Latest news with #GeneralAssistance
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Vermont's Hotel Motel program: How many people were evicted after April 1?
Earlier this spring, Republican Gov. Phil Scott and Democratic lawmakers clashed over whether to allow all 1,439 Vermont households using the state's General Assistance Emergency Housing program to remain sheltered in hotels and motels through June 30. Democrats agreed with Scott last year to begin evicting Vermonters after April 1 once they hit the so-called 'Hotel Motel' program's 80-day stay limit, but reversed their stance this session, arguing there was not enough local community shelter space to intercept the hundreds of people who would be turned out on the streets. Despite pushback, Scott maintained that Vermont must continue to wind down the controversial state program, which he called too expensive for taxpayers and ineffective and dangerous for unhoused clients. Scott won the battle with Democratic lawmakers after vetoing two budget adjustment acts that would have prevented the program from downsizing to 1,100 rooms. However, he also signed an executive order permitting families with children under age 19 and "medically vulnerable" Vermonters, including pregnant women in their third trimester, to remain sheltered in the hotel motel program until the end of June. The executive order notably did not guarantee shelter for all pregnant women, veterans and victims of domestic violence – Vermont's other 'vulnerable' populations as defined by Democrats. Over two months later, how many people were evicted from Vermont's hotel motel program after April 1, and where did they go? 303 households, including 366 adults and 59 children, lost shelter under the hotel motel program after April 1, according to the Vermont Department of Children and Families' April Housing Report. As of June 2, approximately 1,019 households are currently in the program, 19 more than the program's 1,100 room cap during the non-winter months, data from DCF shows. People who are evicted from the program usually end up sleeping outside, living in their car or crashing at a friend's house, the latter of which 'actually adds to homelessness by exposing hosts to eviction from rental units for housing people who are not named on their lease,' said Frank Knaack, the executive director of Housing & Homelessness Alliance of Vermont, in an email. Most Vermonters turned out of the hotel-motel program can't find alternative shelter because the program itself is a last resort, available only when there are no other places for people to stay. Outside of the state emergency housing program, Vermont's current statewide emergency shelter capacity is just 616 households, 'significantly less' than what the hotel motel program supports even after April 1. Potentially. On June 5, the legislature passed H.91, a bill that would replace the hotel motel program for a regional model called Vermont Homeless Emergency Assistance and Responsive Transition to Housing, often shortened to VHEARTH. Scott has until June 11 to veto or sign the bill. Otherwise, it will become law without his signature. It is currently 'unclear' which action Scott will take, Knaack said on Saturday in a Housing & Homelessness Alliance of Vermont's weekly update. Megan Stewart is a government accountability reporter for the Burlington Free Press. Contact her at mstewartyounger@ This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: How many Vermonters lost shelter from the Hotel Motel program?
Gulf Today
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Gulf Today
Adding work needs to Medicaid isn't a bad idea
Over the past 46 years that I've been part of America's job training system, work requirements for government benefits have been proposed several times. Each time these work rules have been initially denounced by opponents as 'cruel,' 'punitive,' 'blaming the victim' — with accompanying fears that benefit recipients were not ready to be employed and would lose needed benefits. Yet each time work requirements have been implemented, they have resulted in increased employment and other life benefits for a significant segment of participants, their families and local communities. Those are the metrics by which to measure success; reducing the rolls of benefit programs has not been the main goal sought by advocates of previous work requirements. The results have been documented over the years by scholars representing a range of viewpoints: Harry Holzer of Georgetown, Lawrence Mead of New York University and the professional research staff at MDRC, to cite a few. These results have been seen with work rules imposed for welfare recipients, recipients of various General Assistance benefits and parents who owe child support. They will be seen again if the proposed Medicaid work rules go forward and are implemented seriously and with purpose. Individuals on welfare and other benefit programs often need a push into the job world. They may lack confidence, have become discouraged or have no idea how to get started. Work rules provide that push. They also provide a support network for job placement and retention. America Works is one of the nation's largest job agencies serving unemployed people, referred by various government benefit programs. Each participant is assigned a job counselor and develops an individual employment plan. The counselor is to identify job openings, assist the participant in applying, advocate for the participant to employers. The counselor is also trained to be the coach whom all job seekers need: keeping spirits up through the (likely many) rejections, serving as a problem solver during the placement process and troubleshooting when job issues inevitably arise after placement. At each stage, the participant is no longer on their own. Since the early 1980s, work rules have been most extensively tested, studied and monitored in the welfare system, first as pilot projects by individual states and later under the federal welfare reform of 1996. Welfare scholars of the 1980s, including Manpower Demonstration Research Corp. President Judith Gueron would highlight how much previous welfare policies divorced from work requirements had underestimated the work orientation and strengths of welfare recipients. Researchers of welfare-to-work programs of the 1990s and early 2000s at the Urban Institute and with a consortium of university centers would confirm the widespread work orientation of welfare recipients, as well as their abilities to function in the work world. This is not to romanticize welfare-to-work. Despite the counseling and supports (transportation subsidies, child-care subsidies), a good number of participants drop out during the placement process or within a year of job placement. They do so because of chaotic personal lives or mental illnesses or developmental disabilities that the job placement system is unable to address. They do so because of an absence of a family network, or because they don't want to risk the other housing, healthcare and food stamp benefits they receive beyond the welfare payment. Even those who obtain jobs often struggle economically. At the same time, for those who are able to maintain a job, the job frequently brings values beyond the income. Jason Turner, the architect of the early Wisconsin welfare-to-work successes and later commissioner of New York City's Human Resources Administration, references the power of the job, drawing on his experiences over four decades. A job brings structure to participants in work requirement programs, somewhere to go every day. It brings a new confidence, which can translate into addressing daily life responsibilities that previously seemed overwhelming. In theory, the importance of employment is hailed across the political spectrum. In practice, though, the ties of government benefits to employment have been weakened in the past two decades — and so many opportunities to demonstrate the value of this connection have been missed. Welfare-to-work requirements have been diluted in major cities and blue states. Employment efforts for recipients of Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance have stalled. Guaranteed incomes schemes removed from employment have gained currency.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Contributor: Adding work requirements to Medicaid isn't a bad idea
Over the past 46 years that I've been part of America's job training system, work requirements for government benefits have been proposed several times. Each time these work rules have been initially denounced by opponents as 'cruel,' 'punitive,' 'blaming the victim' — with accompanying fears that benefit recipients were not ready to be employed and would lose needed benefits. Yet each time work requirements have been implemented, they have resulted in increased employment and other life benefits for a significant segment of participants, their families and local communities. Those are the metrics by which to measure success; reducing the rolls of benefit programs has not been the main goal sought by advocates of previous work requirements. The results have been documented over the years by scholars representing a range of viewpoints: Harry Holzer of Georgetown, Lawrence Mead of New York University and the professional research staff at MDRC, to cite a few. These results have been seen with work rules imposed for welfare recipients, recipients of various General Assistance benefits and parents who owe child support. They will be seen again if the proposed Medicaid work rules go forward and are implemented seriously and with purpose. Individuals on welfare and other benefit programs often need a push into the job world. They may lack confidence, have become discouraged or have no idea how to get started. Work rules provide that push. They also provide a support network for job placement and retention. America Works is one of the nation's largest job agencies serving unemployed people, referred by various government benefit programs. Each participant is assigned a job counselor and develops an individual employment plan. The counselor is to identify job openings, assist the participant in applying, advocate for the participant to employers. The counselor is also trained to be the coach whom all job seekers need: keeping spirits up through the (likely many) rejections, serving as a problem solver during the placement process and troubleshooting when job issues inevitably arise after placement. At each stage, the participant is no longer on their own. Since the early 1980s, work rules have been most extensively tested, studied and monitored in the welfare system, first as pilot projects by individual states and later under the federal welfare reform of 1996. Welfare scholars of the 1980s, including Manpower Demonstration Research Corp. President Judith Gueron would highlight how much previous welfare policies divorced from work requirements had underestimated the work orientation and strengths of welfare recipients. Researchers of welfare-to-work programs of the 1990s and early 2000s at the Urban Institute and with a consortium of university centers would confirm the widespread work orientation of welfare recipients, as well as their abilities to function in the work world. This is not to romanticize welfare-to-work. Despite the counseling and supports (transportation subsidies, child-care subsidies), a good number of participants drop out during the placement process or within a year of job placement. They do so because of chaotic personal lives or mental illnesses or developmental disabilities that the job placement system is unable to address. They do so because of an absence of a family network, or because they don't want to risk the other housing, healthcare and food stamp benefits they receive beyond the welfare payment. Even those who obtain jobs often struggle economically. At the same time, for those who are able to maintain a job, the job frequently brings values beyond the income. Jason Turner, the architect of the early Wisconsin welfare-to-work successes and later commissioner of New York City's Human Resources Administration, references the power of the job, drawing on his experiences over four decades. A job brings structure to participants in work requirement programs, somewhere to go every day. It brings a new confidence, which can translate into addressing daily life responsibilities that previously seemed overwhelming. In theory, the importance of employment is hailed across the political spectrum. In practice, though, the ties of government benefits to employment have been weakened in the past two decades — and so many opportunities to demonstrate the value of this connection have been missed. Welfare-to-work requirements have been diluted in major cities and blue states. Employment efforts for recipients of Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance have stalled. Guaranteed incomes schemes removed from employment have gained currency. The current proposed Medicaid work rules exclude Medicaid recipients with disabilities, mental health conditions and adults with young children. They also exclude the large number of Medicaid recipients who work part time or full time. None of these Medicaid recipients are at risk of losing health benefits. For the remaining group, the 'able-bodied' without young children, America has a vast workforce network at the ready to provide job placement services. No new bureaucracy is needed. It is a network of community-based agencies, workforce intermediaries and local American Job Centers, with lengthy experience in placing workers who have been outside the job mainstream. Though the first jobs that Medicaid recipients obtain will mainly be entry-level, lower-wage jobs, the recipients will be better off economically and at least on a path to the workforce system's goal of 'a job, a better job, a career.' Medicaid work rules are not cruel or punitive. They help Americans to reclaim the power of the job. Michael Bernick, a former director of the California Labor Department, serves on the state's Behavioral Health Oversight Commission. If it's in the news right now, the L.A. Times' Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
03-06-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Adding work requirements to Medicaid isn't a bad idea
Over the past 46 years that I've been part of America's job training system, work requirements for government benefits have been proposed several times. Each time these work rules have been initially denounced by opponents as 'cruel,' 'punitive,' 'blaming the victim' — with accompanying fears that benefit recipients were not ready to be employed and would lose needed benefits. Yet each time work requirements have been implemented, they have resulted in increased employment and other life benefits for a significant segment of participants, their families and local communities. Those are the metrics by which to measure success; reducing the rolls of benefit programs has not been the main goal sought by advocates of previous work requirements. The results have been documented over the years by scholars representing a range of viewpoints: Harry Holzer of Georgetown, Lawrence Mead of New York University and the professional research staff at MDRC, to cite a few. These results have been seen with work rules imposed for welfare recipients, recipients of various General Assistance benefits and parents who owe child support. They will be seen again if the proposed Medicaid work rules go forward and are implemented seriously and with purpose. Individuals on welfare and other benefit programs often need a push into the job world. They may lack confidence, have become discouraged or have no idea how to get started. Work rules provide that push. They also provide a support network for job placement and retention. America Works is one of the nation's largest job agencies serving unemployed people, referred by various government benefit programs. Each participant is assigned a job counselor and develops an individual employment plan. The counselor is to identify job openings, assist the participant in applying, advocate for the participant to employers. The counselor is also trained to be the coach whom all job seekers need: keeping spirits up through the (likely many) rejections, serving as a problem solver during the placement process and troubleshooting when job issues inevitably arise after placement. At each stage, the participant is no longer on their own. Since the early 1980s, work rules have been most extensively tested, studied and monitored in the welfare system, first as pilot projects by individual states and later under the federal welfare reform of 1996. Welfare scholars of the 1980s, including Manpower Demonstration Research Corp. President Judith Gueron would highlight how much previous welfare policies divorced from work requirements had underestimated the work orientation and strengths of welfare recipients. Researchers of welfare-to-work programs of the 1990s and early 2000s at the Urban Institute and with a consortium of university centers would confirm the widespread work orientation of welfare recipients, as well as their abilities to function in the work world. This is not to romanticize welfare-to-work. Despite the counseling and supports (transportation subsidies, child-care subsidies), a good number of participants drop out during the placement process or within a year of job placement. They do so because of chaotic personal lives or mental illnesses or developmental disabilities that the job placement system is unable to address. They do so because of an absence of a family network, or because they don't want to risk the other housing, healthcare and food stamp benefits they receive beyond the welfare payment. Even those who obtain jobs often struggle economically. At the same time, for those who are able to maintain a job, the job frequently brings values beyond the income. Jason Turner, the architect of the early Wisconsin welfare-to-work successes and later commissioner of New York City's Human Resources Administration, references the power of the job, drawing on his experiences over four decades. A job brings structure to participants in work requirement programs, somewhere to go every day. It brings a new confidence, which can translate into addressing daily life responsibilities that previously seemed overwhelming. In theory, the importance of employment is hailed across the political spectrum. In practice, though, the ties of government benefits to employment have been weakened in the past two decades — and so many opportunities to demonstrate the value of this connection have been missed. Welfare-to-work requirements have been diluted in major cities and blue states. Employment efforts for recipients of Supplemental Security Income and Social Security Disability Insurance have stalled. Guaranteed incomes schemes removed from employment have gained currency. The current proposed Medicaid work rules exclude Medicaid recipients with disabilities, mental health conditions and adults with young children. They also exclude the large number of Medicaid recipients who work part time or full time. None of these Medicaid recipients are at risk of losing health benefits. For the remaining group, the 'able-bodied' without young children, America has a vast workforce network at the ready to provide job placement services. No new bureaucracy is needed. It is a network of community-based agencies, workforce intermediaries and local American Job Centers, with lengthy experience in placing workers who have been outside the job mainstream. Though the first jobs that Medicaid recipients obtain will mainly be entry-level, lower-wage jobs, the recipients will be better off economically and at least on a path to the workforce system's goal of 'a job, a better job, a career.' Medicaid work rules are not cruel or punitive. They help Americans to reclaim the power of the job. Michael Bernick, a former director of the California Labor Department, serves on the state's Behavioral Health Oversight Commission.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
York County's only homeless shelter closes after 45 years
May 9—ALFRED — With an hour to go before the deadline to leave, Kurt Frank stood outside the front door of the homeless shelter where he's been staying for the last five weeks, a pile of bags stuffed full of his belongings at his feet. York County Shelter Programs, the nonprofit that runs the county's only homeless shelter, announced last week it would shutter some of its operations because it could no longer afford to operate. Since then, residents have been scrambling to find other places to go, a task that for some felt nearly impossible. Frank, who has serious health issues and lived in a tent for a year before coming to the shelter in Alfred, will spend the next 10 days in a motel in Sanford paid for by the city's General Assistance program. After that, he doesn't know what he'll do. "I keep asking the good Lord, 'When is enough?' It's just awful," Frank, 54, said as he waited for a friend to pick him up. The nonprofit organization announced last week that it had laid off 20 of its 70 employees and would suspend some of the programs it runs for people experiencing housing insecurity in York County. The board of directors said the closure of its adult shelter is necessary because of "significant and growing financial limitations," and called the decision gut-wrenching. The closure of the shelter comes as shelter providers across Maine push for additional state funding to cover the cost of operating homeless shelters. Emergency shelters in Maine receive $7 per night per bed in state funding, although a recent study by MaineHousing found the actual cost per bed is $102 per night. SOME PROGRAMS WILL STAY OPEN Earlier this week, the York County Commissioners voted to take over operations at the York County Shelter Programs food pantry, which serves about 6,000 people each month. The food pantry is already housed in a county-owned building and clients will not see an interruption in services. The county will pull $25,000 from a contingency fund to keep the food pantry running through the end of the year. Commissioners also voted to set aside $100,000 in the next fiscal year to fully take over pantry operations and hire staff. York County Shelter Programs has operated a homeless shelter since 1980, serving about 650 men, women and children each year. There were 37 residents in the adult shelter when the closure was announced last week. Kelli Deveaux, spokesperson for the board of directors, said Friday that the family shelter will stay open until all 16 current residents find alternative housing or another organization can take over operations. Layman Way Recovery Center, a 17-bed treatment facility, currently has nine clients and will stay open until June 30. That closing date had already been scheduled in coordination with the opening of a new county-run recovery center. No new clients will be accepted at Layman Way. The nonprofit will also continue to operate its affordable housing program, which includes 24 separate properties with 117 apartment units across York County. Books ReVisited, a used bookstore in Sanford run by volunteers to support YCSP clients, will stay open. Deveaux said the organization will retain 23 full- and part-time staff members, but about 30 employees will be laid off after Friday. "These are dedicated and valued employees who have provided life changing services for those in need in York County," Deveaux said in a statement. "Their impact has been immense, and we urge the community to send the kind words and offers of assistance received by YCSP to these heroes who have done so much for others." 'NOWHERE TO GO' This week, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers from York County sent a letter to Gov. Janet Mills and MaineHousing Director Dan Brennan urging them find a way to prevent the closure of the shelter. "The closure of the York County Shelter would be the loss of a vital community resource and have a significant and long-lasting negative impact on the folks who have found support and hope there. Existing programs and resources, which are limited, may be unable to handle an influx of demand for assistance," they wrote. House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, said in a social media post that Brennan told them that MaineHousing is working to figure out options for people displaced by the closure. A spokesperson said the governor's office "is concerned and monitoring the situation in York County" and referred questions to MaineHousing. MaineHousing has been in daily contact with the shelter staff in Alfred and is assisting with funding through existing contracts and the properties mortgaged through the agency, according to spokesperson Scott Thistle. "We are so impressed with the interim administration and staff in York County, who have safely re-housed everyone staying at the adult shelter and have found a way to keep the family shelter and all permanent housing units operating," Thistle said in a statement. "We will continue to work with all interested parties on the medium- and long-term plans of reopening an important shelter operation for southern Maine." Deveaux said the board and staff have also been working with York County Community Action Corporation, Preble Street, Caring Unlimited, Seeds of Hope in Biddeford, Sanford Housing, the Sanford city manager and the York County Task Force on Homelessness to transition people to other support services. Shelter staff have also been working directly with residents to try to make alternative housing plans. Deveaux said all 37 residents of the shelter had a plan in place for housing by Friday. But some people leaving the shelter Friday said they were still trying to find long-term housing. Joanne Goodreau, who had been staying at the shelter since November, said some people at the shelter were able to move into other properties run by the shelter program, but others "were scattering." She said some people planned to go to a warming shelter in Biddeford or a larger shelter in Portland. "Some people have moved on but for the people who haven't, I don't know what they're doing," Goodreau said Thursday afternoon. "There's really nowhere to go." Staff at the Homeless Services Center in Portland have taken a high number of calls from people from the Alfred shelter, but no one had gone to the Portland shelter by Friday afternoon, a city spokesperson said. Goodreau, 62, said a friend was putting her up in a motel for a few days, but she doesn't know where she'll go after that. She said she's lucky to have a car and worries most about the older people with medical needs who have been displaced. Frank, the resident waiting for a ride from the shelter on Friday, said he's dealing with anxiety, depression and COPD on top of the stress of moving out. He said he "bawled like a baby" when staff told him the shelter would close. Frank said his only income is a monthly Social Security disability check of $1,073, not enough to afford a room through the shelter program or an apartment in the area. There are no housing vouchers available and he's waiting for a spot in an assisted living facility, he said. "If it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all," he said. Copy the Story Link We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others. We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion. You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs. Show less
