Statement of Danetta Graves, Director,
Montgomery County Department of Job and Family Services, Dayton, Ohio

Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Human Resources
of the House Committee on Ways and Means

Hearing on Implementation of Welfare Reform Work Requirements and Time Limits

March 7, 2002

Good Morning:

To the Honorable members of the Human Resource Subcommittee of the House Committee on Ways and Means; Rep. Wally Herger, Chairman.

My name is Dannetta Graves and I am the director of the Montgomery County Department of Job and Family Services, Dayton, Ohio.

I am here today to briefly discuss from a local perspective, the implemented programs, strategies, and necessary flexibility and resources for the effective administration of the work requirements and time limits under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA). Ohio's Welfare Reform legislation, in response to PRWORA, not only challenged counties to implement programs and strategies that would assist families to reach and maintain their maximum level of economic self-sufficiency, but also limited their receipt of TANF cash assistance to 36 months. The family is ineligible for 24 consecutive months before eligibility for cash assistance can be reconsidered for up to 24 additional months.

The flexibility provided by Congress in PRWORA allowed the Ohio legislature to give counties two (2) programs under which TANF assistance to families is provided: Ohio Works First (OWF), the cash assistance program, and the Prevention, Retention, and Contingency (PRC) program. While Ohio's work requirements, Self-Sufficiency Contracts between the recipients and the county department, sanctions for those who failed without good cause to fulfill their obligations and time limits played a role in our reform of the welfare system, it was the PRC program that allowed us to achieve the level of success that we continue to enjoy despite the current economic slow-down.

Montgomery County in July of 1992 had 41,450 individuals (nearly 15,000 families) receiving cash assistance at an average cost of $4.58 million per month. Today that number is 11,448 individuals (5,128 families) at $1.67 million per month. This reduction is a direct result of Montgomery County's heavy emphasis on work and work preparation, investment in our nationally recognized Job Center (One-Stop Career Center with 48 partner agencies), a PRC program that focuses on providing people with the help they need to stay off public assistance, and our ability to involve Community and Faith-Based organizations along with public agencies through PRC funded contracts to provide a myriad of programs for adults and youth. Many of these programs and services were targeted in Montgomery County's poorest neighborhoods and academic deficient school districts. The program services are designed to achieve the following:

• Improve a family's opportunity to obtain and retain employment

• Promote youth academic success, career exploration and development

• Connect families to resources that enhance career advancement and earnings potential

• Reduce out-of-wedlock pregnancies

• Promote family formation

• Provide mentoring for families and youth

• Reduce substance abuse

• Increase general educational attainment and knowledge of community resources

• Promote the payment/receipt of child support

• Promote the opportunities for home ownership

• Reduce school drop-out rates

• Reduce family violence

Montgomery County in July of 1999 was faced with 1,370 families reaching their 36 month time limit in the first three months beginning October 1, 2000. The need was clear. We had to implement a strategy that would significantly reduce the number of families who would face time limits and provide follow-up activities to those who actually did. In Ohio, each county had to establish the Hardship Criteria for extension of cash benefits. The Agency established the Outreach Unit which provides intensive treatment to all families who have reached receipt of 20 months of cash assistance. This treatment includes home visits and assessment of the family's situation to determine the barriers to self-sufficiency and provide access to resources to address or relieve them.

This intense treatment provided greater insight to the dynamics that prevent the realization of productive potential and growth. It also directed our efforts to seek other more permanent resources (i.e., SSI and SSA disability) as well as other interventions to improve family stability and the chances of achieving self-sufficiency. This strategy resulted in only 170 families that actually faced time-limits in the first three (3) months beginning in October 2000. The family situations discovered from the intensive efforts of the Outreach Unit along with community forums with various stakeholder groups established the Hardship Criteria for extended benefits. Once the criteria was applied, only 37 families had their cash assistance actually terminated in the first three (3) months under time limits. Once again, PRC funded programs are used in the intensive efforts to reduce the number of families that face losing eligibility for cash benefits.

TANF Reauthorization proposed by the President in general has strong support by those of us who are responsible for its local administration. However, increasing the required work hours from 30 to 40 hours per week will dramatically increase the cost of chid care. Adopting the "Work First" philosophy means you must provide quality child care at the level necessary to achieve your goal. Limiting a state's ability to transfer TANF funding to the Social Service Block Grant from 10% to 4.25% will severely impact some of our more innovative and effective programs to move families out of poverty. Maintaining and enhancing TANF flexibility will be an ongoing theme of all who come before you. It is that flexibility that allows us to assist families that are on cash assistance as well as those who recently left the rolls and those poor families who do not receive cash assistance.

Remember, Welfare Reform is not just getting the adult members of the family a job - that's just the beginning. It's making sure that children receive quality child care, after school academic and cultural enrichment services, and career preparation. It's the availability of retention and advancement services to ensure employment now and in the future. Finally, it's the involvement of our Community and Faith-Based organizations to enhance the efforts of our public agencies to improve the quality of life in our communities.

[Attachments are being retained in the Committee files.]