Strengthening the safety net for the county’s neediest

A major overhaul of the General Relief safety net came closer to reality on Tuesday when the Board of Supervisors approved an initiative aimed at improving the quality of life for the county’s indigent residents while achieving large welfare savings in the future.

By unanimous vote, the supervisors approved implementation plans for a set of 42 reforms of the county’s General Relief program, including a number of measures they approved in principal last fall.

The General Relief program, administered by the Department of Public Social Service, has come under intense financial pressure during the current recession as the client population rocketed from 61,000 to 87,000 in the past two years. Spending on general relief clients is expected to come to about $1 million this year.

The reforms are intended to improve the delivery of services while saving the county money by focusing efforts on helping clients qualify for larger federal and state disability benefits. Currently, the county spends about $210 million to pay clients monthly checks of $221. In addition, the indigent clients cost the county another $800 million in other services, including hospital emergency room treatments.

The restructuring efforts aim to:

· Better assist GR recipients surmount the difficult application process for higher-paying state or federal disability funds, such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI), through improved counseling and record keeping.

· Increase subsidized housing for those applying for federal benefits by $2 million this year and $3.7 million next year.

· Focus job-training services on youth, veterans and graduates of treatment programs.

· Use county clinics to improve the quality of medical disability assessments to help clients qualify for state and federal benefits.

The county will spend $7 million for improvements that would ultimately save tens of millions of dollars in future years while improving services for current clients.

Under the new plans, DPSS will launch a pair of pilot programs to identify the most effective ways to transition GR recipients to SSI.

At the Westside’s Rancho Park DPSS office, which serves Venice, Santa Monica and West L.A., officials will select community non-profits to conduct the SSI advocacy work. At the DPSS’s South Special District Office in Rancho Dominguez, the department’s own social workers will “work side-by-side” with local community organizations to perform the advocacy work.

A county study last year estimated that about one in three residents now getting county relief would quality for the federal SSI program, which is tailored for individuals who have mental or physical disabilities that prevent them from working. The maximum monthly SSI payment to a disabled individual is $850, $631 higher than the county’s GR payment.

In addition, SSI recipients often qualify for other benefits, including Medi-Cal, instead of relying on free care at County emergency rooms.

“This is a golden opportunity to help the most vulnerable among us who are eligible to secure SSI benefits,” said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. “It’s our duty to make sure it happens.”