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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 12191995 - SD14 TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS F&HS-03 ....... Contra r; FROM: FAMILY AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE �' Costa ..... .o� County DATE: December.11, 1995 SUBJECT: STATUS REPORT ON THE GENERAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATIONS: 1. ACCEPT the attached report from the Social Service Director on the status of the implementation of each of the General Assistance Program policy changes approved by the Board of Supervisors during the summer and fall of 1995. 2. DIRECT the Social Service Director to report to the 1996 Family and Human Services Committee in February, 1996 on the status of the General Assistance Program. This report is also to include information on the status of homeless General Assistance recipients who have exhausted their 90 day limit in one of the homeless shelters in the County. Refer oversight of the entire General Assistance Program to the 1996 Family and Human Services Committee, removing it as a referral to the 1995 Family and Human Services Committee. 3. DIRECT the Social Service Director to present an outline of policy issues to the 1996 Family and Human Services Committee which will provide an opportunity for the Committee to review the policy changes which were approved and implemented in 1995 as well as other major eligibility requirements which should be considered in General Assistance in the future. In this way; the Board of Supervisors will be in the position to have thoughtfully re-examined and refined major elements of the General Assistance Program before we are confronted by the demands of the 1996-97 CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: YES SIGNATURE: RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD C IT APPROVE OTHER �\ SIGNATURE(S): MARK DPSAI 11 NIFR- jp;F=F: SMITH ACTION OF BOARD ON necember 19, 1995 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED .L1— OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS 1 HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE A_UNANIMOUS(ABSENT ) AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AYES: NOES: AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD ABSENT: ABSTAIN: OF SUPERVI RS ON THE DATE SHOWN. ATTESTED Contact: County Administrator PHIL BATCHELOR.CLERK OF THE BOARD OF CC: Social Service Director CLSUPERVI S AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR County Counsel Legal Services Foundation BY DEPUTY F&HS-03 County Budget and can be in a position to carefully and deliberately determine what policy changes need to be made to address the problems presented by General Assistance applicants and recipients. This policy issue review by the Family and Human Services Committee should precede the Workshop on the General Assistance Program which the Board on November 7, 1995, directed be scheduled sometime between January and May, 1996. BACKGROUND: On November 7, 1995, the Board of Supervisors approved a Report from our Committee which included the following Recommendations, among others: 1. DIRECT the Social Service Director to make a detailed report to our Committee on December 11, 1995 on the General Assistance Program. 2. DIRECT the County Administrator and Social Service Director to plan a Board of Supervisors' workshop sometime between January and May, 1996 on the subject of General Assistance. On December 11, 1995, our Committee met with members of the Grand Jury, the Social Service Director and members of his staff, staff from the County Counsel's Office, County Administrator's Office and Phil Bertenthal from the Contra Costa Legal Services Foundation. We received and reviewed the attached report from the Social Service Director touching on each element of the General Assistance Program which has recently undergone a change as well as additional information to demonstrate the efforts the Department has made to implement the Board's directions regarding the General Assistance Program. Mr. Cullen noted that while the data now indicates that the General Assistance Program may be overspending its budget, he believes that the Program will come in on budget, although he would like to have a couple more months of data before making a commitment to this conclusion. Mr. Bertenthal was critical of the Department in that he indicated there have been problems with staff being provided adequate instructions in order to implement the policies the Board of Supervisors had approved. Mr. Cullen acknowledged that consistency in the application of policy may have been a problem because of the scope and timing of the changes but that the Department is working on straightening out these problems. Our Committee is concerned that the General Assistance Program be administered in such a way that it stays within the budget the Board has been able to provide for the current fiscal year but that the program not be administered with the objective of reducing costs substantially below the budget that was provided. We emphasized that other budget problems in the Social Service Department should not be covered by making additional reductions in General Assistance expenditures. We are not attempting to balance the budget at the expense of General Assistance recipients. Our Committee is concerned about the speed with which we had to implement many of the policy changes that were approved earlier this year. We believe that with the likely changes which will come out of the Congress this and next year and from the State Legislature in 1996, we need to carefully review the major components of the General Assistance Program over the next several months and fine-tune the policies which were implemented earlier this year. In addition, Mr. Bertenthal has brought to our attention other policies which we should review. Among these are the job 2 F&HS-03 search requirements for applicants and the issue of what will happen to homeless General Assistance recipients who exhaust their 90 days in the shelter. We are, therefore, asking that the Social Services Director go through a series of policy discussions with our Committee on the major components of the General Assistance Program leading up to the Workshop with the entire Board which was ordered by the Board on November 7, 1995. In this way, we believe we will be in a much better position to determine the funding and policy direction for the General Assistance Program for the 1996-97 fiscal year. -3- _, SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT CONTRA COSTA COUNTY DATE: December 6, 1995 TO: C. Van Marter Assistant County Administrator FROM: John Cullen �i Social Service Director �j L SUBJECT: Family and Human Services Committee December 11, 1995 Meeting -- General Assistance Report We would like to submit the following review of the General Assistance policy changes in response to your directions at the October 23 FHSC meeting. We have summarized the various policy change areas, identified impact, and provided a financial summary. The information is still based upon evolving information and rough estimates since several of the changes were only recently implemented, and their impacts have not been fully realized. Additionally, I have included some information for you on the Social Service Department's efforts to communicate policy changes and implementation instructions to our staff over the past few months, and provided miscellaneous status reports on a few of our efforts to assist GA clients to become employed. As per your October 23 instructions, I have begun discussions with staff and the CAO on scheduling a spring meeting with the Board to discuss county GA policy and long term program options. Gen 9c (New 3/86) Status Report on 1995 General Assistance Policy Changes 1. 15 day residency requirement -- implementation started August 1, 1995 All applicants for GA must be able to verify that they have been residents of CCC for at least 15 days before aid can be granted. The purpose of this policy is to ensure that aid is paid to residents of Contra Costa County. Impact: More than 95% of applicants have no problem establishing residency. The policy, intended to discourage transients, will save approximately $75,000 per year. 2. Sanction periods -- implementation started August 1, 1995 Durational sanctions for failure to comply with program requirements have been increased from: warning, one month, three months, six months; to: warning, two months, four months, six months. The purpose of this policy is to provide incentive for recipients to cooperate and comply with requirements, and to reduce the administrative costs of processing many frequent restorations of aid. Impact: The Department is tracking the number of sanctions under this policy, and will compare numbers and duration against previous years' sanction policy. 3. Vendor Pay for Housing -- implementation started October 1, 1995 All housing is paid by direct payment to the recipient's landlord in order to ensure that housing expenses are paid. As of 11/30/95, 1933 recipients have returned the vendor pay forms, and vendor payments are being issued. Impact: An estimated $440,000 in annual expenditure reduction will be realized where clients voluntarily have declined vendor payment for housing. 4. Grants for Homeless Recipients -- implementation started October 1, 1995 All homeless applicants and recipients will be offered referral to public and private shelter beds. The purpose of this change is to encourage homeless GA applicants and recipients to take shelter and have the opportunity to benefit from a structured care program which can lead to permanent housing. Clients that do not accept shelter are not eligible to receive the shelter portion of the grant ($158). Fifty-nine beds at the two county sponsored shelters have been allotted to GA applicants and recipients. Shelter is explored and offered, if available, to all applicants at the time of the GA intake appointment. Recipients are being given 2 appointments on a flow basis, during the period October through December for the purpose of exploring available shelter. Impact: Using the data for the period October 1 through November 30, 1995 homeless clients who chose not to accept shelter alternatives result in projected annual expenditure reductions of approximately $430,000. 5. Standards of Assistance for Recipients Living with Related Persons -- Implemented effective September 1 for applicants and October 1 for recipients Grants for those recipients who reside with certain related persons were reduced based on a multiple person standard of assistance. On September 14, 1995, a lawsuit, Taylor v CCC was filed in Superior court challenging the county's family shared housing standards. Contra Costa Legal Services Foundation are the attorneys for the plaintiff. On October 10, 1995 the county was enjoined from using the standard of assistance. Grants have been recomputed and supplements issued. A hearing in Superior Court is scheduled for December 8, 1995. 6. Automated Hearings -- implementation started November 1, 1995. The County has automated the hearing process in order to assure that every recipient facing certain negative actions will have an opportunity for a timely fair hearing and decision, thus ensuring equitable treatment and eliminating the need for aid-paid-pending a decision. All "Notices of Failure to Comply" which propose discontinuance and sanction for noncompliance with program requirements contain prescheduled hearing dates and times. Hearings are scheduled no sooner than seventeen days following the date of the notice, and prior to the effective date of the proposed action. The hearing appointments are restated on the "Notice of Action", which is sent ten days later, if the recipient has not resolved the issue. Impact: Actual expenditure reductions attributed to automated hearings are still being estimated. Clients are being scheduled for hearings more quickly, and decisions are made timely. Financial Summary The data presented in this report represents preliminary information. A projection based on this unrefined data would result in a $9.8 to $11.2 million budget for this fiscal year. This is down from $13 million for Fiscal Year 1994/95. However, a straight line projection is not extremely accurate due to seasonal trends, full implementation of 3 all policy changes and any unforeseen changes, which may impact the General Assistance population. The program costs are being carefully monitored to evaluate compliance with budget. I will meet with the CAO and offer recommendations should I believe that the program will exceed budget by year's end. The threat of migration from adjoining counties has not been resolved. Alameda County is expected to appeal the denial of mandate relief to the State, and Solano has announced their intention to apply for mandate relief. Efforts made to communicate to Social Service Staff In response to questions and concerns expressed regarding the Department's failure to communicate policy changes and implementation instructions to Social Service staff, I am providing a list of the meetings held and printed material issued since August 1, 1995. 1. Meetings The General Assistance Program Committee is comprised of Supervisor and worker representatives from each operations district, as well as policy staff and training staff. The following meetings have been held to educate and instruct staff, and coordinate efforts since August: August 17, September 6 , October 5, November 9, December 7. 2. Department Memoranda Issue Date Subject Dept. Memo 144 8/1/95 GA Policy Changes Dept. Memo 144 Errata 9/1/85 Clarification of Residency policy stated in DM 144 Dept. Memo 151 9/1/95 GA Policy Changes -- Part II Dept. Memo 153 8/29/95 GA: Employability and Unemployability Dept. Memo 158 8/31/95 GA: Mail Delivery Procedures for Homeless Recipients Dept. Memo 161 9/15/95 GA Policy changes -- Homeless Dept. Memo 167 10/1/95 GA Policy changes -- Homeless, Part II Dept. Memo 169 10/13/95 GA: Standards of Assistance for Recipients Residing with Certain Relatives 4 Dept. Memo 172 10/23/95 GA: Vendor Payments Dept. Memo 178 11/16/95 GA: Freitas v CCC Lawsuit 3. Department Manual Change Letters DMCL 95-114 11/1/95 DM 49-700, GA Hearings 4. Memos Issue Date Subject 8/29 Tracking Applicants who move to CC from Alameda 8/31 Referrals to SSI Advocates 9/26 Applicant Job Search 10/2 Living Arrangement Codes 10/9 Mental Status Examinations 10/11 Residency 10/13 Property -- Value of Automobile 10/20 Disability Flagging Case Records 10/23 Residency 10/23 Vendor Payments -- Ujima Recovery Programs 10/24 Multiple Person Assistance Units 11/1 Rescind Actions 11/17 Freitas v CCC 11/17 Freitas v CCC Miscellaneous Issues/Information The Department has been working on a number of areas to improve our General Assistance clients' access to shelters and employment services. The following lists some of the current efforts. 1. The addition of the PEGASYS automation system has afforded the Department the opportunity to pilot a Job Seeking Skills Workshop in West Co. Since September 1995, Work Programs staff in Richmond have conducted workshops for youth, ages 18-24. The workshops have proven popular and successful for both staff and clients. Since September, five workshops have been conducted; 91 clients have been scheduled; 32 clients have appeared; 32 clients have completed the two-week program, and 14 clients from the first four groups have become employed to date, as a result. (Employment data not yet available for the last group.) 2. In anticipation of the Federal and State emphasis on employment and training components in welfare programs, the Department continues to work with county 5 and regional task forces and private employers with a goal of increasing employment opportunities for county residents. The RichmondWORKS committee, in which the Department participates, has received national recognition for its coordinated team work among public employment programs and private sector employers. 3. As part of our continuing effort to provide services for our General Assistance population, the Department also participates in the regional Bay Area Homeless Network, a group in the process of designing a regional data base for the homeless. This data base will be accessible to homeless GA clients to assist them with their shelter and employment needs. 4 Department Adult Service staff are also participating in the county-wide Homeless Task Force, which is attempting to assemble a service delivery system which will result in a county-wide approach to service this needy population. 6