LOWER LAKE — The Lake County Department of Social Services (LCDSS) announced its intention Tuesday to spend more taxpayer money. The county Board of Supervisors gave the plan a resounding thumbs-up.
According to director Carol Hutchingson, LCDSS wasn”t spending enough to protect its state funding.
“When we don”t utilize it in Northern California, it gets sent to Southern California. So it”s not like the taxpayers are saving money,” said CalWORKs Director Patricia Shuman. “We would prefer to spend it here to help our local citizens,” she said.
One of many programs provided by LCDSS, CalWORKs is California”s version of Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF), a federal program administered by Health and Human Services. It offers cash aid to needy children and their families who are out of work, or who are working but not able to make ends meet.
Families who fall under a prescribed income level qualify for not only cash assistance through CalWORKs, but also for many other LCDSS administered programs, such as MediCal and Food Stamps. On the state level, California Department of Social Services (CDSS) administers funds to counties for their individual CalWORKs operations, which can include child care and transportation among other services needed to help recipients find work.
TANF regulations require that 50 percent of cash aid recipients participate in a Welfare-to-Work program. Lake County”s participation rate is more than the state average, with 30 percent versus a state average of just more than 23 percent.
Shuman said the 1,110 families on cash aid in Lake County is a reduction from previous years, namely a reported 1,837 cases in 1999. While states get credit for reducing case load, Shuman said the base year for comparison has changed, which resulted in a reduction of that credit.
The state allocated $5,063,309 for Lake County”s CalWORKs operations for the 2006 – 2007 fiscal year, which Shuman said has not been spent.
Yearly allocations from the state for locally run programs may be reduced, said Hutchingson, if LCDSS does not find ways to spend it all.
“We haven”t been maximizing it,” said Shuman. “Typically, Lake County is fairly frugal. We run a good program, but we don”t have any extras.”
The county”s “universe,” or population base increased in 2006, which means that more people need to be in the county”s Welfare-to-Work program in order for LCDSS to meet its participation rate requirement.
“We also wanted to try some new things,” said Shuman. “We”re hoping that we”ll help break the cycle,” she said.
LCDSS presented three programs to the county Board of Supervisors that Shuman said are designed to help spend the state allocation and increase the welfare to work program participation.
These programs include a youth employment services program that will make computers available for job seeking and college application purposes, the addition of an employment resource center on the county”s south shore for adults, and assistance filling out applications for SSI and SSD.
We”re trying to help people along the road to be self sufficient, as opposed to looking towards cash aid,” said Shuman.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
