unemployed

Caught between falling budgets and the rising ranks of the unemployed and underemployed on welfare, the state of California has suspended employment assistance services such as child care subsidy for welfare families, according to The New York Times' Erik Eckholm. 

After vigorously pursuing policies to push more welfare recipients into the workforce, the state is also dropping work requirements and penalties for single parents with a child aged 1 to 2, or those with two children under 6.

By 2011, the state's welfare-to-work program CalWorks will enforce stricter rules for participants to reduce costs.  Until then, the state is slashing those programs because they are ineligible for stimulus act funds. 

The reversal of a decade's worth of welfare policies worries many who supported the cultural change effected by California's carrot-and-stick approach to getting welfare recipients back to work.

Mr. Schwarzenegger did wring savings out of the state’s welfare-to-work program, known as CalWorks, and achieved a future tightening of the rules. But those changes do not start until July 1, 2011. In the interim, to save $375 million a year, the state is trimming the employment assistance programs at the heart of the welfare-to-work approach, especially subsidized child care, and suspending work requirements for a large share of recipients.

Those programs were selected, in large part, because they were not eligible for extra federal money under the stimulus act.

--- Kristen Young

Read about the faultlines of the recession today in an LA Times report today on the new vagabonds "hidden in plain sight," the homeless who park aging recreational vehicles at shopping mall parking lots, only to "rumble away in the morning" before they can be chased out by security guards. The report points to a federal study showing a rising number of homeless families, many living in cars and RVs. The study showed that 18 percent of the 1.6 million homeless last year were living outdoors but not on the street.

"For many, it's their first venture into this land with no ground beneath them," said Karol Schulkin, a social worker who works closely with the homeless in Ventura County. "It's a shock."

Some California towns are creating safe-sleeping programs; other are worrying about shantytowns on public and private lots.
The Denver Post this morning presents the stark portraits of six unemployed Coloradans in their own words. "I've been over those young people's websites like Craigslist and Monster, and there just isn't a lot out there right now for part time and especially for people that are older," says a 71-year-old woman. " I have always had a job, so this is sort of like, "How'd that happen? I don't have a job."

"Right now, I've had to take out almost half of the money that I had in my IRA, which kind of worries me because I am nearing retirement age," says Marcos, 60. "Having to use my retirement before I retire in order to pay the bills is not good.