeking out priests, school nurses and small-town mayors, turning them into de facto social workers…”

Parenting grandparents feel strain, By Catherine Jun, September 23, 2009, Detroit News: “Deborah Stiell has cared for her granddaughter since the girl left the hospital where she was born 22 months ago. When Jaliyah wails in the middle of the night, Stiell gets up, too. ‘Sometimes you get to the point where you feel like you took on a little too much,’ said Stiell, 55, of Detroit, who also cares for two of her other grandchildren. ‘It’s a challenge.’ Stiell is one of thousands of grandparents in Michigan who, after years of raising their own children, find themselves parenting again. Yet several of the dozen or so agencies that help grandparents like Stiell — with the financial and emotional struggle of parenting in their later years — have themselves become strapped. A few are set to close their doors next month as the economic recession has forced a decline in state and foundation dollars…”

• Flood of food stamp requests drains agency, By Gary Scharrer, September 6, 2009, Houston Chronicle: “State employees can’t keep up with applications for food assistance, and the inadequate staffing to handle the casework is making them frustrated and stressed out, some say. Morale is lousy at the agency that manages the program. Many work long hours, but the cases keep stacking up. The conditions are blamed for high absentee rates and employee turnover. Some welcome a recent class-action lawsuit that accuses the state of violating federal rules requiring food stamp applications to be certified within 30 days. Many applicants must wait months before they get food assistance…”
• Employee turnover high at Texas agency that processes food-stamp applications, Associated Press, September 7, 2009, Dallas Morning News: “Employee turnover is running at 16 percent this year at the overwhelmed Texas public benefits agency responsible for processing food-stamp applications. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission has seen a huge increase in food-stamp applications this year…”

• Despite fixes, unemployment department still tough to reach for many, By Denis C. Theriault, September 7, 2009, San Jose Mercury News: “Despite an infusion of money and workers in recent months, the phone number that most out-of-work Californians rely on for questions about their unemployment benefits or missing checks remains swamped by millions of calls. Officials say it still takes about 17 tries before a live operator is reached at the state Employment Development Department and that nearly two-thirds of the 18.9 million calls received last month were rejected because the phone service was too busy…”
• Wisconsin unemployment phone line dropped 86% of calls, By Ellen Gabler, September 6, 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “The voices taunt thousands of Wisconsin’s unemployed. Here’s what happens: Unemployed people call a hotline run by the Department of Workforce Development to check on their claims for unemployment benefits or to answer agency questions about their application. The calm, recorded voice of a woman says: ‘To speak with the next available claims specialist, press 0.’ But about 86% of the time, the caller is soon disconnected with a simple ‘Goodbye’ from the calm, recorded voice of a man. The callers still don’t know why their unemployment checks haven’t hit their bank account, and they can’t ask a live person any questions…”

States shut down to save cash, By Leslie Eaton, Ryan Knutson, and Philip Shishkin, September 4, 2009, Wall Street Journal: “California drivers can’t line up to renew their licenses Friday. Wisconsin natives can’t order copies of their birth certificates. Georgia consumers will have to postpone registering complaints with state watchdogs. And stranded motorists in Maryland may have to wait a little longer for highway-department help. Across the country, cash-strapped state governments are shutting down business for a day at a time to save money. State offices are shuttered Friday in California, Maine, Maryland and Michigan. Rhode Island had planned to join them until a judge on Thursday blocked its closure plan. Some state agencies are closed in Georgia and Wisconsin, and most Colorado state offices will be shuttered on Tuesday. Other states, such as Arizona, have been trying to keep their operations open while furloughing thousands of workers. So far the effect of furloughs appears to have been muted, with most people able to take care of state business in advance of closures or by filing forms online. But at the Detroit Center for Family Advocacy, which helps low-income families avoid sending children to foster care, furloughs have already slowed assistance efforts, said managing attorney Tracy Green…”

With donations and grants down, social service agencies feel the pinch, By Diane Cardwell, August 21, 2009, New York Times: “At a social service agency on Staten Island where budget cuts forced the layoff of a driver, the staff scrambles to arrange transportation to Brooklyn for an elderly homeless woman whose family has agreed to take her in. In Midtown Manhattan, a woman who has lost her job worries that she will not be able to send her granddaughter to an after-school program at the settlement house that helped the girl’s father and two uncles. And in Washington Heights, an agency is hard-pressed to prevent evictions after laying off half of its legal services team…”