Eligibility for LIHEAP slashed; 20,000 families may be left out, By Rick Wills, November 2, 2009, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “With Pennsylvania’s unemployment rate at its highest in more than 20 years, fewer low-income residents will be able to receive help paying their heating bills this winter. That is largely because income eligibility for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, was reduced to $33,075 for a family of four - more than $11,000 less than last year’s maximum. At least 20,000 families who received assistance last year could be left in the cold this year because of the lower income limits, said Michael Love, president and CEO of the Energy Association of Pennsylvania, a trade association that represents the state’s utility companies…”

State budget impasse threatens government-funded social services, By Brad Bumsted, October 2, 2009, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “A two-week-old state budget deal among legislative leaders and Gov. Ed Rendell fell apart Thursday as Pennsylvania reaches the 94th day of an impasse that threatens government-funded social services. ‘It is unconscionable that both sides cannot seem to find middle ground in order to pass a new budget,’ Grant Oliphant, president and CEO of The Pittsburgh Foundation, said yesterday. ‘Increasing numbers of families and individuals depend on social- and human-services support for their very survival, and I am deeply worried that it is going to take a tragedy to bring our state leaders to a compromise.’ The Pittsburgh Foundation yesterday granted more money to a fund established to help people hurt by the recession - raising the emergency grants to more than $1 million…”

Pa. budget stalemate is killing social services, By Jeff Gammage, September 17, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “A pile of unopened mail sits on the front counter. Incoming phone calls go directly to the voice-mail system. Beyond the front desk - unattended because the receptionist was laid off - are darkened offices and empty cubicles. The Caring People Alliance has operated in Philadelphia for nearly eight decades, battling an array of social ills and striving to help children in need. But unless something happens to end the state budget impasse, and soon, the agency may not see the new year. The 11-week-old stalemate in Harrisburg has cut off the flow of government dollars to the alliance and dozens of other social-service providers across Pennsylvania. Some survive through the generosity of their bankers. Others could soon go out of business…”

Social services suffered, Pa. budget deal or not, By Marc Levy and Ramit Plushnick-Masti (AP), September 12, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “A tentative deal in Pennsylvania’s Capitol that could release billions of state dollars for schools and countless social services has come too late for people like Megan Shreve, Avona Proctor and hundreds of others whose lives have been disrupted by the political stalemate. Even if the deal is approved by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Ed Rendell, who is threatening a veto, legislative officials say it could take weeks for money to actually arrive in the bank accounts of private service providers. And the budget is already more than two months overdue…”

• Fending off the chill, Editorial, September 3, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Wholesale changes this year in Pennsylvania’s annual heating-aid program seem designed to make every needy homeowner and utility stakeholder hot under the collar. Maybe it’s part of some secret plan to keep low-income families warm this winter? The changes make little sense, otherwise. No wonder they’ve sparked widespread criticism from utility company officials and low-income advocates alike…”
• Heating aid in a LIHEAP of trouble, By Signe Wilkinson, September 3, 2009, Philadelphia Daily News: “The Annual cold war starts early this year. We’re referring to the annual battle for people to get help with their heating bills through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). Usually, it’s not until October or November that we begin hearing signs of worry that the state-administered LIHEAP, managed by the Department of Public Welfare, will not be able to cover as many needy people as the year before. The federal government establishes the appropriation for LIHEAP, and sends money to the states. Most states also add their own funds to the program, though Pennsylvania is an exception…”

Proposal shortens heating aid program, By Elwin Green, August 25, 2009, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “A federally-funded program that assists homeowners with their heating bills will run for a shorter period of time this winter, reducing the availability of benefits by six weeks, according to a proposal by the state agency that administers the program. The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or Liheap, administered by the Department of Public Welfare, offers two types of assistance: the cash component and the crisis component. In years past, both were available from early November through the end of March…”

• State gets $56 million for weatherization from stimulus, By Beccy Tanner, August 26, 2009, Wichita Eagle: “Bernice Jones made history Tuesday when her house on East Second Street became the first in Kansas to be weatherized using federal stimulus funds. Workers were installing a furnace, central air-conditioning unit and refrigerator in her 1920s-era bungalow Tuesday as she ushered in the Kansas governor and other state and city officials…”
• Pa. gets weatherization funds held up by impasse, By Tom Infield, August 26, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “After months of delay caused by state inaction, the federal government finally was able to announce yesterday that it had awarded $101 million in stimulus funds to Pennsylvania for home weatherization. E. Craig Heim, in charge of weatherization for the state Department of Community and Economic Development, said that while Pennsylvania was “unquestionably behind” many other states in launching its program, “I think we’ll be able to catch up.” The funds from the U.S. Department of Energy, together with some earlier money that has been on hold, comprise nearly half of the $253 million that the state expects to receive to weatherize the homes of nearly 30,000 low-income Pennsylvanians over the next 21/2 years. The funds represent a sevenfold expansion of the decades-old Weatherization Assistance Program…”

• State budget cuts force cuts in child care, By Tiffany Aumann, August 21, 2009, Newark Advocate: “Some local child care centers are reducing staff hours and benefits and looking at possibly cutting part-time care programs as the result of cuts to state child care subsidies that will go into effect Sunday. ‘It has a lot of directors and day cares scrambling to figure out how to make ends meet,’ said Margaret Riggs, director of Southtowne Kids Care in Heath. ‘We’re watching and cutting where we can and just hope we stay full (enrollment)…’”
• Child care centers are in ‘dire straits’, By James McGinnis, August 20, 2009, Buck County Courier Times: “Each year, Pennsylvania state government provides subsidies for an estimated 235,000 children from low-income families. Child care programs for low-income families in Bucks County could be shut down next month due to the inability of state lawmakers to pass a budget. The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare said it has no money to distribute. And subsidies for day care centers have stopped…”

• Pa.’s budget stalemate frays its social safety net, By Marc Levy (AP), August 13, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Pennsylvania’s six-week-old budget stalemate has turned off the spigot that normally keeps billions of taxpayer dollars flowing for social services for the poor, prompting scores of nonprofit agencies to lay off workers, take out loans and cut back to survive. Another month or more without action to free up that money could irrevocably tear a safety net that is already jammed with waiting lists and relies heavily on low-wage employees, according to nonprofit directors and the government officials who deal with them. For now, dollars are drying up for everything from day care for children of the working poor to people who desperately need mental health counseling…”
• Impasse could end day care for many children, By Brad Bumsted and Debra Erdley, August 12, 2009, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “Jody Van Varenberg isn’t sure how she’ll pay the bills this month at Today’s Tot, her small child-care center in Washington. The state subsidizes many of her children but hasn’t paid Van Varenberg since June. The skeleton budget that Gov. Ed Rendell signed last month hasn’t changed her circumstances. ‘I’m one of the people who still aren’t getting paid,’ Van Varenberg said, adding that she wonders how long child-care operators like herself will be able to hang on. There’s no relief in sight yet for day-care centers across Pennsylvania…”
• Phila. ‘a city being held hostage’, By Daniel Rubin, August 13, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Sign of the times spotted in the Criminal Justice Center: We are out of paper. No copying folks. (Unless you supply!!) Here’s another sign. Defense attorney Sanjai Weaver has started taking SEPTA to work. The court has not paid the former prosecutor and judicial candidate since May, though she continues her court-appointed advocacy. ‘It finally dawned on me last Monday,’ she says, ‘You can’t pay for parking, you can’t pay for the gas.’ She is owed more than $15,000. As the economy has turned downward, Weaver has relied more and more on assignments from judges to represent the poor in criminal cases. Such work now represents close to 90 percent of her income. But government work turns out to have been a gamble…”

Pa. broadens eligibility for food stamps, By Alfred Lubrano, July 31, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Javina Brown, who makes $9.75 an hour working for Boston Market, applied for food stamps in June but was denied. Her salary was $4 a month too high. As of this week, however, Brown and others like her will be eligible for food stamps. For the first time in nearly 30 years, Pennsylvania has raised the income limit for the program…”

Caseworker shortage delaying food-stamp applications, By Alfred Lubrano, July 2, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “More people need food stamps than ever before, but there are fewer state workers in Pennsylvania to process the claims; this may result in applicants missing out on benefits, according to anti-hunger advocates.  Research by the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger shows that a major problem for people eligible for food stamps is communicating with their caseworkers at local offices of the state Department of Public Welfare…”

• Welfare up 11 percent in county, reversing a trend, By Chris L. Jenkins, July 2, 2009, Washington Post: “After years of declining caseloads, the sputtering economy is causing a surge in welfare rolls in Fairfax County…”
• More seek relief in bad times, By Gerry Weiss, June 28, 2009, Erie Times-News: “The nation’s deep recession continues to take a burdening toll on people in Erie County, forcing a sharp rise in the number of welfare and food-stamp recipients…”

• Bill to expand Pa. health insurance sparks debate, By Michael Vitez and Heather J. Chin, July 1, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Democratic leaders in Pennsylvania hope to double the number of residents who receive state-sponsored health insurance, known as adultBasic, but Republicans fear the costs may be too high…”
• Pennsylvania House expands health insurance to low-income adults, By Lauren Boyer, June 30, 2009, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Over Republican objections, state House Democrats voted yesterday to expand the state’s adultBasic health insurance program to cover more than 130,000 low-income adults…”