Advocates seek help for poor

from the Athens Messenger

CASEY S. ELLIOTT

Legislators need to do more to help the poorest of the poor, several area advocates said Wednesday.

The directors of the Athens, Vinton and Hocking County Departments of Job and Family Services, the directors of Hocking and Athens County Children Services, and the director of the Community Mental Health and Substance Abuse Board for Athens, Hocking and Vinton County (317 Board) have sent a joint letter to state and federal legislators asking for their help in reforming public assistance to the needy.

Jack Frech, director of the Athens County Department of Job and Family Services, said all the agencies came together to do this because they recognize that the assistance has lagged behind the need.

"We are concerned that the state hasn't focused on the needs of the poorest families and individuals," he said. "At the state and federal level, they are seeing the pain of the middle class, because these are people they can relate to. They don't see how much more difficult it is for families far, far below that."

Advocates for the poor say the tight economy and increased minimum wages have had an adverse effect on families who receive assistance - prices of certain goods and services continued to climb, but these families' assistance did not go up.

Frech and the other agency heads have been pushing for increasing benefits and cash assistance for poor families for years. Currently, the average food stamp household receives $208 a month. Food stamps were originally designed to provide 70 percent of the food needed for the month for the recipient, and other assistance or work would fill in the gap, Frech said. However, today many people do not receive other assistance, leaving them to struggle to make ends meet every month.

Many have disabilities that prevent them from working, he said. Often, they seek disability benefits, but most initially get denied, even if they are eligible. They might eventually receive the benefits through appeal, but that appeal process can take months to years, while the individual is trying to find the money to pay bills and eat, Frech said.

Residents of Athens and Morgan County were on hand Wednesday to put a face to the struggle.

"The quality of life sucks," said Teresa Cottrill of Athens. Cottrill said she's spent three years attempting to get Social Security Disability since she cannot work. She also has a 5-year-old son.

"I consider us lucky to have a roof over our heads," she said. "I usually do without, so he can eat. There is nothing more I would like to do than go out and work, but I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and they won't let me work."

Cottrill said she and her son live on $336 a month in assistance, and $228 in food stamps, and often she goes without clothing and basic necessities to ensure her son gets something to eat.

Samantha Stobart of The Plains faces a similar situation. She has two children - an 8-year-old and a 5-year-old - and says she also has a medical condition rendering her unable to work. She said she gets help for housing payments, but there is not much else.

"We rely on hand-me-downs, do our shopping at New-To-You," she said. "I've been applying for SSI (Supplemental Security Income) for seven years. ... We sit all month waiting for the next check."

Medical care is a big factor in the difficulty, said Andrea Reik, director of Athens County Children Services. Many of the agencies that can help are limited to assisting only those who receive Medicare or Medicaid.

The agency directors are forwarding, along with their letter, suggestions on how legislators can improve the situation. Those suggestions include increasing cash assistance by $100 a month; providing access to health care for all adults below the poverty level; providing mental health and substance abuse services for all poor adults; reforming the disability determination process (60 percent of all applicants are denied; but once appealed, two-thirds of those people receive the benefits); and increasing food stamp and SSI benefits at the federal level.

These changes, they say, would not solve the problem, but would help those who are losing ground.

"We can't do our job if they don't have a roof over their heads, or food on the table," said 317 Board Director Earl Cecil. "If we do not provide basic living needs, how can we accomplish our behavioral health goals? When someone in their 30s says they have to lower their life expectations to be happy with $500 a month and live hand to mouth, it tears at your heart."