The authors are part of a coalition working to preserve General Assistance
Updated Feb 4Posted Feb 4
By Rev. Sandra L. Strauss and Sister Mary Scullion, guest contributors
Pennsylvania’s General Assembly has a responsibility to protect the most vulnerable Pennsylvanians by preserving General Assistance, an inexpensive but incredibly effective program.
In 2012, Pennsylvania’s General Assembly made a callous and shortsighted decision to end General Assistance (GA), a small, life-sustaining cash benefit program that served our most vulnerable neighbors: people with disabilities, domestic violence survivors fleeing abuse, children in the care of friends and neighbors, and people in drug or alcohol rehabilitation. Ending GA destroyed a critical safety net for people struggling to survive. For this small, targeted population, these benefits disappeared overnight, resulting in greater desperation and sometimes illegal and unsafe means of survival.
General Assistance was reinstated in 2018, much to the delight of advocates like ourselves who celebrated the renewed availability of this life-saving benefit. GA provides small payments of about $200 per month for eligible individuals while they address setbacks in their lives. And it’s temporary — by law — for most who receive it. Even people receiving domestic violence services and people in substance abuse recovery programs have a lifetime eligibility maximum of nine months. Applicants for disability benefits can receive GA while they await a favorable decision from the Social Security Administration (which can take as long as two years). In other words, GA is the temporary safety net for those in very precarious situations. It can be the difference between someone remaining housed or having to go to a shelter.
The actual cost for this program is less than it appears. People who are very poor spend almost 100 percent of their cash locally, benefitting their local economies. For those receiving GA while waiting for SSI disability approval, the state is reimbursed from the person’s federal disability payments. The cost of homelessness is far greater than the cost of providing GA to those in need.
Since being reinstated, it has begun again to help our fellow citizens who need, in their own words:
- “a place to stay”: Payments are often needed to stay in public housing or with family.
- “transportation”: Providing a ride to and from shelter, medical appointments, family and programs.
- “adult diapers”: Some disabilities cause incontinence.
- “medical copays”: Medical benefits don’t cover all expenses.
- “I don’t have to go back to my abuser”: When the abuser is the only financial support.
We could simply tout GA’s importance, but the stories of two Pennsylvanians who are receiving benefits express the need better than we can.
M is 56 years old and received GA intermittently for several years while applying for and awaiting approval of his disability payments. M struggles with schizophrenia, major depression, anxiety, and congestive heart failure. Without GA after 2012, he landed back on the streets, partly because he could not afford the co-pays for symptom-abating medications that aided his survival. Even with Medical Assistance, each medication requires a $1 to $3 co-pay, a lot for someone who is disabled with few resources. Since reinstatement, GA makes it possible for him cover co-pays and other expenses. One of M’s goals is to stay healthy, following his doctor’s orders. While loss of GA would be devastating to him, he is very worried about the terrible impact of losing GA on others’ lives.
D is 33 years old and a former resident of Project HOME, a program designed to end and prevent chronic street homelessness. In 2012, he received GA while participating in a drug and alcohol recovery program. He received it for seven months because he was homeless and needed money for shelter fees while waiting for his disability benefits to start. He used the funds for rent, food, tokens, and toiletries. Without GA, D would have been back on the streets. The money allowed him to get back on his feet and to move into housing.
Without any access to cash, these at-risk neighbors would be forced to turn to faith and charitable institutions, homeless shelters and other community organizations to survive. These organizations cannot provide all the services needed even by the small population eligible for GA. For some, the need for these services would be prevented with this small, yet critical, intervention.
In 2019, the program will cost the state only $50 million, less than 2 percent of the State’s budget. And yet, the program is under threat. Unfortunately, some unsympathetic legislators, led by Rep. George Dunbar, have introduced new legislation to end General Assistance forever. We need other legislators, the public and the Wolf Administration to stand up for those experiencing hardship in the Commonwealth.
General Assistance is a critical, short-term intervention that prevents people from landing in dangerous situations and should never have been eliminated. Eliminating GA again — ripping support again from a small number of our most distressed citizens — is both unconscionable and short-sighted.
—
The Rev. Sandra L. Strauss is the director of advocacy and ecumenical outreach for the Pennsylvania Council of Churches. Sister Mary Scullion is the executive director of Project HOME.
Leave a Reply