• Corbett raises limit on assets for food stamps, but critics blast the idea of a test, By Alfred Lubrano, February 2, 2012, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Modifying its original proposal, the Corbett administration is raising the amount of assets a person can have to retain food stamps, drawing the ire of critics who say the asset test itself is improper. The state Department of Public Welfare on Wednesday announced that households with people under age 60 will be limited to $5,500 in assets. For households with people 60 and above, the figure is $9,000. Houses, retirement benefits, and one car would not be counted as assets. Any additional vehicle worth more than $4,650 would be counted. Asset testing will begin May 1…”
• Pa.’s food stamp asset test will be easier than planned, By Karen Langley, February 2, 2012, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “The state said Wednesday that it is easing limits of an asset test it plans to reinstate for Pennsylvanians receiving food stamps. A total of 4,000 households are expected to lose their food stamps under the revised proposal by the state Department of Public Welfare. The plan sparked criticism from Democrats and advocates for the poor when it became public last month. Older people and the disabled with more than $9,000 in assets would no longer qualify for food stamps under a plan submitted Wednesday to federal officials. Those under age 60 would be disqualified if they have more than $5,500 in assets…”
• Conn. working to fix troubled food stamps program, By Susan Haigh (AP), February 4, 2012, Boston Globe: “While a fraud scandal cast a cloud over a special emergency food aid program following Hurricane Irene, the state is working to address deeper troubles that have plagued the traditional food stamps program, including high error rates, slow response times and an antiquated computer system. Connecticut is ranked last among all the states and territories for processing applications for the federal program in a timely manner. In 2006, the state was processing 81 percent of applications on a timely basis. But that dropped to 59 percent in 2010 and the head of the Connecticut Department of Social Services said the current rate is even worse…”

• 99 week maximum for jobless benefits may drop as low as 59 weeks, By Olivera Perkins, January 26, 2012, Cleveland Plain Dealer: “People thrust out of work in Ohio might have to settle for a much shorter period of unemployment benefits. Jobless workers here have been able to count on 99 weeks of benefits, but the maximum could fall to as low as 59 weeks. That possibility raises a divisive question: Is 99 weeks — almost two years — too long to draw jobless benefits…?”
• Jobless benefits to expire unless Pa. House acts, By Laura Olson, January 31, 2012, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Thousands of Pennsylvanians will see their federally funded unemployment benefits expire after this week, with legislation to extend those checks lingering in the state House of Representatives. A pending measure, which passed the state Senate last week, would offer 13 additional weeks of benefits to the state’s jobless residents. The federal funding was approved by Congress in December but requires the state to tweak its unemployment compensation rules in order to receive those dollars. That bill is awaiting consideration by a House panel, which has a vote scheduled for Monday. Legislative staffers say the belatedly approved benefits would be retroactive, but pressures to also enact broader changes to the state’s unemployment compensation system could further hold up that assistance…”
• Study: Safety net misses many jobless in Nevada, By Ed Vogel, January 30, 2012, Las Vegas Review-Journal: “Las Vegans Dylan Wikoff and Jorge Suescun Hijuelos know firsthand the downward spiral that occurs once you lose your job and then exhaust your unemployment benefits without finding work. ‘I ended up homeless on Fremont Street,’ said Wikoff, a 36-year-old Marine Corps veteran who was laid off more than two years ago from a sales job at a construction supply company. ‘It was a slow downward spiral for me,’ said Hijuelos, 51, a longtime union construction worker who had never been without work for more than a few weeks until the completion of the CityCenter project. ‘I sold my car, sold my bedroom set, sold everything to pay my rent. I went from a beautiful condo to renting rooms by the week. I slept in a couple of fields.’ These polite and bright men are not unusual. They actually are some of the lucky ones in the never-ending recession in Nevada…”
• Tension rises over Maine bill tackling unemployment insurance fraud, By Steve Mistler, January 30, 2012, Lewiston Sun Journal: “A controversial bill that would increase the penalties for unemployment fraud and the qualifications to receive out-of-work benefits is meeting stiff resistance from worker advocates. The proposal, LD 1725, was presented by the Department of Labor, which argued that an increase in unemployment claims has been accompanied by an increased possibility of fraud. Additionally, employer advocates are championing a provision in the proposal that would stop exempting vacation pay from the waiting period to receive benefits. Opponents, however, say the bill’s proposal to increase potential criminal penalties for unemployment fraud from a maximum of one year to 10 years in prison is extreme for a state that has one of the nation’s lowest unemployment fraud rates. In addition, they say the bill’s increased work-search mandates will force unemployed workers to take a job well beneath their skill and wage level…”
• Senators want to end jobless benefits for fired workers, By Gina Smith, January 26, 2012, The State: “State senators said Wednesday that they want to make sure that workers who were fired cannot get state unemployment benefits in the future. A Senate panel Wednesday advanced a bill that would prevent workers fired for misconduct from receiving any state unemployment benefits. Under current law, these workers can get jobless benefits for from five to 20 weeks, depending on the type and severity of their workplace infraction. The fired workers still would be eligible for up to 58 weeks of federal unemployment benefits under the proposal…”

• Pennsylvania to impose asset test for food stamps, By Alfred Lubrano, January 10, 2012, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Pennsylvania plans to make the amount of food stamps that people receive contingent on the assets they possess - an unexpected move that bucks national trends and places the commonwealth among a minority of states. Specifically, the Department of Public Welfare said that as of May 1, people under 60 with more than $2,000 in savings and other assets would no longer be eligible for food stamps. For people over 60, the limit would be $3,250. Houses and retirement benefits would be exempt from being counted as assets. If a person owns a car, that vehicle also would also be exempt, but any additional vehicle worth more than $4,650 would be considered a countable asset. Anne Bale, a spokeswoman for DPW, said the asset test was a way to ensure that ‘people with resources are not taking advantage of the food-stamp program,’ funded by federal money…”
• Thousands in Philadelphia eligible for food assistance never sought it, group says, By Alfred Lubrano, January 5, 2012, Philadelphia Inquirer: “In hard times, it seems unthinkable that people would miss out on millions of dollars to which they’re entitled. But that’s precisely what’s been happening with food stamps in Philadelphia. An estimated 180,000 city residents who were eligible for food stamps in 2010 never enrolled in the program, known as the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, according to new calculations by the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger. That’s up from 150,000 in 2008, according to coalition numbers, the latest available…”

• Bigger share of state cash for Medicaid, By Michael Cooper, December 13, 2011, New York Times: “Medicaid has steadily eaten up a growing share of state budgets over the past three years, while education has been getting a smaller slice of the pie. That is one of the changes that the lingering economic downturn and the changing American economy have wrought on state finances, according to an analysis of state spending over the last few years released Tuesday by the National Association of State Budget Officers…”
• State Medicaid spending soars, By Lisa Lambert, December 14, 2011, Chicago Tribune: “Spending by U.S. states on Medicaid, the healthcare program for the poor, soared last year and will likely continue growing despite measures to contain costs, according to a report released on Tuesday. Total Medicaid spending, excluding administrative costs, likely reached $398.6 billion in fiscal 2011, which ended in June for most states. That was up 10.1 percent from the year before, when spending rose 6 percent, the National Association of State Budget Officers reported. Medicaid was nearly one-quarter of all state expenditures in fiscal 2011, compared to elementary and secondary education, which accounted for 20 percent of all spending…”
• Medicaid money for Texas to jump, By Don Finley, December 13, 2011, San Antonio Express-News: “The federal government Monday granted Texas a waiver that could mean billions more in Medicaid dollars to hospitals over the next few years, in return for having them work together to provide better care for the poor. In Bexar County, that could mean new money to help keep the mentally ill from overusing crowded hospital emergency rooms, among other new services, one local official said. At the same time, federal officials slapped down a request from Texas to deny Medicaid patients access to family planning centers such as Planned Parenthood that also provide abortions - a plan that had drawn the anger of family planning advocates…”
• Medicaid waiver could be boon for Texas hospitals, By Don Finley, December 12, 2011, Houston Chronicle: “The federal government on Monday granted Texas a waiver that could mean billions more in Medicaid dollars to hospitals over the next few years in return for having them work together to provide better care for the poor…”
• Studies point to flaws in Florida’s Medicaid managed care, By Christine Vestal, December 14, 2011, Stateline.org: “Like many other states in fiscal duress, Florida sliced a large portion of its Medicaid budget this fiscal year, primarily by cutting payments to hospitals, nursing homes and other health care providers. Next year, Governor Rick Scott wants to double the size of reductions to the federal-state program - again by cutting provider fees. Within the next two years, however, the Republican governor expects to shave billions from the state budget by letting private health plans take over the care of all of Florida’s Medicaid patients - more than 3 million people. Scott’s plan is a statewide expansion of a controversial five-county managed care pilot started by Republican former Governor Jeb Bush in 2006. The state Medicaid office sought approval for the plan in August and a decision by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is expected soon…”
• Gov. Rick Scott’s proposed budget includes $2.1 billion cut in Medicaid, By Matt Dixon, December 12, 2011, Florida Times-Union: “When Gov. Rick Scott unveiled his proposed $66.4 billion budget last week, many people in the capital and around the state cast it as schools versus hospitals. Scott’s spending plan injected public education with a roughly $1 billion increase but cut $2.1 billion in reimbursements for Medicaid. The cut prompted a fast pushback from the Safety Net Alliance of Florida, a lobbying group that represents 15 of the state’s biggest hospitals. It estimates the cuts would cost its members $1.4 billion…”
• Maine Medicaid deficit mainly due to budget miscalculations, By John Richardson, December 13, 2011, Portland Press Herald: “A $120 million budget deficit projected for the fiscal year that began July 1 has set off an ideological debate over the future of Maine’s Medicaid program. The deficit itself, however, is mostly the result of a series of technical budgeting miscalculations, according to a report prepared by the LePage administration. Problems with a new claims processing system, a loss of federal funds that wasn’t accounted for, and a failure to budget for increases in federal Medicare premiums are among the biggest causes…”
• Proposed Medicaid cuts draw big protests in Maine, By John Gramlich, December 15, 2011, Stateline.org: “Earlier this year, it was Arizona that drew national attention for removing tens of thousands of its citizens from the Medicaid rolls. Now, Maine Governor Paul LePage wants to do the same, saying the state-federal health insurance program is becoming unsustainable. LePage is pushing a proposal that would eliminate 65,000 Mainers from Medicaid, as the Bangor Daily News reports. At a hearing on the proposal Wednesday (December 14), hundreds of protesters converged on the State House to voice their disapproval of the plan, which seeks to close a $220 million shortfall in the state health and human services budget…”
• Report on R.I’s Global Medicaid Waiver finds $22M in savings, By Richard Asinof, December 14, 2011, Providence Business News: “The long-awaited report by the Lewin Group on Rhode Island’s Global Medicaid Waiver was released on Dec. 13, finding that some $22.9 million in savings had been created over three years, far below the $100 million in savings claimed by Gary Alexander, former Secretary of the R.I. Office of Health and Human Services under former Gov. Donald L. Carcieri’s administration…”
• Pa.’s drop in Medicaid rolls stirs controversy, By Don Sapatkin, December 15, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Since August, the Corbett administration has cut off more than 150,000 people - including 43,000 children - from medical assistance in a drive to save costs. That purge far exceeds what any other state has tried, health policy experts say, and officials may be walking a fine line between rooting out waste and erecting barriers to care for the poor and disabled. When most states were experiencing flat or rising Medicaid enrollment from the economic downturn, stepped-up eligibility reviews in Pennsylvania began producing a decline over the summer. The pace of cuts picked up in November, with 90,000 cases, or 4 percent, dropped in a single month. In New Jersey, enrollment increased by 391 the same month…”

Pennsylvania still lacks computerized child welfare system network, By Kari Andren, November 20, 2011, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “Four-year-old Kristen Tatar’s emaciated body was wrapped in garbage bags, stuffed inside a picnic cooler and left out with the trash at her parents Armstrong County home. Her death in 2003 brought calls for creation of a computerized network that would allow all counties and the state to share information about children receiving child welfare services anywhere in Pennsylvania. Eight years later, that network does not exist…”

Tackling infant mortality rates among blacks, By Timothy Williams, October 14, 2011, New York Times: “Amanda Ralph is the kind of woman whose babies are prone to die. She is young and poor and dropped out of school after the ninth grade. But there is also an undeniable link between Ms. Ralph’s race - she is black - and whether her baby will survive: nationally, black babies are more than twice as likely as white babies to die before the age of 1. Here in Pittsburgh, the rate is five times. So, seven months into her first pregnancy, Ms. Ralph, 20, is lying on a couch at home as a nurse from a federally financed program listens to the heartbeat of her fetus. The unusual attention Ms. Ralph is receiving is one of myriad efforts being made nationwide to reduce the tens of thousands of deaths each year of infants before age 1. But health officials say it is frequently disheartening work, as a combination of apathy and cuts to federal and state programs aimed at reducing infant deaths have hampered progress, with dozens of big cities and rural areas reporting rising rates…”

• States, unhappy with health-care overhaul, look to form compact, By Guy Gugliotta, September 19, 2011, Boston Globe: “State governors and legislators opposed to the federal health-care law are considering a novel approach to escape its provisions: joining an ‘interstate compact’ that would replace federal programs - including Medicare and Medicaid - with block grants to the states. To date, legislation has been drafted or introduced in 14 states and brought to the floor by lawmakers in at least nine. Three Republican governors - in Georgia, Oklahoma, and Texas - have signed the compact into law, while Governor Jay Nixon of Missouri, a Democrat, let the compact become law without signing it. Supporters say they hope to get 40 states to put it on the legislative calendar in 2012. If a significant number of states pass the compact, supporters plan to submit it to Congress for approval in the same way that the body approves interstate compacts regulating commerce, transportation, and resource conservation and development…”
• Study looks at who remains uninsured in Mass., By Chelsea Conaboy, September 19, 2011, Boston Globe: “Much of the discussion around the 2006 Massachusetts health law has focused on how far the state has come in providing coverage for the uninsured. Dr. Rachel Nardin, a neurologist at Cambridge Health Alliance and chair of the Massachusetts chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program, said sometimes it is important to take a different look — to look at the glass as half empty and ask, why? She and others at the Harvard-affiliated health system published a study online with the Journal of General Internal Medicine last week looking at why people remain uninsured in Massachusetts despite a law mandating that most residents have health insurance…”
• Pa. considering shift in Medicaid payments to help cut rising expenses, September 21, 2011, By Phil Galewitz, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Pennsylvania is considering paying Medicaid recipients as much as $200 as an incentive to visit higher-quality and lower-cost hospitals and doctors. Experts say the strategy has never been tried by other states. Gary Alexander, the state’s secretary of public welfare, said his agency hoped to launch the plan by early next year to help control rising expenses in the $30 billion Medicaid program…”

• Survey: New Jersey is among the best states to raise and educate kids, By Megan DeMarco, August 17, 2011, Star-Ledger.
• NH still No. 1 in child well-being, but poverty up, By Kathy McCormack (AP), August 17, 2011, Boston Globe.
• Kids Count: RI children affected by unemployment, foreclosures, By Kimberley Donoghue, August 17, 2011, Providence Business News.
• Study: Economy hurting children, Kids Count Data Book shows Pennsylvania fared worse in several categories, By Andrew M. Seder, August 17, 2011, Wilkes-Barre Times Leader.
• Study: Md. child poverty among lowest in U.S.; death rates higher, By Steve Kilar, August 17, 2011, Baltimore Sun.

• The hidden homeless: Sheltered in motels, they wait, hope, By Edward Colimore, July 25, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Sometimes the problems are so overwhelming that Robert Cordero steps away from his children for a few minutes to pull himself together. While two sons and three daughters play in a cluttered Cherry Hill motel room, he turns up the radio, closes the bathroom door, and cries. ‘I can’t let them see me that way. . . . Who will they look up to?’ said the 40-year-old single father. ‘I have to go back and try to raise five kids.’ Cordero’s family has lived at the Hillside Inn for more than five months, along with a couple dozen other homeless people surviving on public assistance. He and his children - ages 8 to 16 - moved there after Cordero lost his home-remodeling job and they were evicted from a Woodlynne apartment…”
• No place for these students to call home, By Eric G Stark, July 24, 2011, Lancaster Newspapers: “Two boys sleep in a car and use an electric heater to keep warm, running an extension cord into their family’s crowded apartment. A girl showers at her high school rather than endure the long, cold walk to shower at a campground in winter. A family that can’t afford toilet paper resorts to using washcloths, and a boy shares his cousins’ underwear.These are real examples of how some families with children are living in Lancaster County. Just like city schools, where social workers have helped more than 1,000 homeless children this past school year, suburban schools dealt with hundreds more who did not have a permanent place to call home…”

Half of Pa.’s inmates are rejailed within 5 years, By Mensah M. Dean, July 5, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “When Antoine Stone found work at a grocery store this spring, he took a giant step toward self-sufficiency while inching away from ever again being a financial burden on Pennsylvania taxpayers. The well-spoken single father of two daughters didn’t just have to overcome the ravages of the recession to land his first real job in years. For Stone, 38, the hurdles to finding work were much higher, and of his own making. The West Philadelphia native estimates that in his younger years he racked up eight to 10 arrests, serving short stints in city jails. But it was a parole violation stemming from a drug-possession conviction from nearly 10 years ago that landed him in state prison for the first time, from January 2006 to February 2008. As a convicted felon, Stone needed more help than the average job seeker, and found it at the nonprofit Pennsylvania Prison Society, which in a 12-week program taught him life skills, how to write a resumé, how to dress for success and how to be a better father. The vast majority of the inmates released from Pennsylvania’s prisons don’t go through such programs - and it shows…”

• Criticism for cuts to programs that help people get off welfare, By Alfred Lubrano, July 4, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “In a GED classroom emptied by state budget cuts last Thursday, instructor Marylou Fusco began removing paper cutouts that her students - single mothers working to get off welfare - had made of their own hands that were tacked to a bulletin board. On the palms of the hands, the women had written their life goals: ‘Get off welfare.’ ‘Go to college.’ ‘Get my own place for me and my kids.’ After 15 years, the GED classes were quickly ended to reflect the new reality dictated by state budget line No. 5297.55: Cut the welfare-to-work program by $17 million - nearly 48 percent. The new reality postpones or ends the hopes and wishes scrawled across the women’s palms. Still more cuts were made in other programs meant to help the poor in a budget process that saw the Corbett administration push through a controversial last-minute Senate measure that shifts control of welfare funding from the legislature to his administration…”
• NJ reverses order to cut $15 from welfare checks, By Erik Larsen, July 6, 2011, Asbury Park Press: “The state of New Jersey has reversed an order to its 21 counties to make a $15 per person reduction in monthly welfare checks issued to single adults and childless couples. Mary Fran McFadden, director of the Ocean County Board of Social Services, said Tuesday that anyone affected by the change before the order was rescinded will be reimbursed. The benefits change was to begin last Friday, the start of the state’s new fiscal year. There are more than 3,100 county residents on General Assistance who stood to be impacted by the change…”

Poor targeted in Pa. budget, By Alfred Lubrano, June 21, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “When Gov. Corbett proposed to balance the budget by cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from universities and public schools, squawks of protest erupted throughout Pennsylvania. Neither deaf nor politically unsavvy, House Republicans listened to the noise, then came up with a new plan to restore nearly $600 million in aid to education. So if schools are, to some extent spared, who will bear the brunt of budget cuts? The House’s Republican majority, elected on pledges of new ideas - smaller government, ethics reform - settled on a not-so-fresh notion: Cut funding for the poor…”

Pa. legislators reach deal on jobless benefits, By Mark Scolforo (AP), June 16, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “A deal to avoid letting 45,000 Pennsylvanians lose unemployment-compensation benefits was announced by state legislative leaders late Wednesday, with limits on the maximum size of benefit checks and a requirement that recipients look for work. The compromise would cap the largest weekly benefit check at $573 for next year. The bill also would count severance pay of more than $17,800 against benefits, a move that would apply to about 6,000 beneficiaries. The average weekly benefit in Pennsylvania is about $310. House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R., Allegheny) said the compromise was fair to employers and employees and amounted to the state’s only unemployment-compensation reforms in at least a decade. Republicans projected it would save the unemployment-compensation fund more than $114 million this year…”

Experts: Half-day kindergarten a ‘disaster’, By Alfred Lubrano, May 1, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “The Philadelphia School District’s plan to cut full-day kindergarten to help balance its budget is being decried by national education experts as a ‘disaster’ and a ‘very bad decision’ that could harm the development of thousands of children - especially the poor. At the same time, many Philadelphia parents are angered and worried that half-day kindergarten would force them to choose between quitting work to be home for their children or placing them in questionable or costly day care. And local child advocates warn that community child-care centers could not handle the tidal wave of 12,700 kindergartners likely to need placement in some kind of program…”

Study quantifies food insecurity - hunger - in the suburbs, By Alfred Lubrano, April 21, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Hunger quiets people, and there was almost no conversation among the 145 who gathered in an Upper Darby church parking lot, awaiting a charitable distribution of produce, on a recent wet spring morning. Breaking the silence, Juliana Noble said, ‘A lot of changes in my life brought me here today.’ The 50-year-old mother of a high school senior from Yeadon, Noble was laid off from her job as a course adviser at a Main Line college two years ago. She now works part-time at a clothing store, struggling to pay the mortgage and utilities. Fresh produce doesn’t fit in her budget, so she shows up at Christ Lutheran Church for the bananas, potatoes, lettuce, and other food in the weekly Fresh for All distribution by Philabundance, the hunger-relief agency…”

• In Pa. budget fight, would cutting welfare lessen the impact of cuts to education?, By Angela Couloumbis, April 7, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Cutting welfare to save higher education: How much would it really save? The corridors of the Capitol were reverberating this week with chants of students and teachers (’We are . . . Penn State!’) decrying the deep cuts Gov. Corbett wants to make in aid to state-funded universities. So it made sense for the brain trust of the House’s new Republican majority to give serious consideration to somehow softening those blows. And for one brief shining moment, that brain trust seemed to have it figured out: save millions by rooting out fraud and waste in the welfare department. Use the savings to put back some of the aid Corbett wants to take from the big ’state-related’ universities (Pennsylvania State, Temple, Lincoln, Pittsburgh) and 14 smaller state-supported schools such as West Chester and Kutztown. Problem is, the House Republicans are still doing the math on just how much money their plan to root out welfare waste will actually save…”
• Welfare targeted to spare higher ed, By Brad Bumsted and Timothy Puko, April 7, 2011, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “The Department of Public Welfare’s proposed $11.2 billion budget, the largest area of spending in state government, remains a target of House Republicans as they attempt to restore some of Gov. Tom Corbett’s recommended cuts in higher education. But GOP leaders acknowledged at a news conference on Wednesday that the package of eight bills they were touting would not have a significant impact on the 2011-12 budget in which Corbett is trying to close a $4.2 billion deficit… “
• Pa. social services sweating over major budget blow, By Jeremy Roebuck, April 7, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “With the effects of a recession lingering, no one providing government or social services expected to escape this year’s budgeting process unscathed. But Gov. Corbett’s proposal to eliminate a fund directed toward helping families hardest hit by the economic downturn has some area nonprofits scratching their heads. The governor’s proposed budget - released last month - calls for zeroing out the $23 million Human Services Development Fund, an account that helps counties fill gaps in their social-services spending on those who fall outside typically protected groups such as children and the disabled. Yet the cuts couldn’t come at a worse time, nonprofit managers say, as the recession has put more families in need of such help and restricted the amount of private money available to support them…”

In Pa., low-income adults soon may be uninsured, By Jenny Gold, February 23, 2011, National Public Radio: “When Paula Michele Boyle first received the letter earlier this month explaining that her health insurance coverage was being terminated, she took it personally, thinking maybe the insurer had discovered something in her history to make her ineligible. But then the Philadelphia resident read on and realized that it wasn’t just her - the entire program, Pennsylvania’s state-funded health plan for low-income adults, was about to be canceled. For Boyle and her husband, Tom, both self-employed cancer survivors who need regular medical care, the news has been unnerving. ‘We were in shock over this,’ Boyle says. ‘What are we going to do now? We need doctor visits and testing.’ Nearly 42,000 people who participate in the program have received similar notices. Another 494,787 people had been on the waiting list, hoping to get such coverage…”

• Deep social services cuts outlined in California, By Jesse McKinley, January 10, 2011, New York Times: “Workers were removing the ornaments from the Christmas tree at the Capitol here on Monday morning, and much the same mood filled the legislative chambers as Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled his Grinch-like budget. It included $12.5 billion in spending cuts, with a 10 percent cut in take-home pay for some state employees and deep reductions in social services. He also suggested a five-year extension of a bundle of taxes, a plan that requires voter approval, setting the stage for a potentially contentious special election in June. The budget is meant to address an estimated $25.4 billion deficit, just the latest shortfall for a state that has experienced a drumbeat of bad economic news in recent years. But Mr. Brown, who took office last week, cast the blame even further, saying the state’s leaders had spent the last decade balancing their books with ‘gimmicks and tricks and unrealistic expectations that pushed this state deeper and deeper into debt.’ But that period, Mr. Brown repeatedly emphasized, was over…”
• Pennsylvania subsidized health insurance for low-income people to end, By Don Sapatkin, January 12, 2011, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Pennsylvania’s subsidized health insurance for low-income working people will likely end next month, officials on Gov.-elect Tom Corbett’s transition team said Tuesday, leaving more than 40,000 people with less palatable options and dashing the hopes of more than 400,000 on the waiting list. ‘AdultBasic is not sustainable,’ said Kevin Harley, a spokesman for the transition, referring to the insurance program that began eight years ago under Gov. Tom Ridge, a Republican, and was expanded by outgoing Gov. Rendell, a Democrat. Staff for the incoming and outgoing governors traded accusations Tuesday about who was responsible for the program’s demise, but both agreed that the money - a combination of tobacco-settlement revenues and donations from the state’s four Blue Cross plans - would run out around Feb. 28 for the fiscal year that ends June 30, and that no good alternative was in place…”
• Corbett team negotiates health care for working poor, By Brad Bumsted, January 11, 2011, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “Leaders of Republican Gov.-elect Tom Corbett’s transition team said yesterday they worked out a plan with insurance companies to continue providing coverage to the working poor, but at significantly higher premiums than people pay now. Corbett’s team charged that the outgoing administration of Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell unnecessarily delayed notification to people in the adultBasic program and failed to live up to an agreement to provide state money to extend the program. Coverage under the program expires Feb. 28 because of a shortage of money. About 45,000 people receive adultBasic coverage…”

• Priced Out: High rents drive housing crisis, December 3, 2010, Centre Daily Times: “While local governments have devoted much attention in recent years to concerns over the lack of affordable housing, the debate has largely centered on the need for ‘work force’ housing, which would put home ownership within reach of more people. Almost unnoticed in the discussion was another aspect of the housing issue: the lack of affordable rental housing. But last summer, members of the Centre County Affordable Housing Coalition sounded a warning. The lack of low-income housing, they said, had become a crisis. For the past several months, CDT reporters have sought out experts in housing, both in Centre County and across the state, and talked with dozens of people who told tales of being on the brink of homelessness because of low-paying jobs, lost jobs, illnesses and misjudgments. Together, they paint a picture of a long-standing problem made more visible by the economic downturn. Andy Haines, of S&A Homes, stated it clearly: ‘A lot of people have lost jobs. They’re not looking to buy houses. They’re looking to keep a roof over their heads…’”
• New Orleans still lacks affordable housing for its poorest people, report says, By Katy Reckdahl, November 24, 2010, New Orleans Times-Picayune: “Like other parts of Louisiana, New Orleans still lacks housing that is affordable to its poorest people, the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency found in a statewide assessment of housing needs released this week. Policymakers now have more data showing where housing is needed, said Alison Jones, LHFA board chairwoman, who expressed hope that the data would ‘facilitate agreement … to help move forward critically needed housing projects.’ Time is running out on legislators’ last-ditch efforts to extend or allow the exchange of Gulf Opportunity Zone tax credits, which expire at the end of this year…”

• Health coverage at risk for working poor in Pa., By Don Sapatkin, November 17, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “An affordable health-insurance program for low-income working people that was started by Gov. Tom Ridge and expanded under Gov. Rendell is projected to run out of money within weeks after Gov.-elect Corbett takes office, administration officials said. Contractual obligations mean that insurance-termination notices may need to go to tens of thousands of subscribers in the program, known as adultBasic, even before the new governor is sworn in, if more than $50 million is not found before then, they said. As attorney general, Corbett joined a lawsuit seeking to overturn President Obama’s health-care overhaul. The opposition was based on the mandate that individuals and many businesses sign up or pay a fine, said Kevin Harley, a spokesman for the transition. The governor-elect said during the campaign that he supported plans to continue funding the state program at least through the fiscal year that ends June 30…”
• With Medicaid waiver, California dives into health care reform, By Christine Vestal, November 19, 2010, Stateline.org: “Nearly missed in the noise from newly elected politicians vowing to upend the Obama administration’s health care reform law was a federal decision allowing California to start implementing it - and improve its fiscal situation in the process. On Election Day, California got word it would receive $10 billion in federal Medicaid money to extend coverage to some 500,000 people who are currently uninsured. The initiative means the nation’s most populous state will dive right into the new health law’s biggest challenge: providing coverage for low-income adults who are not eligible for Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor. The plan, which the state calls a ‘bridge to reform,’ is also designed to bolster the state’s safety-net hospitals, as well as lower overall health care costs. Under the Nov. 2 agreement - a waiver of standard Medicaid rules aimed at allowing states to test innovative new programs - California promised to shave $2 billion per year from its existing Medicaid bill by streamlining care for its highest-cost recipients: seniors, adults with disabilities and children with severe illnesses. The federal government agreed to give California $2 billion per year in return…”
• Maine Republicans say they will end ‘Dirigo’ health care experiment, By Pamela M. Prah, November 17, 2010, Stateline.org: “Before there was a federal health care overhaul, and before there was a Massachusetts law to use as a model for the national plan, there was Dirigo. That’s what Maine called its first-in-the-nation attempt at achieving universal health coverage when Democrats approved the plan back in 2003. Now, the Maine program may be one of the first casualties of the Republican landslide in state capitals. Maine’s incoming governor, Paul LePage, pledged during the campaign to ‘repeal and replace’ the plan, which is Latin for ‘I lead’ and is the state’s motto. Republicans also took control of the Maine House and Senate, making the state one of only two to flip from total Democratic control to total control by Republicans (Wisconsin was the other)…”

• Hunger in Philadelphia: The safety net is torn, By Alfred Lubrano, November 5, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Myra Young fits a nebulizer mask over her son Todd’s face to beat back his chronic asthma. Inhaling vaporized medicine that keeps him breathing, the 4-year-old with large eyes leafs through a children’s Bible to pass the time. Young, 41, is an unemployed nursing assistant who lost her job in 2007 caring for Todd during his two-month hospitalization. She watches nervously as the whirring machine eats electricity. The power to Young’s two-bedroom rental in Kensington will be cut in two weeks because the bill has climbed to $770. She lives in the poorest place in Pennsylvania - the First Congressional District. According to a national poll, the district is the second-hungriest in America. Young, who is separated, is not without help. She receives monthly welfare payments of $205, along with $362 in food stamps, and $674 in Supplemental Security Income for Todd’s illness - part of the safety net meant to aid the poor. Young’s husband, a hotel kitchen worker, chips in as well. But all that help still keeps mother and son stuck at the poverty level - not nearly enough to pay the $625 rent, and feed Young’s hungry child and his voracious breathing machine. Because Young hasn’t worked since Todd’s hospitalization, it’s harder for her to get jobs; employers are wary of her two years away from nursing…”
• Inquirer Editorial: We are what we eat, Editorial, November 5, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Hunger isn’t confined to a single zip code. But there are few places where its impact is more evident than within this city’s First Congressional District, rated the second-hungriest in America. Inquirer reporter Alfred Lubrano recently detailed how that hunger, rooted in poverty, can paradoxically lead to obesity. Many among the poor are overweight not from eating too much, but because they eat the wrong foods…”

• More predicted to receive food aid after rule change, By Tom Robertson, November 1, 2010, Minnesota Public Radio: “Beginning Monday, tens of thousands more Minnesotans will qualify for food assistance, when new guidelines go into place for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — what we used to call food stamps. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has increased the income eligibility for food support. A family of four with a gross monthly income of roughly $3,000 or less now qualifies. County social service agencies across the state are gearing up for a potential flood of families seeking help. The Minnesota Department of Human Services anticipates the change will increase the food support caseload by about 16,000 cases per year, impacting an additional 34,000 people annually. In Minnesota, the federal program is known as the Food Support Program. As of May of this year, some 425,000 Minnesotans were receiving food support each month…”
• When poverty means hunger for the right food, By Alfred Lubrano, October 31, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Mold grows thick and black on the walls of Celeata Bailey’s Norris Square bedroom. Because most of the ceiling is missing, Bailey, 21, gets soaked in bed when it rains. Her family puts up duct tape to keep the bathroom wall from collapsing. Raw sewage burbles in the basement, and the family stores surgical masks in the kitchen for anyone who has to descend into its putrid depths. Bailey’s poverty is evident throughout the house, which sits in the First Congressional District, the second-hungriest in America, according to a Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, one of the largest polls ever taken. But poverty is also written on Bailey’s body, made heavy since childhood by a poor person’s diet of cheap, fattening, processed foods larded with high-fructose corn syrup, fat, and salt. As a result of her diet, Bailey has suffered from diabetes since she was 13. It is, doctors acknowledge, a paradox that hunger and obesity are linked. And doctors say obesity and diabetes among the poor are on the rise, as many families faced with hunger often have little choice but to eat nutritionally disastrous foods to survive…”

Researchers fight to save the region’s tiniest babies, By Josh Goldstein, October 25, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Delivered by cesarean section 11 weeks early, Quinzel Kane Jr. was so tiny that his 1.6-pound body nearly fit in his father’s hand. A week later, the child developed a leaky bowel - a common problem in underweight babies - and was rushed to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. Over the next few months, specialists there would fight to keep him from becoming part of a grim statistic: the high infant mortality rate in pockets across the region. Philadelphia’s infant mortality rate stands among the nation’s highest - rivaling Detroit’s and Baltimore’s - and is on par with those of Uruguay in South America and Bosnia in eastern Europe. But the rates are high too in some suburban towns, such as Upper Darby and Norristown. And while murders grab far more attention here, the number of infant deaths is actually greater across the region…”

A portrait of hunger, By Alfred Lubrano, October 10, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “There’s not enough food in Imani Sullivan’s life. At home, Sullivan, 31, often doesn’t set a fork for herself at the table so that her sons, ages 3 and 10, can eat. Naturally diminutive, Sullivan looks frail these days. She has dropped 15 pounds since losing her part-time janitor job during the summer. Each family meal feels like an obligation she cannot meet, a daily burden multiplied by three. ‘It makes me feel like less of a mom not to have food,’ she says in her mother’s North Philadelphia apartment, suddenly overcome by the hardship. Tears form in her eyes. ‘Every day, I walk into a brick wall. No bricks fall - there’s no dust, no crumbling. Just the wall. It never moves.’ The hunger in Sullivan’s house is distressingly commonplace throughout the area of Philadelphia where she lives: Pennsylvania’s First Congressional District. At a time when more people in America are suffering from hunger, the First Congressional District is one of the hungriest, second only to the Bronx, N.Y., according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, an ongoing national poll done in conjunction with the Food Research and Action Center in Washington. Meanwhile, U.S. Census data released in late September show that the district, with a poverty rate of nearly 29 percent in 2009, is among the 10 poorest in the United States, and poorer than any other district in Pennsylvania…”

• Fewer kids in foster care in Pennsylvania, Allegheny County, By Jill King Greenwood, September 21, 2010, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “A report to be released today finds Pennsylvania is making ’significant progress’ in safely reducing the number of children living in foster care. That number fell almost 12 percent between this year and last, according to the Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group in Harrisburg. ‘Pennsylvania’s child welfare system serves some of the most vulnerable children and families in our communities. It is critically important that we continue to monitor the performance of this essential safety net,’ said Joan L. Benso, president of the partnership. The report compared data collected between April 1, 2009, and March 31 with the previous year, and drew from all 67 counties in the state. The declines are being achieved without endangering children’s safety, the report said, because repeat cases of child abuse did not measurably increase and re-entry into foster care declined…”
• Fostering good care results, By Peter Hall, September 24, 2010, Bucks County Courier Times: “The number of Bucks County children in foster care declined, while the number of children who left foster homes for permanent homes increased last year, according to a report released Tuesday by a child welfare advocacy group. In Montgomery County, the number of children in foster care dropped only slightly and the number of children who found permanent homes stayed level. But indicators of child welfare performance in both Bucks and Montgomery in those and many other areas examined in the report were better than the average for other urban counties or Pennsylvania as a whole…”

• Paterson’s no. 2 calls for Medicaid overhaul, By Anemona Hartocollis, September 19, 2010, New York Times: “Describing Medicaid as a ‘massive program’ whose growth threatens the state’s finances, Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch is calling for significant changes in New York’s health care benefits for the poor and disabled, lobbing a volatile issue in the midst of the campaign for a new governor. In a report to be released on Monday, Mr. Ravitch says the state should remove control of the rate-setting process for Medicaid, the joint state and federal health insurance program for the poor, from the Legislature to reduce the influence of politics. He also calls for limits on medical malpractice awards and for the re-examination of rules that allow middle-class families to shelter assets so they can qualify for coverage. Although the report does not suggest a cut in benefits, it notes that New York has among the most liberal definitions of eligibility…”
• State’s Medicaid numbers hit record, By Bill Toland, September 21, 2010, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “More than 2.2 million Pennsylvanians are eligible for Medicaid, the federally mandated, state-managed program that provides health care for people and families who can’t afford care otherwise. It is the highest number on record, representing nearly 18 percent of the population — more than one in six Pennsylvanians — and underscoring the worrisome economic climate and continued difficulty many people have finding jobs and employer-provided insurance. But the swelling Medicaid roster is not just a sign of the economic times. It’s also reflective of growing dependence on state-sponsored health care and safety nets, as well as the increasing cost of health care and long-term care — trends showing few signs of immediate abatement. As a result, the state’s Department of Public Welfare budget, and the need to trim it, have been regular sources of political strife for Gov. Ed Rendell and the state Legislature. The same will remain true for future governors and lawmakers…”

Bill would extend Phila. schools’ Universal Feeding program, By Alfred Lubrano, June 11, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “A unique free-lunch program for poor children in Philadelphia schools would continue for five more years under a bill introduced Thursday on Capitol Hill. The city’s Universal Feeding program, which allows more than 110,000 students to eat free lunches without having to fill out applications, was included in the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act. U.S. Reps. Joe Sestak (D., Pa.) and Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.) said Thursday they worked with other members of the Philadelphia congressional delegation and their staffs to get the provision for the Philadelphia program into the House bill. The Senate version does not have a similar provision. Without the Philadelphia provision, thousands of poor city students could face the loss of free lunches, advocates say. Children and their families in poor communities don’t always complete such forms, creating the potential for youngsters to go hungry…”

Formula could cost Phila.’s needy students free lunch, By Alfred Lubrano, May 23, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Thousands of poor Philadelphia students could face the loss of free lunch if a new method of calculating eligibility becomes federal law. Though the change could extend free lunch to students across America, it threatens a program unique to Philadelphia known as Universal Feeding, which allows more than 110,000 students in poor schools to eat free lunches without having to fill out applications. Children and their families in poor communities don’t always complete such forms, creating the potential for kids to go hungry. The suggested change could deny free lunches to as many as 51,182 students - 46 percent of the Philadelphia children who now receive those meals, said Michael Masch, chief business officer for the district…”

Study: To survive, family of four needs nearly $60,000, By Alfred Lubrano, May 20, 2010, Philadelphia Inquirer: “To survive in Philadelphia without food stamps or other government assistance, a family of four needs to make nearly $60,000 a year - a hard-to-fathom ’sticker-shock’ number that shows how expensive life has become. According to a study being released Thursday, two adults with one preschooler and one school-age child have to take in $59,501 a year to live on a bare-bones budget in the city. In 2008, the same family of four needed $53,611 to make it in Philadelphia. That’s the word from the Self-Sufficiency Standard for Pennsylvania, a highly respected University of Washington analysis that comes out every two years. The problem is that nearly 62 percent of Philadelphia households take in less than $50,000 a year, according to census data analyzed by Dave Elesh, a sociologist at Temple University…”

• Kids on food stamps jump double digits, By Mark Curnutte, January 7, 2010, Cincinnati Enquirer: “The Dow Jones Industrial Average and other economic indicators continued to inch upward Thursday, but a new national analysis suggests that even more children will be hurled into poverty before the recovery takes hold. In fact, Ohio saw an 18 percent increase and Kentucky an 11 percent rise in the number of children receiving federal food stamp assistance between August 2008 and August 2009, according to the analysis ‘The Effects of the Recession on Child Poverty.’ The analysis was released Thursday by the Brookings Institution and First Focus, a bipartisan advocacy organization working to make children and families a priority in federal policy and budget decisions. In that 12-month span, 3.4 million additional children went on food stamps…”
• Food stamp usage grows in sagging economy, By Margie Peterson, January 4, 2010, Allentown Morning Call: “Not long ago, John was a homeowner with a car, a job and his pride. Once solidly middle class, the machine operator from Bethlehem lost his job and began the painful descent into the burgeoning ranks of the nouveau poor. ‘I never in a million years thought I would lose my job,’ said John, a Persian Gulf War veteran and married father of two children who asked that his last name not be used. ‘It’s hard not being the breadwinner of the family. We used to give donations and everything, and to have it turn around on you is really unbelievable. We’re hanging onto our house by a thread.’ With unemployment hovering around 10 percent, he has plenty of company. Local advocates for the poor say they are seeing new demographics of people seeking government help such as food stamps. From September 2008 to September 2009, the number of Pennsylvanians getting food stamps increased by 18.9 percent. Northampton County saw the number of households participating rise by 23.8 percent during that time, while Lehigh County had an 11.7 percent increase…”

• Milwaukee child welfare system can learn from Pittsburgh area, By Gina Barton, December 14, 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “‘It takes a village to raise a child.’ That line is repeated over and over by child welfare advocates across the country. But officials in Allegheny County, Pa., have done more than just talk. They have spent the past 13 years building that village one neighborhood at a time. ‘The first step has to be: Your child welfare agency has to build trust. You’ve got to prove you’re not simply there to take people’s kids away. Then people will be more prone to get on board and band together,’ said Richard Wexler, executive director of the Virginia-based National Coalition for Child Protection Reform. Because Allegheny County - which includes Pittsburgh - has achieved that goal, the county’s child welfare system has transformed ‘from a national disgrace to a national model,’ Wexler often says. As the State of Wisconsin works to reform the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare with a focus on prevention, Pittsburgh holds lessons for how to implement effective reforms. Although the number of children in out-of-home care in Milwaukee County has dropped dramatically since the state took over child welfare in 1998, Milwaukee’s rate of removal remains relatively high, experts say…”
• $15 million computer system makes agency more accountable, By Gina Barton, December 14, 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Eleven years ago, the computer systems used by Allegheny County’s Department of Human Services were a mess. Ninety-six different applications couldn’t ‘talk’ to each other. Workers didn’t know how to find information in any of them. Clients were entered into the systems multiple times, so officials couldn’t figure out anything about the people they served - or even how many there were…”
• Youth support partners have learned from experience, By Gina Barton, December 14, 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Ashley Hartman was raped by her best friend’s brother when she was 13. She dropped out of school, so child welfare officials came to the house where she lived with her drug-addicted father. A year later, now a ward of the state, Hartman was addicted to drugs and living in a shelter for teens when she got pregnant - with twins. The babies’ father was 21. Today, at 19, Hartman is a high school graduate, living on her own and raising her daughters. She works full time for the Allegheny County Department of Human Services. Her job is to help other teens survive the child welfare system…”
• Support centers give families a place to interact, By Gina Barton, December 14, 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Christine Hyatt walked to the Hilltop Family Care Connection center to pick up baby formula through the federal Women, Infants and Children program. While she was there, one of the workers told her about a free play group for her 1-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn Kotvas. Now, Hyatt and Kaitlyn come to the group every week. Hyatt, 24 and pregnant with her second child, also attends a new moms support group and an early-literacy program that provides her family with free books…”
• Program empowers families to make decisions, By Gina Barton, December 14, 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “When 14-year-old Lavante was shot and left a quadriplegic, his family started falling apart. His mother couldn’t eat, and her health declined to the point where she couldn’t get to the rehabilitation hospital to see her son. His father stopped at a bar every night after work. His three teenage siblings ran wild. To make matters worse, Lavante’s doctors called in a neglect complaint to Allegheny County’s Office of Children, Youth and Families. Lavante’s mother wasn’t visiting enough, they said. Further, they thought she was illiterate and were concerned about whether she would be able to care for her son…”

• Nearly 25% of Phila. foster children live with kin, By Alfred Lubrano, December 9, 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “A new statewide child-welfare report shows a mixed picture in the region - including the encouraging finding that the percentage of Philadelphia children in foster care who live in the homes of relatives is higher than the state average. Nearly 25 percent of foster children in Philadelphia are placed in the homes of relatives, compared with around 21 percent for the state as a whole, according to the report released yesterday by Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, a statewide advocacy group based in Harrisburg. Children placed with family members do better than those in nonfamily settings, the group’s analysts said…”
• Foster families to feel pinch of slashed budget, By Jennifer Jacobs, December 10, 2009, Des Moines Register: “Iowa foster parents will get about $35 less each month for expenses for the abused or neglected children they care for on behalf of the state. That could hurt the foster care system, said several Iowans who oversee the Iowa Department of Human Services. The 10 percent across-the-board budget cut Gov. Chet Culver ordered for this budget year will decrease state spending on foster care subsidies by about $315,000…”

• The fourth ‘R’: Rural school systems locally face big challenges, By Andrea Castillo, December 8, 2009, Macon Telegraph: “Georgia has the third-highest rural student population in the country, according to a report released by the Rural School and Community Trust in November. More than 500,000 Georgia students attend rural schools, making up more than one-third of the state’s student population, according to the analysis. Georgia’s rural schools tend to have high poverty rates among students and low graduation rates, according to the report. The report was compiled using data from the 2006-07 school year from the National Center for Education Statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau and The New America Foundation. School officials in several Middle Georgia counties say one of the challenges of serving students in rural schools is having a smaller tax base, limiting the academic and cultural resources the schools can offer students. In addition, student poverty - commonly measured through eligibility for free and reduced lunches - affects the students in a number of ways, from reduced student concentration and parent involvement to transportation limitations…”
• Report shows poverty in rural schools, By Paula Wolf, December 6, 2009, Lancaster Sunday News: “Some of the county’s most rural school districts have their share of impoverished children, according to figures released last month by the U.S. Census Bureau. The School District of Lancaster, which covers Lancaster city and Lancaster Township, and Columbia Borough School District top the list with 26.9 and 19.6 percent of children ages 5-17 in families in poverty. But in three other districts - Eastern Lancaster County, Solanco and Pequea Valley - at least 13.9 percent of children in that age range live in poverty, exceeding the Lancaster County average of 12.4 percent, the census reported. The numbers, for 2008, are from the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates program. They were produced for the U.S. Department of Education to help it enforce the No Child Left Behind Act. The estimates take into account children residing within the school district’s borders - not just those enrolled in district schools…”

Retailers take notice as record numbers turn to food stamps, By Tim Grant, December 4, 2009, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “A historic high number of Pennsylvanians — many of whom are middle-class families experiencing job loss and reduced work hours — are being forced to rely on government help to put food on the table. Records from the state Department of Public Welfare show there were 1.3 million people in the state who might have gone hungry if not for the federal food assistance program during the first 10 months of this year. Of that number, 136,563 are residents of Allegheny County. It is the highest number of food stamp recipients on record for the county and the state. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the number of food stamp recipients is at record highs across the nation. With more people receiving assistance than ever before and retailers across the country struggling to maintain if not increase sales, many stores that had not previously accepted food stamps are taking steps to do so…”

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…”