Maryland Alliance for the Poor

The No Wrong Door Project Releases its Final Report

2011-07-07T11:18:00.001-04:00

The No Wrong Door approach in Maryland does not involve one single point of entry. Instead, the No Wrong Door approach involves multiple entry points that provide clients with access to the full range of benefits and services. This approach seeks to break down the silos between agencies and organizations and create an efficient, effective, and client- friendly system.

The purpose of the No Wrong Door Committee was to convene public agencies, private organizations, nonprofit organizations, and community action agencies that provide public benefits and social services to low income Marylanders in order to create an integrated system.

The No Wrong Door Committee explored a myriad of issues in order to make final recommendations about a No Wrong Door strategy for Maryland. The Committee formed three subcommittees to deliberate and develop recommendations: (1) Effective Strategies to Integrate Programs and Resources, (2) Technology, and (3) Effective Communication, Education, and Outreach.

Find out the No Wrong Door Committee's Final Recommendations here.

Chronic Disinvestment in Human Services=Unmet Needs

2011-06-09T14:35:00.001-04:00

Report Shows Several Local Departments of Social Services Dramatically Understaffed: Nearly 1100 Family Investment Staff Needed to Manage Workload

Another Symptom of an All Cuts Approach to Maryland’s Budget
A 2011 study by the University of Baltimore (UB) Schaefer Center for Public Policy confirms that Family Investment Program (FIP) staff at Local Departments of Social Services (LDSS) experienced a 45 percent increase in workload from 2002 to 2010. All jurisdictions, except Garrett County show a staffing shortage that ranges from 6.5 percent in Somerset County to 54.2 percent in Frederick County. Without an adequate number of well-trained specialists and a technology overhaul to address customers’ needs, case backlogs, increased error rates, delays and missing paperwork will continue to occur.

Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition Documentary Film Event:

2011-06-06T13:28:00.000-04:00

STEALING TRUST: MARYLANDERS SPEAK OUT ON SCAMS, FRAUDS AND FINANCIAL ABUSE

You hire a contractor to renovate your home but he walks off with your life savings and leaves you with an empty shell. You sign up with a company that promises to settle your debts, pay thousands of dollars but end up deeper in debt and more desperate than ever. You lose your job and contact your lender about modifying your mortgage but the banker ignores the law and evicts you from your home. The new documentary film “Stealing Trust” examines how bad things can happen to good people and what we can do to stop the financial abuses that cause such tragedies.

“Stealing Trust” channels the clear, eloquent voices of hardworking Marylanders who have lost their homes, their life savings and even their capacity to trust others to mortgage lenders, debt settlement companies and unscrupulous home contractors to offer an unusually powerful look not only at terrible toll predatory financial practices have taken on individuals and families across the state but at some of the ways consumers have successfully fought back.

Free screenings:
• June 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the Enoch Pratt Central Library, 400 Cathedral St., Baltimore, MD.
• June 28 at 7 p.m. at Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse, 800 St. Paul St., Baltimore MD.

A Glimpse of MAP History

2011-06-02T15:43:00.001-04:00

1988 Article from The Sun: "Coalition Target Poverty for '89 General Assembly Session"

Former Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, The Late Delegate Howard P. Rawlings "and an umbrella organization of advocacy groups are trying to make poverty a high-profile issue in the 1989 General Assembly session.

Access the article here

MAP 2011 Legislative Session Summary

2011-04-28T15:11:00.003-04:00

Leading up to the 2011 Maryland General Assembly session, Maryland Alliance for the Poor (MAP) members thoughtfully and cohesively selected and prioritized bills that facilitate economic self-sufficiency, as well as strengthen the safety net for Marylanders living in or near poverty. In doing so, MAP submitted testimony on thirteen bills in addition to eight departmental budgets during the 2011 session. Some of these items are highlighted in this summary.

Access MAP's 2011 Session Summary here.

2011-04-07T16:57:00.000-04:00

Please Join Us!

2011 LEGISLATIVE WRAP-UP

THURSDAY APRIL 21

FROM 10:00AM TO 2:00PM

MILLER SENATE OFFICE BUILDING

ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND

Co-hosted by:

Advocates for Children and Youth
Job Opportunities Task Force
Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute
Maryland CASH (Creating Assets, Savings & Hope) Campaign
Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition
Maryland Alliance for the Poor
Maryland Nonprofits

Hear from event co-hosts, invited legislators and other advocates.

Special Keynote address by Nick Johnson, Vice-President for State Fiscal Policy at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, on the budget and fiscal condition of the states.

RSVP BY APRIL 18 to Robin McKinney at robin@mdcash.org

Maryland Alliance for the Poor, Welfare Advocates & ASFCME Maryland Call for Long-Term Solutions to Permanently Address Public Assistance Backlog

2011-01-14T16:31:00.002-05:00

For the first time, the advocates for the poor are teaming up with state employees to argue for staffing levels at DHR. DHR employees are expected to perform herculean tasks in order to efficiently process an unprecedented number of applications for services. The current productivity and staffing levels are not sustainable. See Letter to the Governor here 1/7/11

New State-by-State Analysis of Food Hardship Shows One in Seven Respondents in Maryland Reported in First Half of 2010 Inability to Afford Enough Food

2011-01-06T11:16:00.001-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Jen Adach, jadach@frac.org, (202) 986-2200 x3018

December 29, 2010

New State-by-State Analysis of Food Hardship Shows One in Seven Respondents in Maryland Reported in First Half of 2010 Inability to Afford Enough Food

Washington, D.C. – December 29, 2010 – New data show that 14 percent of respondents across Maryland reported in the first half of 2010 that there were times during the prior twelve months that they did not have enough money to buy food that they needed for themselves or their family, according to the Food Research and Action Center’s (FRAC) analysis of data from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.

The data were gathered as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index project, which has been interviewing 1,000 households daily since January 2008. People were asked, “Have there been times in the past twelve months when you did not have enough money to buy food that you or your family needed?” The full analysis by FRAC of the Gallup data is available at http://www.frac.org/.

The State of Working Families in Maryland has Deteriorated

2011-01-03T13:36:00.000-05:00

The state of working families in Maryland has deteriorated, and the prospects for the future are shaky, unless state and national governments take strong action to promote a broadly-shared recovery.

The current economic downturn is notable not just for the severity of economic contraction but also for the length of decline.

Since 2000, median household income in Maryland increased only 6% in inflation-adjusted terms, from $65,325 to $69,272 (in 2009 dollars). The average annual increase was only 6/10 of 1% over the decade. Moreover, the median household income in Maryland actually declined in 2009 compared with 2008.

Over the last decade, the rate of poverty in Maryland has risen from 7.4% in 2000 to 9.1% in 2009. Maryland’s unemployment rate stands at 7.4% - the higher level since 1983. By numerous indicators detailed in this report, working families in Maryland are hurting, even as Maryland has retained its ranking as the wealthiest state in the nation.

Business profits and stock prices have recovered, but employment and median incomes have not. The national and state economies are on a path to a “jobless recovery.” The danger Maryland faces is that most of the gains of the economic recovery will flow to the wealthiest Marylanders. New jobs will be few, and those that emerge will have lower wages and fewer benefits than before the recession.

See the full report by Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute and Progressive Maryland Education Fund [PDF - 28 pages]. 12/28/2010

The Changing Face of American Poverty

2010-10-19T11:11:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday October 26th, 2010 at 7:00 p.m., The Johns Hopkins University Center for Social Concern and Tribe, Inc will sponsor a non-partisan panel discussion entitled The Changing Face of American Poverty. Amid the greatest economic recession in decades, this event will address the divide between market solutions and government intervention while also seeking solutions to issues such as chronic unemployment, increasing child poverty, and the decline of the American middle class.

Featuring

Bishop Don Williams, Bread for the World
Adam Schneider, Health Care for the Homeless of Maryland
Jason Hartling, Teach for America

This free event is open to the public and will be held in Baltimore, Maryland at the Levering Hall Glass Pavilion on the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University. Doors will open at 6:00 p.m.

Directions to the Homewood campus of Johns Hopkins University, parking information, and a campus map to assist in locating Levering Hall Glass Pavilion can be found on the Johns Hopkins University website. To RSVP, please email info@tribecentral.org

For more information, please contact:

Tribe, Inc.
Telephone Number: 202-544-3134
Email Address: info@tribecentral.org
Website address: www.tribecentral.org
Tribe, Inc on facebook

Poverty Rate Up, Household Incomes Flat & Housing Costs Strain Budgets

2010-09-29T12:02:00.000-04:00

The Census recently released data from the 2009 American Community Survey which show a more accurate picture of poverty rates, median household incomes and housing costs in Maryland than data from the Current Population Survey released in mid-September.

Poverty Rate Up

The poverty rate in Maryland was 9.1% for 2009, compared to 8.0% for 2008. This means that about 505,000 Marylanders had an income that was below the poverty level. Calvert and Howard Counties had the lowest rates of poverty, with 3.9% of people living below the poverty line and Baltimore City had the highest, with 21.0 % of people. Baltimore City’s poverty rate is the same as the state of Mississippi’s.

Median Income Flat

For 2009, the median household income in Maryland was $69,272, which is a slight (and statistically insignificant) decrease from 2008, which was $69,844. Howard County had the highest median household income, with $101,940 and Baltimore City had the lowest with $38,772.

The difference in poverty rates and median household income rates by county are significant because of the implications of these data. The incomes of people in different counties determine the income tax revenues for counties. This then provides funding for public services such as schools and local roads.

Housing Costs Strain Budgets

The median monthly housing cost for Marylanders was $1,398, which is similar to the cost in 2008, which was $1,377. Washington County had the lowest median housing cost, with $917 per month and Charles County had the highest, with $1,860 per month. For renters especially, housing affordability remains a problem in that about 49.2% of renters in Maryland pay more than 30% of their income on housing.

The Kojo Nnamdi Show WAMU 88.5 Podcast: Economic Security during the "Great Recession"

2010-08-16T14:38:00.001-04:00

Branden McLeod, Associate Director, MB&TPI and Chair of Maryland Alliance Poor (MAP) joins Jacob Hacker, Resident Fellow, Institution for Social and Policy Studies; and Professor of Political Science, Yale University and Emily Appel, Savings Program Director, Capital Area Asset Builders; Member, Defeat Poverty DC on the Kojo Nnamdi Show to examine how the "Great Recession" has hit lower income families, and a new framework for considering economic security. To here the podcast go here: WAMU 8/10/10

MAP Member Highlights Importance of Child Nutrition Programs with Congressman Steny Hoyer

2010-07-15T14:22:00.000-04:00

On Monday, July 12, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer spent the afternoon visiting Summer Food Service Program sites in Charles County Maryland. The federally funded program reimburses site sponsors that provide free meals to low-income, school-aged children during the summer months when school is not in session and access to daily, nutritious meals may be unavailable. The visit was organized to highlight the importance of passing and funding the Child Nutrition Reauthorization legislation that funds programs such as the Summer Food Service Program, the School Breakfast Program, the National School Lunch Program, and the At-Risk Afterschool Snack and Meal Program.

At the visits, site sponsors shared stories of the increased demand for the program due to economic hardships facing families in Maryland. Maryland Hunger Solutions and other advocates asked Congressman Hoyer to make sure Congress passes a strong Child Nutrition Reauthorization that

• Raises meal reimbursement rates so that schools, local government agencies, and private nonprofit organization are able to operate the program without losing money and can provide healthier food.

• Expands area eligibility from 50% to 40% to allow more low-income families to participate in the Summer Food Service and the At-Risk Afterschool Snack and Meal Programs.

• Reduces the administrative burden of programs for site sponsors to allow them to more easily operate programs year-round.

• Provides more out-of-school time programming in order to facilitate the availability of the school and nutrition programs for low-income families.

State-wide advocates and local partners attending the visit included the Governor’s Office for Children, Maryland State Department of Education, Charles County Local Management Board, Charles County Public Schools, Share Our Strength, and Maryland Out-of-School-Time Network.

Energy Assistance Webinar

2010-06-29T14:31:00.003-04:00

Please join the Coalition for a Healthy Maryland for a lunch-time Webinar on Energy Assistance. The webinar will be offered Thursday, July 15, 2010 from 1:00-2:00 and will include three presentations and time for questions. Energy Advocates has helped to organize the presentations, which will cover state energy assistance programs, client rights and available protections and fuel fund supports and programs.

Presentations by:

Ralph Markus, Director of Maryland Office of Home Energy Programs
Mary Ellen Vanni, Executive Director of Fuel Fund of Maryland
Cynthia Riely, Director of Consumer Assistance, Office of People’s Counsel

At this webinar you’ll learn:

The process of applying, including where to go and what is needed for the Maryland Energy Assistance Program and the Electric Universal Service Program
How to get help from the Fuel Fund of Maryland, including eligibility information and where to apply
Energy Conservation Education classes offered by the Fuel Fund of Maryland
Matching credits from Baltimore Gas and Electric Company
Rights, responsibilities, of residential utility service clients as well as available protections and assistance

For more information contact Cassandra Kaiser, ckaiser@mdhungersolutions.org or (410) 528-0021.

To Register go this link here: https://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5118/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=23179

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The Coalition for a Healthy Maryland includes U.S Department of Agriculture, Department of Human Resources (MD DHR), Capital Area Food Bank, Maryland Food Bank, Maryland Hunger Solutions, Seedco, and SHARE Food Network.

New Report Reveals A New Federal Policy Will Help School Districts Enroll Low-income Children for Free School Meals

2010-06-16T15:20:00.001-04:00

According to the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities, "A new federal policy will make it easier for school districts to enroll certain low-income children for free school meals." The paper explains the new policy and provides suggestions on how to ensure school districts fully leverage this new opportunity.

Access the report here

Farmers’ Market at Pimilico First in Baltimore City to Accept EBT (Food Stamps)

2010-06-03T15:16:00.003-04:00

(Pictured from left to right are: Holly Freishtat, Baltimore City Food Policy Director; Willie Flowers, Executive Director, Park Heights Community Health Alliance; Eric Ratchford, USDA; Kimberley Chin, Maryland Hunger Solutions; Karen Evans, Chair, Board of Directors, Park Heights Community Health Alliance; Will & Jada Smith Family Foundation; Kirk Wilborne, USDA; Lucretia Wilson, Assistant Executive Director, Park Heights Community Health Alliance)

The Park Heights Community Farmers’ Market at Pimlico opened on Wednesday, June 2, becoming the first farmers’ market in Baltimore City to accept food stamp benefits via wireless EBT (electronic benefit transfer). As an added bonus, customers using their EBT cards will receive “Baltimore Bucks vouchers” enabling them to double their food stamp dollars up to $5 at the market.

By providing grant support for this market to accept EBT cards, Maryland Hunger Solutions hopes to increase access to farmers’ markets by food stamp participants. Two other farmers’ markets in Baltimore City received support from MDHS to accept food stamp benefits: the Waverly/32nd Street Farmers Market (opening June 12) and the Highlandtown Farmers’ Market (opening July 10). These markets will also be giving out Baltimore Bucks vouchers to customers who use their EBT cards.

Over the last decade, the Food Stamp Program (recently renamed the Food Supplement Program in Maryland) transitioned from the use of paper coupons to EBT cards. One of the most challenging venues for creating EBT capacity has been farmers’ markets, which often have limited financial resources and limited access to electricity. With the installation of wireless EBT machines at even a handful of farmers’ markets in the city, the buying power at farmers’ markets of Baltimore’s 169,000 food stamp participants could be significantly increased, thereby improving the health and nutrition of low-income families and benefiting the farmers who sell their products in the city.

In addition to food stamp benefits, these markets will also be accepting debit cards; a benefit for customers who typically do not carry cash. This will help to attract new customers to the three markets, while providing a new way to shop for current customers.

This project is sponsored by Maryland Hunger Solutions and is made possible by support from the Abell Foundation, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, and the Wholesome Wave Foundation.

New Workshop! Introduction to Financial Stability for Clients

2010-05-27T14:09:00.000-04:00

Gain an overview of key information and resources needed by providers who work on issues that affect working families, especially in regards to financial management skills. Next session July 9th in Washington, D.C. View flyer here

New State Policy Encourages Saving

2010-05-20T09:51:00.002-04:00

New State Policy Encourages Saving - Effective May 1, 2010, case managers at Maryland’s local departments of social services (DSS) no longer count a customer’s cash resources when determining eligibility for Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA) recipients. Prior to this policy, if a beneficiary or applicant’s bank account(s) exceeded $2,000, he/she would be disqualified from receiving cash assistance.

On the Radio - "Their Voices" publication

2010-04-26T13:55:00.000-04:00

MAP Immediate Past Chair, Julie Varner Walsh and Deborah Rudacille, author of Their Voices interviewed by Sheilah Kast of WYPR's Maryland Morning. Select here to listen to the interview.

New Publication Released

2010-03-19T11:34:00.000-04:00

MAP is pleased to announce the release of a new publication called Their Voices. Stemming from a 2009 project designed to give vulnerable Marylanders their own voice in the public square, Their Voices chronicles the personal stories of Marylanders living in or near poverty. Print copies are currently being delivered to all members of the Maryland General Assembly. In the coming weeks, they will also be provided to the Governor and members of his staff and administration. For more information, see the tab above or click here to read the full document.

Back to the Blog

2010-03-18T17:08:00.000-04:00

Thanks for visiting the blog of the Maryland Alliance for the Poor (MAP). Since you last heard from us in August, MAP has been very busy preparing for, then working through, the 2010 legislative session of the Maryland General Assembly. With a month left to the session, we're now back to the blog.

New to the blog, we've introduced tabs above for MAP's two major publications: Their Voices and our 2010 Briefing Book. We've also introduced a tab to encourage people to get involved in legislative advocacy via MAP members' online advocacy networks and newsletters.

Soon, we'll be posting MAP's testimony before the General Assembly and other items of interest. Let us know if there's anything in particular you'd like to see, and check in again!

An Immigrant's Story

2009-08-25T11:19:00.003-04:00

A. came to the U.S. in 2002 to marry a man that she had never met. "It was an arranged marriage," she says. "I'm from Pakistan and that's how it happens in my country."

It soon became clear that her new husband had lied about many things, including his income. "He told my parents he was well-to-do but he was only earning $30,000, working for his cousin," A. says. "He told them that he had already applied for his green card so my parents thought that I would get one too." Instead, A. was admitted on a dependent visa, which prevented her from working. "I was completely dependent on him for everything," she says.

Worst of all, he was a brute--physically and emotionally abusive. A. told no one. Her parents were far away and could not help her. She knew no one in the United States save for an aunt who lived hundreds of miles away. "I tried for three years with him," she says softly. "In our country, girls have to hope in the beginning with a man,"

After their son was born in 2005, her husband's behavior grew more abusive. He cursed her and their son and when the child was two months old, he kicked her out of their home. He refused to let her take their son and when she refused to leave without him, "he choked me." For the first time, she called 911--and her aunt, who agreed to come and pick her up. "I never did that before in three years," A. says. "Even at that time I didn't do it for myself, but because he was not taking my son from me."

Her husband retaliated by canceling her debit card, and shifting all their money to an account in Pakistan. "He left me with nothing," she says. "He also withdrew my green card application straight away."

A. husband filed for divorce and sued for custody of their child. When American courts awarded custody to A., her former husband returned to Pakistan. "He left because he didn't want to pay child support," she says.

A. was stranded. Still unable to work legally, she lived with her aunt for two years while trying to sort out her options. Because her son is an American citizen, she was able to get food stamps and medical assistance for him, though as an immigrant she herself is not eligible for any kind of public assistance.

She was in limbo, unable to return to her family in Pakistan because her ex-husband has filed for custody of their son there too and "in Pakistan, men generally get the custody." She will very likely also be in physical danger if she returns given her ex-husband's violence and the lack of legal protection for women.

A's visa was due to expire in 2008. She appealed to legislators and immigration officials to help her remain in this country. She applied for asylum but her application was denied. "They said asylum is not for me because my case is not political, but personal."

She was at least granted a work permit and is now teaching at her son's school. "That's how I am holding myself," A. says. "But I don't have any health care" because she cannot afford the policy offered to teachers at the school. "I have to pay for his tuition and my apartment and utilities and everything. I am not earning that much and I have so many costs. It's hard."

A.'s parents send her money when they can. "That's how I am surviving." She has not seen her family in five years. She would like to meet them in a neutral location but according to the terms of her visa, she cannot leave the country. "If I leave, I cannot come back," she says. "Because of him [her son] I stay."

Nonetheless, she is grateful to the United States. "This country, they helped me a lot," she says. "I thank God that this happened here. Everybody supported me and now immigration has at least provided me this much, that I can stay here."

But she will not feel secure until she gets a green card, she says, and that is impossible without a sponsor, someone who will agree to be financially responsible for her.

"There should be some immigration policy for women like me," A. says. "Women like me, what should we do?"

No Credit for Good Intentions

2009-08-06T15:09:00.005-04:00

Sylvia works full-time and she makes a decent living. She can well afford to rent an apartment or townhouse. But no one will rent to her because "in this economy," she says, "everyone is running credit reports." And her credit right now does not look good.

This time last year Sylvia was engaged and living with her fiancee and her three teenage children in an apartment in Prince George's County. "I made a decision to get married and it didn't work out," she says, "I should never have moved into an apartment I couldn't afford by myself."

When her fiance packed up, he left her with bills she couldn't afford to pay alone. "Every month I was late paying something. It got to the point that I just couldn't keep the apartment. Before they could evict me, I moved out and put my stuff in storage."

PG county social services told her that they couldn't help her so she went to Montgomery County, where she is a government employee. "At this point, we were sleeping in the car," she says. "Montgomery DSS told me to go back to PG county."

A friend told her that he knew someone who was renting a basement. The situation was not ideal--there were animal feces in the house, she says, and the landlady's behavior was "funky"--but she took it anyway because they had nowhere else to go. "I got the kids in school under the homeless act," she says, "and I was trying to pay off my debts so I could get my own place. But I hadn't got to paying off the apartment yet. I still owe them $2000 odd dollars."

Sylvia's new landlady was negligent in many ways including paying her own bills. "The third time the water got cut off and I complained, she told me if I didn't like it to get out." Instead, Sylvia called the county which came out for an inspection. "They condemned the basement I was living in because if a fire starts on the first floor, we'd have no way to get out."

Once again, Sylvia and her children were homeless. This time, Montgomery DSS agreed to put the family up in a hotel if she provided documentation of hardship. She needed a couple of days to pull together the paperwork and put her possessions back into storage. "I had to be humble enough to share with my supervisor that I'm homeless and that I needed a couple of days off from work and ask him not to spread it around the job," she says. "It's embarassing. Humiliating."

"But you just thank God that you've got something over your head," she says, "that you are not sleeping in a car anymore."

In the six weeks Sylvia and her family have been living in Comfort Inn, she has found that living in a hotel is no vacation. "You can't cook so you have to buy breakfast, lunch and dinner. That's sixty bucks a day. Then gas for all the running around to look at apartments. I go out to look every day after work at 9 and I'm getting into bed at 10 or 11 at night. And it's $25 or $30 for each application. Then you realize that everybody is running your credit. And your credit score is steadily dropping down. And you're getting no, no, no. You're exhausting all your money between eating, gas and applications."

Between working full-time, looking at apartments every day, being a parent to teenagers shattered by the turn their lives have taken, and taking twice-weekly urine tests to comply with DSS rules, "I am physically and mentally exhausted," she says.

The other shoe dropped when Sylvia's caseworker told her she had bad news--new county regulations prohibit funding hotel stays for longer than thirty days. "The good news is that I'm finished with the urine tests," Sylvia snorts.

She is still looking for an apartment. She says that she has tried being honest with landlords and management companies about the chain of events that messed up her credit, but promises cut no ice with wary businessmen who have been burned in the past by renters. "They say, we appreciate your being honest with us. But what we need is somebody consistently showing that they've paid their rent."

Her caseworker suggested that she just stay on at the hotel, paying her own rent until she finds something. But that would cost $99/night. "That's $700 a week," Sylvia points out, for one room and no kitchen.

She does not qualify for HOC housing programs because she makes too much money. "You talking about $11 an hour to qualify," she says. "I make $18."

All she wants, Sylvia says, is a voucher to get her into an apartment so that landlords have some assurance that they will be paid. She doesn't need cash assistance, just a voucher. "I didn't ask for a check. I didn't ask for food stamps. I didn't ask for Section 8. I asked for some kind of assistance until I can get something myself. Working people that are trying to help themselves just need a little help. We shouldn't fall through the cracks. "

A Good Job is Hard to Find

2009-08-06T14:18:00.002-04:00

Carolyn has been on seventeen job interviews and at the end of each session she hears much the same thing. Thank you. We'll be in touch.

"I went to one on Monday and the man told me he put the job on Craigslist and he had over 300 applications. I have my degree in accounting and everything he needed I can do. But the other people have the same experiences, the same everything. It's just so much competition. We're all," she says, "hungry for a job."

Since she was laid off from her previous job as an administrative assistant four months ago, Carolyn has been looking for work. "I got a temp assignment for like a month but after that it all went downhill."

At first she looked for jobs in her field, billing, but at this point she's willing to take any job at all. "I'm ready to go to McDonalds, Best Buy, anything to put food on the table."

Her job search has become more difficult since she lost her car. "I gave it back to the bank rather than have them take it away," she says, thinking that it wouldn't look so bad on her credit report.

Now she walks or takes public transportation, spending most of her days riding the bus to and from interviews. Her decreased mobility has narrowed the pool of potential jobs even further.

"I'm signed up with a list of temp agencies and I got a call this morning from one of them but the job was in Frederick. If I had a car, I could have taken it," she says. "But even if I had a car, where am I gonna get the money for gas?"

A couple of months ago Carolyn applied for public assistance "for the first time in my life," she says. "I didn't know what else to do." She was approved for medicare and food stamps, but it took six weeks to get into the system. During that time she visited food pantries. "They don't give you a lot," she says--particularly when you are feeding a teenage son. "It doesn't last more than a few days."

She just learned that she has been turned down for temporary cash assistance, which would have helped her pay her rent this month. "This is my first month I'm going to be late," she says. "Because I've always worked, paid my bills." She has filed an appeal, but even if she wins the appeal, without a job she will be facing the same situation next month.

"Even if they help me for one month, what if I still don't get a job," she says. "I'm out here every day applying for jobs, but nothing is coming through."

Her caseworker had one bit of advice. "She said I'd better look into getting into a shelter. She gave me a list."

Still Haunted by an Old Mistake

2009-07-21T12:56:00.002-04:00

Job offer rescinded after background check

Ten years ago, D. made a mistake. She bought a car for a longtime boyfriend who was, she says, involved in illegal activities. "I was young," she says. "That's where it was at."

The boyfriend was arrested and the D.A. wanted her to testify against him, which she refused to do. "The government had numerous people to testify against him," she says. "My thought was if you are going to arrest him and throw away the key, what do you need me there as icing on the cake or something. I still got to live after this. I got a child here. So I didn’t do it but months later here comes the indictment."

D. was charged with intention to commit money laundering--punishment, she believes, for refusing to testify. She accepted a plea bargain, mostly "in desperation, to say okay let me move on with my life."

She served six months in a boot camp and six months in a halfway house. The experience changed her. "They would put us in the back of those woods with all kinds of everything back there and give you an ax and you had to cut that tree down. Because they were building houses or something. That was what your job was. And you had to sit on the side of the road and eat egg sandwiches or whatever your lunch was for that day and be treated like you are pretty much the scum of the earth."

The goal of the program was, she says, "to break you down and then build you back up." And for her at least, it worked. "For me it got down into the depths and lifted up. It was a very spiritual thing for me."

After her release, D. started rebuilding her life, eventually finding her way to a successful and demanding career in the mortgage industry. "I did that grind and I did that hard work to build myself…to watch it all crumble in front of your face is awful."

Last year D. lost her job due to the recession and collapse of the mortgage market. As she searched for work, she watched her savings dwindle. "I have a home and the money that I had saved up for my child’s college because I’m his only resource…gone! I had to use it to pay my mortgage and my bills for the last six or seven months."

Finally, she was offered a job as an administrative assistant for much less money than she had earned previously. "It wasn’t even anything that could reach my bills but it was a start," she says, "a foot in the door."

But the first day when she showed up for work, "I was told that I needed to come back because the person didn’t have their scheduling together. That was on a Friday and I left. Went through the whole weekend and then Tuesday about 3:15, I got a call from the person who made me the offer. She said, well there was some issues that came back on your background."

D. explained that the situation had happened ten years ago, in 1999, and since then not only had she never been in trouble of any kind, she had actually been licensed by the state as a finance officer. The woman said that she would take that information back to the manager and call her back.

"So I waited and I waited and I waited," D. says. "And about 8 o’clock that night, I checked my email and she had emailed me about 3:40 to say ‘due to your background, unfortunately we have to rescind the offer.’"

D. is outraged that despite her years of hard work, she is still being judged by a mistake that she made when she was barely out of her teens. And she's not the only one, she points out. "I see kids out here that get themselves into crazy situations with no chance. There are people out here who can’t even get a good job with a four year degree because of past things."

D. has tried unsuccessfully to have the conviction expunged--"but I can't because it's a felony," she says. She is once again looking for work which is harder for her and other ex-offenders than it ought to be, she says, particularly when a conviction is so far in the past.

"I did my mistakes. I learned from them. I took the hard road. I have the scars today to prove it. But I was able to give my son something different," she says. "I’ve been dealing with this for a long time and now is the time to take a stand on it. Because I think the laws are just wrong. People judge you without even knowing anything. Just pass judgement. That’s kind of where I am right now."

Dominoes

2009-07-09T12:11:00.005-04:00

A car accident leads to disability and homelessness for mother and daughter

"In this country, once you get sick you're finished," says Sherri.

At 53, she has been homeless for the past year with her 25 year old daughter Michelle, bankrupted by the high costs of medical care.

Both women are well-educated. Sherri has medical and law degrees and Michelle is a graduate of George Washington University. But the auto accident that left Sherri with a severely damaged spinal cord and bedridden for nearly five years inexorably led them to the streets.

After a serious auto accident in 1997, doctors "basically rebuilt my spinal cord," Sherri says. She's had six major surgeries and innumerable smaller procedures over the past twelve years. At one point, she was paying, she says, "thousands of dollars a month for medication. One prescription was $800 per month and I had 18 prescriptions."

Sherri owned a home in Michigan which she sold. She moved to Maryland to purchase a home with her sister. But her monthly disability check was not enough to pay the mortgage and they lost the house. She and her daughter then rented an apartment but were evicted in June 2008. Since then, they have floated between public and private shelters, friend's apartments and the streets.

Homelessness is tough on anyone but for the disabled it is nearly unendurable. "You have to get out of most shelters at 5:45 every morning," Sherri says. "It doesn't matter if you are sick or well."

They spend most of their day in libraries and parks. "Just hanging around basically," Sherri says. "Because there's no place to sleep at night, you wind up sleeping a lot during the day."

They've slept on the deck of their old house, which is still unoccupied. They've stayed with friends. "Every once in a while we get a motel room, just to regroup, do laundry, shower, get stuff together."

One of the reasons they have been living on the street since the weather turned warm is that in shelters they are often separated. Michelle is her mother's PCA (personal care assistant) but that doesn't cut any ice with some providers. "They get frustrated that we want to stay together," says Michelle.

"The doctor told me that I need someone with me all the time," says Sherri. "They would have to pay for someone but she is doing it for free. But we're not even considered family," since Michelle is an adult.

Sherri has the misfortune of being a member of two groups that are not very well served by safety net programs--the disabled and single women. "They are the most neglected," she says.

She has been referred to shelters that are three floors up, and she has been harassed by staff members because she is not able to do chores. At one private shelter, she was ill one Saturday and wanted to stay in bed. "They threatened to call the police if I didn't get out of bed and do my chore," she says.

More generally, "shelter discriminate against you if you have physical disabilities," she says. "They have told us, 'because you are physically disabled, it's going to be hard to get you help.' We've been told that over and over again."

As single women, Sherri and Michelle have also had trouble accessing assistance. "If you have children, you can get help," says Sherri. "But as a single woman, you get the least amount of services."

She recently visited the office of aging and disability services for help. "I told them that I couldn't be out on the streets anymore and that I couldn't climb three flights of stairs at the shelter. My arms and legs are swelling--I have autonomic dysfunction and my blood pressure is sky-high. I'm exhausted."

While filling out the application form, the counselor asked Sherri about her hobbies. The question struck her as beside the point.

"I said, 'well I used to have hobbies but now I'm just trying to survive from day to day.' But she didn't write that down."

Stepping Stones to Self-Sufficiency

2009-06-25T11:02:00.003-04:00

Single parent grateful for the safety net

Tonya's ex is supposed to pay $500/month in child support--except that he doesn't.

"It's June already and since January I've only seen two payments," she says. "He's moved on."

The Child Support Enforcement Assistance Program has not been very helpful because the father is self-employed, making it difficult for the state to garnish his wages. "They don't have a system in place for people like him," she says.

Tonya's ex's failure to pay child support regularly has had a disastrous effect on her ability to pay bills and support herself and their daughter. "If the child support was consistent, I could muster by and make a living for us," she says. "But because the child support payments were not consistent I had to take money out of my paycheck to make my car payment and so I started falling behind and the car was repossessed. I couldn't get to work so I wound up resigning."

After trying to work full-time and running into trouble with transportation and child care, Tonya began working as a substitute teacher and temp worker. But since she never knows how many hours she will work in a week, her child care vouchers are constantly at risk.

"Even if I get approved for one month, I could lose the voucher the next month if my hours drop," she says. "I've seen a lot of other people go through that too."

She thinks that child care vouchers should be available no matter how many hours a person is working. "Even if it's only 5 or 10 hours, that mother is trying," she says. "Unless you know somebody [who can babysit for free] these programs are what you have to fall back on."

Tonya lives in the city of Rockville and receives rental assistance from the city as well as food stamps, energy assistance and other state and federal safety net programs. "They have been very helpful," she says, "because they estimate that to live here you need close to $70,000 for a family of 2."

When she was on her own, Tonya says, "I didn't have a problem because it was just me and I could go and work two jobs." But that is no longer possible because of her parental responsibilities. She is grateful for the programs which have enabled her to survive until her daughter is in school and she can begin working full-time again.

"It's a stepping stone," she says. "It helps you get to that next level."

A One Room Family

2009-06-23T12:47:00.005-04:00

Losing everything except each other

Nine months after he was laid off from a full-time job as an electronics engineer, Chris and his wife RJ have been evicted twice. Their new car was repossessed. Now they and their one-year old baby are living in a room that they rent from "someone who is already trying my patience," says Chris. "I try not to get into an argument or dispute because I know that it's temporary."

Things started to fall apart for them in the summer of 2008 when Chris' employer started cutting his hours. "At first it was just five hours, go home a little early or whatever. But it go to the point where they were just scheduling me for five hours of work a week," Chris says. "At that point, we started losing everything."

If he were alone, Chris says he could deal with his current situation. "I'm a guy," he says. "I could live in a box truck and be happy." But his wife and son can't live in a truck and the stress of the past year is putting a strain on the marriage.

"We've been together for five years and as God as my witness, we never argued. Now we're arguing. I saw my parents go through that and I don't want to do it."

The stress has also taken a toll on his health. This past spring, Chris was hospitalized for nearly one month due to a liver abcess. He didn't have health insurance because he lost it when he lost his job. The hospital treated him but "they never really gave me a proper diagnosis or told me what caused it," Chris says. He left just as soon as he could. "I lied and told them I was feeling better even though I didn't. I was still throwing up but I thought that I would just take my chances at home."

Chris is uncomfortable with applying for government aid. "I'm the head of the house and it's very embarassing for me to ask for help," he says. His wife convinced him to go to a crisis center in Montgomery County when they were facing their second eviction. The Department of Social Services contributed emergency funds to which they added $1000 of their own money to bring their account current. Three weeks later, they were evicted anyway.

They currently receive food stamps and WIC, but nothing else. "I haven't really spoken with my social worker about the other programs because it's not something I want to pursue," Chris says. "I'd rather spend my time going out to find employment."

But so far, he's come up dry despite his ambition, drive and experience.

"I've been supporting myself since I was 15 years old," he says. "I have skills. I can hook up security systems. I can hook up conferencing systems. I can do lots of things. I think that maybe I haven't presented myself right to employers."

Chris is eligible for unemployment insurance but hasn't applied, he says, "because I know that there's millions more that could use it more than me right now. I'm borderline but until I'm falling over I'm not gonna ask for it."

The Survivor

2009-06-16T10:43:00.004-04:00

Creating a new life after domestic abuse

Romane endured eight years of "hell marriage" before mustering the courage to leave her abusive husband. "I had all the material things from him," she says, "but I was suffering like a dog. Several times he pulled a gun and shot at me. He broke my jaw. Just the whole nine yards of abuse."

Even so, leaving the marriage "was the onset of many problems for me," she says. "I wound up resigning from my job because I had a meltdown, a total meltdown."

She did not receive any psychological counseling in the homeless shelters where she lived for several years after fleeing the marriage, she says. "There really wasn't anyone to talk to," she says. As a consequence, she began abusing alcohol and "really started going down."

Meeting homeless advocate Mitch Snyder changed her life. "I remember he used to say, to teach me, 'you have a right to housing. You have a right to a good life. You are worthy.' "

Romane got sober in 1996 and since then has been rebuilding her life. She got out of the shelter system and got a Section 8 apartment. She earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do--and a bachelor's degree from Strayer's University in marketing. She was the primary caretaker for her elderly parents until they passed away in 2004 and 2007. Most recently, she worked for a year as a paralegal in an internship program through the Montgomery County DOORS program.

Even so, "it seems like every step I make something is pulling me back," she says.

She still struggles with the physical and emotional aftershocks of the years of abuse and homelessness--high blood pressure, anxiety, PTSD, and irritable bowel syndrome. And some of the housing options available to her as a low-income person in Montgomery County have aggravated those difficulties.

"I'm subjected to these bad places because I'm low-income," she says. Property managers and HUD/HOC inspectors often ignore dangerous and unsanitary conditions in Section 8 and other subsidized housing, she and other sources have told MAP.

At a previous address, "they was selling drugs right over my head," Romane says. "And you would open your door and there would be feces in the hallway."

She got out but in her current apartment complex, her vehicle has been vandalized twice since she moved in last October. "I'm trying to get out of this place because it's crazy. I can't deal with a lot of stress and violence even though I have the black belt and even though I have control over my life and am doing good with my life. "

Romane loved her internship as a paralegal and received a glowing recommendation from her supervisor but she has been unable to find a permanent job because she doesn't have a paralegal certificate. She and her job training counselor have estimated that she would only need to take a few courses at Montgomery County Community College in order to earn the certificate--if Strayer would transfer her credits. This they will not do until she pays a $478 balance on her account with the school.

Living on a $674 SSI payment, she can't come up with the funds. "I don't have money to even eat," she says.

She receives a small food stamp stipend and groceries from food pantries, however like others with similar health problems she finds that "they have lots of processed food there and I can't eat it. It's a lot of salt. I can't eat that because my blood pressure goes up sky high."

But she is still forging ahead with her goals, "trying to move up from the horrible past I had. I don't let up," she says. "Martial arts is a spiritual foundation for me along with my AA meetings and God. I try not to get pulled into distractions."

Romane spends each Saturday volunteering as a teacher of Tae Kwon Do for disadvantaged children. "Even though it doesn't pay need to have something to do that's positive," she says. "Everything that I do, I try to make it positive because it makes me feel good and helps my situation."

She would also like to become a paid speaker working with women who have been abused "to motivate them," she says. "I know how to motivate myself and I know how to motivate other people. Not only do I have life wisdom, I have the education too. I want to put it to use."

More is Less

2009-06-15T11:18:00.003-04:00

The recent increase in unemployment benefits for laid-off workers under the stimulus package makes some ineligible for food stamps.

Under the economic recovery plan, laid-off workers have seen a $25 weekly bump in their unemployment checks as part of a broad expansion of benefits for the poor. But the law did not raise the income cap for food stamp eligibility, so the extra money has pushed some people over the limit....

Unemployment benefits vary by state and the income cap for food stamps also varies based on family size, so it's impossible to say for certain how many people are hurt by the change. Government officials believe it is only a small fraction of the record 6.8 million people on unemployment. Many more people will benefit from a stimulus law that expanded unemployment and food stamp benefits.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/bal-stimulus0615,0,1409803.story

The Invisible Poor

2009-06-15T09:20:00.005-04:00

Journalist Barbara Ehrenreich talks about the effect of the recession on those who seldom appear in news stories about downward mobility.

When I called food banks and homeless shelters around the country, most staff members and directors seemed poised to offer press-pleasing tales of formerly middle-class families brought low. But some, like Toni Muhammad at Gateway Homeless Services in St. Louis, admitted that mostly they see “the long-term poor,” who become even poorer when they lose the kind of low-wage jobs that had been so easy for me to find from 1998 to 2000. As Candy Hill, a vice president of Catholic Charities U.S.A., put it, “All the focus is on the middle class — on Wall Street and Main Street — but it’s the people on the back streets who are really suffering.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/opinion/14ehrenreich.html?em

The Long Haul

2009-06-13T12:44:00.004-04:00

Trying to dig out of debt in Harford County

John once made a good living as an independent truck driver, moving containers in and out of the port of Baltimore. Partially disabled by an assault in 1981, "I couldn't perform various types of labor but driving was something I could do," he says. "I got my Class A license in 1985."

At first, he did long-haul work but after he began caring full-time for his mother, who had serious health problems, he shifted to local trips. "I would try to make 4 container moves a day," he says. "That was my target. And got good at it, hustling in and around the piers."

But in May 2006, John was involved in an accident that demolished his vehicle. He couldn't afford to have it repaired or to replace it. "So I sold it," he said, "and didn't get very much for it."

Since then, his mother has passed away and he has fallen deeper and deeper into debt as he has struggled to hold onto the house where they lived together.

"I get depressed sometimes," he says. "I sit home and worry about money and these lawyers."

Like other homeowners who fall behind on their mortgage payments, John began receiving letters from attorneys about his options. One offered to help him renogotiate his note with the mortgage company--for $500. John paid him and the attorney worked out an agreement reducing his monthly payment. "But it was still $1700 a month," he says, "on a house that the county assessed for $130,000."

John signed on with a temp agency for truck drivers when he was not able to pay to have his truck repaired in 2007. "They paid good money," he says, "even though maybe a week out of the month I'd be sitting." But last year when the economy slowed, the work dried up. "The jobs got fewer and far between," John says, before stopping entirely.

On the verge of foreclosure again earlier this year, he answered a letter from another attorney proposing bankruptcy as an option to stop the foreclosure. "I got $900 and gave it to him and he went down to Baltimore and filed the case for me but he turned out to be a con artist," John says. "He makes an initial filing, which costs $72, and then never steps foot in the court again on behalf of the persons that pay him."

At the time that John paid him the money, "they already had a court order preventing him from filing bankruptcy papers for other people," he says. "He just sends other people in to do it for him."

Even so, filing bankruptcy was the right thing to do, John says. "I stopped the foreclosure on my house." But he's not sure how long he's going to be able to hold out.

When he was working, "I was keeping up with the mortgage and all my other bills," he says. "I had a steady income and I took all the money from my trucking operation and put it into what I'm really interested in, professional audio."

He still gets occasional gigs but not enough to dig himself out of what has become a very deep hole. John had secured a small loan from the Community Development Block Grant program to buy equipment for his audio business in the late nineties. "I was making payments on that loan until I had the accident," he says.

Since then, he has applied for another small business loans from 4 banks and various government agencies and been turned down by all of them. "The lady at Harford Economic Development says that they have a loan for $100,000 but I couldn't apply for it because of the bankruptcy."

Right now, he's living on a small social security disability check and food stamps. "I'm thankful I have that," he says. "I'm grateful that they give me food stamps and the SSI. I appreciate it because otherwise I wouldn't be living."

John's goal is to regain financial independence "so that I could give up food stamps and medical assistance. So that I wouldn't be dependent on that. But I don't see how that's gonna happen."

He doesn't understand why banks have received government loans while individuals like himself are turned away. "All these banks I've been to have gotten TARP funds but when you go to them they won't even talk to you," he says. "Did anyone look at their financial problems under a magnifying glass? No, they just doled out the money. But they say to me, no. Zero. Nothing."

Struggling to Survive on Minimum Wage

2009-06-08T10:43:00.002-04:00

Low-wage workers achieve justice through unity

At 51, Bernadette had never made more than minimum wage until last year. "I don’t have a problem getting a job. I have no problem at all getting a job. The problem is that jobs don’t pay enough to support you," she says.

"From 1997-2005, I worked down at the stadium. I worked for several different temp agencies but you never make enough money at these temp agencies to actually take care of a household. So I winded up having two different jobs at two different temp agencies, day at one place and night at another place."

From 12 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., she worked at a hospital laundry. "Then I would go home, fix my kids dinner, lay down and get up at night to go down there and clean the stadium," Bernadette says. "Between the laundry and stadium it was like sixteen hours a day."

A three-year campaing by United Workers--a labor rights organization founded by a group of homeless day laborers in 2002--for a living wage for stadium workers achieved victory in 2007. Wages for stadium cleaners which had averaged $4.50/hour are now $11.30/hour. Bernadette was part of the campaign and looking back, she marvels at what they were able to achieve.

"A little before we won that victory I was saying to myself ‘what made them think these people are going to get $11.30 an hour?’ Because it just didn’t seem like they was gonna let that happen. And it wouldn’t have happened if the union hadn’t stepped in. They wouldn’t have that $11.30 this season."

Negotiators also made sure, she says, that ex-offenders like herself, who had worked the job for years were kept on when wages rose. "A lot of those people had records. But those people been working at the stadium for five or six years for the cheap pay. But then they gonna be making a little bit of money and they don’t want them. "

Bernadette is now in the organizer's training program at United Workers, working on a campaign to secure a living wage, health care and better working conditions for Inner Harbor employees.
http://unitedworkers.org/

She has overcome many challenges over the years, including a house fire in 1991, which she and youngest child escaped with just the clothes on their back. "We had to jump out the window. I had a broken back. She had a broken jaw and a broken collarbone."

As soon as she secured shelter and her back healed, she was back at work. "I did whatever I had to do to feed my kids," she says. But the years of stress have taken their toll. Bernadette has high blood pressure and has had two strokes in the past year. "One was in November 2008 and one in March 2009. I had no medicine until the fact, after the one in November. Because I had no medical assistance."

Bernadette is pushing her youngest daughter, who is currently 14, to keep her grades up. "She has straight As," Bernadette says with pride. "I’m thinking about college now. She’s in ninth grade and she got four years of school and I say you’ve got to find a way to keep those grades up so you can get a scholarship. If you've got a college degree, you know how to improve yourself."

Bringing Up Brenna

2009-06-04T14:40:00.003-04:00

A Mother's Story

For the past seven years, Leanna has devoted all of her time and all of her resources to taking care of her developmentally disabled daughter. Born with a chromosomal anomaly called Smith Magenis Disorder, eight-year old Brenna has had two open heart surgeries, and a cleft operation. She is fed through a gastrointestinal tube.

"When she was young it was very, very scary," says her mom. "You really didn't know whether or not she was going to make it. It's been a long process, but she's much better now."

Still, like other children with Smith-Magenis Disorder, Brenna is difficult to manage. She pulls out her G tube, breaks things, bites, kicks and "basically does whatever suits her that day."

Leanna had to withdraw Brenna from her public school for children with disabilities after she defecated on the floor and rubbed her behind on other student's chairs.

"It's frustrating because she knows better," says Leanna. "But she does stuff just to mess with you."

Leanna's husband left when Brenna was a year old. "It was very traumatic for him," Leanna says. "When she was five months old he hit her. He's not a bad man but he just lost it. At that point, I got nursing care because the state determined she need an alert caregiver at all times and one person alone can't do it. "

But since her husband left, Leanna has been mostly on her own, responsible for caring for Brenna full-time as well as trying to make a living--a nearly impossible task. Jobs tend not to last as employers become frustrated when she has to leave to attend to the latest crisis at home.

"Brenna needs consistency of care," Leanna says. "Because she is a behaviorally challenged child, when you send somebody new, she's really bad. She will push them to extreme limits" --like the time she stuck her fingers up her rectum and then spread them on a new caregiver.

"I would like to work but you get put into a situation where it becomes next to impossible," Leanna says. "Usually what happens is I'll work for a couple of months and then break down because I can't handle the stress of keeping up the house as well as trying to go to work and then calling out when something happens at home and feeling like I'm not doing right by them [her employer] and I'm not doing right by her."

Leanna receives an SSI check of $679 a month from the federal government for her daughter. She gets a little more than $100 a month in food stamps. Her ex-husband is supposed to pay $250 a month in child support but he's eight months behind in his payments--not for the first time. "He owes me around $20,000 in back payments," Leanna says.

"On paper, I get $900 a month," she says. "But in reality it's a lot less than that."

The system isn't set up to help people like her, Leanna says, partly because when she works her benefits are cut back or canceled. "You never get out of the hole."

And though the state pays for R.N.'s to come in and provide relief, what she really needs is a full-time behavioral specialist to work with Brenna at home. "But the only thing the state will pay for is someone to come in for an hour. Well, they don't see her true behavior. She's aggressive. A few weeks ago she broke the tv again. She broke the door jamb. She bites people, she hits people. She kicks people. And how do you keep replacing everything you lose? You can't."

Leanna has struggled with depression and went through a bad patch a few years ago when she was smoking a lot of pot. "Self-medication," she says wryly. "If you didn't do something you were gonna pop. Because how do you deal with that level of stress all the time."

Since then she has gotten sober, and found other ways to manage. Right now she is taking photography classes and is compiling a photo essay on her daughter. "I'm looking into trying to get a grant to show what it's actually like to live day to day with her."

She's hoping that when she graduates, she will be able to find "part-time work on my terms, with some flexibility."

Leanna needs help but she is philosophical about her circumstances.

"You do what you have to do," she says. "These are the cards I was dealt."

Forced to Sue for Help

2009-05-12T10:16:00.006-04:00

A pregnant Baltimore County woman with two young sons is the primary plaintiff in a lawsuit against the Maryland Department of Human Services for failure to meet its legal mandate to provide services to eligible applicants within 30 days.

Ms. Thompson is eight months pregnant and the mother of two young sons who have chronic health problems. Her husband works on commission, and makes only $400-450 every two weeks, while the family pays $400 per month in rent. Federal and state law mandate that eligible applicants be given food stamps, Medicaid and Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA) no later than 30 days after they apply. Ms. Thompson applied for food stamps and Medicaid for her family in late February. In over two months, she has yet to see any benefits for her husband or children...

Attorneys from the Homeless Persons Representation Project and Public Justice Center are representing Ms. Thompson and other plaintiffs in the case.

http://www.hprplaw.org/

Poverty Rising in Maryland

2009-05-06T17:37:00.003-04:00

"Maryland's growing need for federal dollars points to its persistent income gap, climbing unemployment rate and deep pockets of poverty too often eclipsed by sprawling suburbs and swanky condos," according to a just published article by Capital News Service.

"There's been a tremendous increase in the number of people on food stamps ... We've had an explosion of people who are now eligible for poverty programs," said Matthew Joseph, executive director of Advocates for Children and Youth. Despite being one of the richest states in the nation, he said, "Maryland is not at all immune to the economic recession."

The persistent wage gap, unemployment and the economic recession has forced a number of working class families already balanced on the precipice of self-sufficiency, to seek help to meet their basic needs...

"Federal Funding Shows Poverty May Be On the Rise in Maryland," Capital News Service

http://www.journalism.umd.edu/cns/wire/2009-editions/05-May-editions/090506-Wednesday/HiddenHardship_CNS-UMCP.html

A Veteran's Story

2009-05-05T19:15:00.005-04:00

Montgomery County

Denise served in Operation Desert Storm when she was 25 years old. "Like a lot of military personnel, I was glad to come back alive," she says.

But 25 years later she is angry that her service to her country counts for nothing now that she needs help to get through a rough patch after losing her job.

After being laid off in March 2009 with only two weeks severance pay, Denise was denied food stamps, medical and rental assistance "because I make too much money."

"I get $1346/month in unemployment and I pay $1200 of that towards my rent," she says. "Where do I have enough money to pay my utilities and feed myself at the same time?"

The Department of Social Services recommended food pantries in the area. But when Denise visited, she found "processed foods, things that can be stored for long periods of time with a higher salt content. I have high blood pressure and borderline diabetes. I'm not supposed to eat that stuff."

She is also worried about not being able to pay for her blood pressure medication because she can't afford COBRA at $175 month, with a $44 copay.

"I did ask for medical assistance and they denied me that because I don't have any children in the house and I'm not 65 years old. So I have to wait another nine years? I can't afford to feed myself, much less afford medical coverage," she says.

"Basically what they are telling me is that I need to fend for myself."

She has been to the Veterans Administration for help and they will pay for her to retrain at a vocational school. She'd rather attend college but she says that she is going to "turn this into an opportunity" and become certified as an LPN, then work towards a bachelors degree in nursing while working.

She is trying to keep a positive attitude, she says, but it's hard, particularly when she encounters people in even worse situations than her own.

"I just saw a lady with two small children down at social services," she says. "Her husband is in Iraq , ducking and dodging bullets, and she's out applying for food stamps. Do you know they denid her? I thought my problem was bad. I felt worse for her than I feel for myself."

Cancer + Unemployment = Stress

2009-05-04T16:03:00.003-04:00

Baltimore County

George is grateful that he was enrolled in Baltimore County's Partnership Program with Kaiser Pemanente Health Plans five years ago. If he hadn't been enrolled in the program he would probably be dead now.

"It was purely happenstance that my doctor at Kaiser found the elevated PSA during a regular check-up," he says. "He thought it was high, so he sent me for a second test. That's when they found the prostate cancer."

The glitch was that you can only be enrolled in the county's "bridge" program for the uninsured for three years. George started radiation treatments for his cancer knowing that he was nearing the cut-off date for the program. Soon afterwards, he was laid off from his job as a graphic designer.

"It was a very stressful time," he says. "They started the radiation and the hormone injections and then the job disappeared. "

While he was undergoing treatment, he was also looking for medical coverage to replace his soon to be cancelled Partnership plan. "Even though I was really tired from radiation, I was filling out forms and dropping them off."

He applied for medical assistance but "the state was basing my eligibility on my 2006 taxes. I said, wait, that's gone now. I don't have that job or that income anymore. They said, sorry."

Because his wife was still working, they managed to pay for the Kaiser insurance for a few months after he was dropped from the Partnership program. "I paid the regular fee, which was $580/month. I tallied it all up and without insurance the radiation and shots would tally up to like $40,000. There were only three options--dead, dead broke or in hock a little bit."

But when George and his wife were faced with a choice of paying their mortgage or making their monthly health insurance premium, he dropped the insurance.

Luckily, 2008 was year that Maryland extended Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIPS) coverage to the parents of dependent children. George has a teenage son and daughter at home so he was able to sign on to that program. "We're all insured now, courtesy of the state of Maryland."

His experience has made him an advocate for national health insurance.

"It's not a luxury to get radiation treatments," he says. "I know that there are people in my situation who might still be paying that $500/mo, or might not have any insurance at all and not have gotten that last physical. If you don't have that coverage, you find out too late or you don't find out at all."

George has one more shot to go and then his treatment will be concluded. He's more in debt than he would have been had he not been diagnosed with cancer, but he is alive.

"My wife's grandmother used to say that health is wealth," he says. "People laugh about that but it is true. If you are not able to get up and go, nothing else matters."

Down, Out and Disabled

2009-05-04T13:18:00.002-04:00

Carroll County

Jeff once had it all--a big house, a pool, a loving wife, son and stepdaughter. "Everything was perfect," he says. Except for the pain.

When he was in high school, a football injury "really messed up my lower back," he says and a motorcyle accident a few years later made it worse. "But I continued to work," he says, even though "I'd come home at night, sit in a La-Z-Boy and be in tears. This went on for year after year and I couldn't get any help," he says.

The doctor at his HMO told him that "it was all in my head. Our wonderful health care system was doing nothing but trying to keep from paying my bills."

Finally, he demanded to see a surgeon, who ordered a CAT scan that revealed that five of the disks in his back were severely damaged. "The operator of the CAT scan was just blown away that I had been working like that."

After a series of surgeries on his neck and back to repair the damaged disks, he went back to work, opening a motorcyle repair shop. "It really took off," he says. "I worked on my feet 16 hours a day like nothing had ever happened to me. I was that much better after my surgeries."

He was raising his son alone after his wife left him during the two years he was unemployed while recovering from surgery. One day, when his son left the house to go to the grocery store Jeff ran after him to add to the list, slipping on a wet tile on the patio.

"I went flying off the patio and landed right on my back," he says. "Two days after that I couldn't move my right leg. It was paralyzed, and it stayed that way for four months. I had worked my butt off. And next thing I know, I can't walk again."

Four months after the accident, he was able to move his toes again but ever since he has struggled with intermittent pain and paralysis. He gave up his shop and started working for a friend, but had a series of setbacks, including a severe infection after his last surgery that destroyed the rods and screws the doctor had implanted to fix a collapsed disk.

"I had three more surgeries after that to get the infection out," he says. "It was all the way down to my kidneys. It just about killed me. It's finally just about healed after thirteen months."

Part of the reason that it took so long for Jeff's wound to heal is that he couldn't afford the weekly wound healing treatments. He is on Medicare but that covers only 80% of his medical expenses. The rest is up to him. "I've got beaucoup bills," he says. "And every time I go to the doctor it's another $20 [copay]."

Jeff receives $900 a month from social security. His rent is $600. He also pays his own utilities, "a few hundred dollars every month." That doesn't leave much for food or medical bills.

He's been selling off his possessions to make up the difference. Just last month he sold his truck. "I couldn't afford to insure it any more."

For a long time, he tried to muddle through on his own. "I didn't know where to go for help," he says. "I had no idea where to turn."

He was behind on his rent and eating barbecue loaf and cheese last year, when a homeless man told him to apply for food stamps. "So finally, I got food stamps, and applied for rental assistance," he says. "They told me I made too much money."

Angry, he went to his congressional service office and the next day, he says, "I got a call from RAP saying "we just fit you in." He is grateful for his congressman's help but angry that it took a personal visit to his office to get benefits to which a person in his situation should be entitled.

Jeff now receives $130/mo for food stamps and $280 rental assistance but he was denied medical assistance to help pay the 20% costs left after Medicare and is on a waiting list for HUD housing.

That problem weighs on his mind as his RAP benefits run out in four months. "You know where I'm gonna be when it runs out?" he asks. Right here with screws in my back," after surgery.

Jeff is frustrated that disabled persons are forced to compete with able-bodied people for benefits assistance. Health insurance, he points out, is also a big problem for people in his position. "They are bankrupting us."

"As hard as I worked, when I needed them they let me down," he says. "Look, I put my son through school, I've worked two jobs, I know how to get somewhere in life. I'll do it again just as soon as I am able. I'll motivate myself."

He just needs assistance now to do that, he says. "Right now, every single day I'm trying to think of how I'm gonna come up with a couple of hundred dollars. It's like this every month."

Homeless in Montgomery County

2009-05-04T12:21:00.004-04:00

Montgomery County

Keshia has missed Christmas and Thanksgiving with her children twice.

The first time she was homeless due to mortgage fraud, after paying $10,000 down on a $50,000 mortgage on a house in Washington, D.C. "I thought it was a steal to get this house for $50,000 when it was worth $90,000," she says. "It needed repairs but I didn't mind making repairs because it was an adventure for me."

She and her sons, today aged 9 and 4, lived in the house for nearly a year before discovering that the man who had sold her the house didn't own it. "He basically just printed up some papers and claimed ownership when it was in foreclosure already."

Keshia sent her children to family in Philadelphia and entered a shelter in D.C. A few months later, she was able to move into an apartment in Montgomery County with help from the Rental Assistance Program (RAP) and her children rejoined her. But she soon learned that the apartment complex in which she was living was far from family-friendly.

"There were rats, mice and roaches. I had to throw all my children's clothes away because of infestations. People were getting robbed on the grounds. People would slip and fall on the ground [in bad weather] because it wasn't salted. We were paying Montgomery County prices but getting substandard conditions."

She and five other residents were willing to complain--not only about the substandard conditions but about the fact that the management corporation running the apartments took advantage of undocumented immigrants by charging them $2000/mo for apartments for which other renters paid $1264.

She and the other residents who complained were evicted, she says. "I had nowhere to go."

Her children went back to Philadelphia while she found a slot at a single person's shelter, where she lived until securing another apartment with assistance from Montgomery DHS and RAP in April.

Keshia is now enrolled in beauty school, training to be a hairdresser.

Her experiences have taught her many things, she says. One is that "if I'm paying $1264 or $1360 a month, I shouldn't be living in substandard housing conditions. Everyone deserves a clean, safe place to live."

She would like to see the state "make landlords accountable for repairs that need to be done" and investigate and penalize landlords who "participate in retaliatory evictions," she says, like the one that left her and her children homeless.

There aren't enough programs to help people pay their rent either, she says. "RAP is good but the funds need to be increased. Two hundred dollars a month isn't much, she says, "if your rent is $1261 or $1380. Montgomery County is not cheap." Many people, she points out "are one paycheck away from being homeless."

People who have never been homeless don't understand what it's like, she says, even the social workers tasked with helping them. "One lady made it seem like I wanted to be homeless," she says. "Nobody wants to be homeless. Until you've slept on a bench and been told to move by police, you have no concept."

A Snapshot of Poverty in the Richest State

2009-04-30T16:33:00.000-04:00

Maryland has the highest median household income of any state in the nation--$68,080.

But one in 12 people in Maryland live in poverty--8.2% of the state's residents, more than the entire population of the Eastern Shore.

How poor is poor? The poverty threshold for a family of four is $21,000.

Over 200,000 Marylanders live at half the federal poverty level, which for a family of three is $8,265 and for a single person over 65 is less than $5000.

Women are more likely to live in poverty than men--9.4% of Maryland women are poor, compared to 7.1% of Maryland men.

Members of racial minority groups are also more likely to be poor than white Marylanders, 12% versus 5.7%.

Children are the most likely of any age group in the state to live in poverty. About 1 in 10 Maryland children live in poverty, 10.4%.

More than 140,000 residents of the state over age 16 live in poverty even though they work.

THESE NUMBERS DO NOT REFLECT THE IMPACT OF THE CURRENT RECESSION.

Over the past few months, MAP has been interviewing individuals and families about the impact of the recession on their lives. Their stories will be posted on this blog.