or breed dependency?
There are more than 1,000 disaster counties in the United States which have priority over all others. Kansas has none so the director felt it was impossible for the request to be granted.
$13 monthly to live
Since July, the government has appropriated more moneney to the program and Derrick said he will apply for a portion "in the coming months."
One divorced woman who did not want her name used said she and her eight children live on Aid to Dependant Children (ADC). After paying her rent, utilities and buying food, she has $13 a month for living expenses.
"We eat a lot of potatoes, rice and boiling beef, whatever we can afford," she said.
Gesturing at a 100 lb. sack of potatoes, she said she has taught her children to eat "what is put before them."
Derrick admits that "inflation has made it nearly impossible to survive on welfare." But, the director is concerned more with consequences of increasing welfare benefits.
Another requirement of the welfare laws of most
"To increase the payment would mean higher taxes," he said. "Higher taxes are hard to justify, they are high enough right now."
states-extended residency-was recently declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
April 21, 1969 the Supreme Court ruled that state laws which deny welfare benefits to the poor because they have not lived in that state for a certain period of time, simultaneously denied "the Constitutional precept of personal liberty to travel the length and breadth of this country without burden."
The Court also observed that such laws often affected those persons who need to migrate to start a new life.
In Lawrence, for example,
General Assistance funds have
been used to help poverty-stricken persons leave the state to find better jobs Derrick said.
Helps them leave
"It sound callous, but people are better off if we can help them get out of the county," he said. "If they are stranded here, we would have to support them anyway, so we are really doing ourselves a favor by paying for car repairs or bus tickets."
Derrick said, "jobs are not really that plentiful here and possibilities are usually better at their destination so we are willing to help them get there."
1,000 in Douglas Co.
one heart is cannot healthy, allow
him to walk upstairs to Derrick's third floor office in the County Courthouse.
About 65 persons, including 12 blind persons, receive medical assistance each month. The blind receive $95 per month, and medical assistance covers only the bare amount of the medical expense.
Aid to Dependent Children
Court-placed wards of the county number about 35. When a child is removed from its parents' custody, the county sometimes places the child in a foster home, and the foster parents are paid for their assistance. Some of the children are placed in orphanages.
(ADC) is the largest of the County's welfare programs. And the largest of its expenses. This program covers 460 children. The average size of an ADC family is about three children and the average size of the paycheck is about $200 monthly.
While the intention of such rules is to prevent funds from going to children who have another source of income, in actual practice, the effect has been to break up homes by forcing a parent to leave. Even though he lives in his home, a man might not be able to support his family on his income. As the only alternative, he leaves his family so it can be eligible for ADC.
ADC is always on the increase and payments have doubled in the last five years in Douglas County. Derrick explains it this way:
"At the very least, they are someone else's problem," the welfare director said. On the other hand, some persons, attracted by the construction and new businesses, come to Lawrence in hopes of finding a job. Often they arrive penniless and cannot find jobs because they do not have the necessary skills.
"More and more divorces are granted every day and the county is often stuck with the expense of raising the children. Women come into my office and ask how they can make their
ex-husbands pay the child support. The answer is, they can't.
"The guy was not much of a father in the first place if he neglects paying his child support, and another court order will not do much good. He can't pay it while in jail, so one way or the other, the county ends up supporting the children."
Upon totalling all the foregoing categories, one finds about 879 persons are on the welfare roles more-or-less permanently in Douglas County. Only about 121 persons are left to the General Assistance fund, a catch-all for minor emergencies and miscellaneous items.
When it is possible, Derrick said he "encourages such persons to return to their homes, and if necessary, buys their return ticket."
Welfare problems abound
Although with the Supreme Court's ruling one kink has been straightened out in the welfare system, many others remain. Most states including Kansas have a "man in the house" rule which makes welfare benefits available under the ADC program only if one or both parents are absent from the house or disabled.
Occasionally, a parent will not actually leave, but claim he has, to receive additional aid. In these cases, welfare offices investigate suspected violators of the rules.'
These "snoops" add to the distrust and ill-feeling among the welfare recipient and welfare official. The recipient feels degraded and insulted, with no privacy from "The Man."
Aid system is complex
The American system of aid, critics say, is cumbersome and complex. The three main sources of government aid—Social Welfare, Social Security and government retirement programs—all operate independently of one another. Critics contend this creates confusion when an individual case falls in the overlapping areas of all three programs. Squabbles often arise as to who should pay for what expenses.
President Nixon has promised to rearrange the various poverty programs for maximum efficiency. Experts assume this will be one of the president's foremost problems.
Federal, state, private funds help
Citizens fight for poverty-stricken
By KEN PETERSON
Kansan Staff Writer
Concerned citizens of Lawrence are waging a war—a war for the betterment of the underprivileged and poverty-stricken of the community.
Churches, individuals, federal and state officials and hundreds of volunteers have joined forces in this fight.
At the Plymouth Congregational Church, 946 Vermont St., for example, Project Headstart provides a sort of remedial education for three to five-year-olds. A federally funded project, Headstart attempts to put its culturally deprived enrollees on the educational experience plane of their middle class competitors.
For an equal start
Far too often, program administrators explain, poor kids start out in kindergarten far behind most youngsters. And they get farther and farther behind from first grade on, until, by the time they reach junior or senior high school, they drop out. With Headstart training, they will at least start out on the same footing.
Another Headstart project shares facilities with the Children's hour at 708 Elm Street, September through July. Headstart operates during the morning; the Children's Hour, financed by the United Fund, aims its efforts at older youngsters during the afternoon.
First Methodist Church, 946 Vermont St., is using state and federal welfare funds to operate the five-day-a-week UKUnited Child Care Center, to help underprivileged children.
Programs for all ages
Not all poverty programs in Lawrence are aimed at small children, however. The Rev. Dennis Bowers, assistant pastor of First Methodist, said the church helps the unskilled and the dropout find jobs.
"The labor market in Lawrence is saturated with college students," Mr. Bowers said. "The unskilled and the dropouts don't have a chance."
Lawrence businessmen are "just now facing up" to this problem. he said.
"Some people in Lawrence are starving. They don't know where their next meal is coming from," he explained. "The Emergency Action Fund is used to help such people obtain food."
Mr. Bowers said the church also has an Emergency Action Fund to aid residents in "financial crises."
Self-help and OEO funded
At Pennsylvania House in East Lawrence, several KU students distribute donated children's clothes, toys, and furniture.
L. Keith Miller, assistant professor of sociology and Pennsylvania House director, explained that the project was funded by the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) and by the work of the people served—through the sale of their arts and crafts.
"We want the people to learn to help themselves," he said. "We have them get together and decide how to solve their own problems."
He said the house had helped 142 persons, informing them of such programs as social security and medicare.
Other groups have met the challenge of employment, housing and food head-on. The OEO also backs the East Lawrence Service Center, 1000 Delaware St.
Cherster Luney, Douglas County OEO administrative assistant, said the Service Center provides tutoring for grade and high school students, job finding, recreation and psychological services.
Although the center is closed for remodeling, Luney said, it would be reopened in June.
Geared to individuals
One service of the center is Job Mark, which serves as a "liaison between employer and unemployed people" without the "red tape" and personal embarrassment of the State Employment Office, Luney said.
The program's organizer goes out and looks for a job, seeking to match the "job to the individual instead of the individual to the job"—an approach
that has landed permanent jobs for 30 persons in the past five months.
The East Lawrence Center sponsors both the Neighborhood Youth Corps (NYC) and project Mainstream, Lueny continued.
Youths 16 to 21 years work 29 hours weekly for $1.40 an hour under the NYC. These are usually jobs as laborers, clerks and secretaries for the city and as teaching assistants in the schools, Luney said. In addition, they must be enrolled four to five hours per week in educational programs-for example, in high school courses.
NYC has enrolled five persons, while Mainstream has 10 persons with jobs, Luney said. The jobs include apprentice work and clerical work in city departments. One woman is a teaching assistant in New York School.
Mainstream provides the same training for persons 21 and above, Luney said. Enrollees work 39 hours a week with at least one hour of training or consultation with a center adviser.
Four to six KU students are at the center each day to provide tutorial assistance for grade and high school students, Luney said.
Mental health services
The center also provides psychological assistance because of the crowded conditions at the Lawrence-Douglas County Mental Health Center and because the persons served by the center cannot afford such aid, Luney said.
Dr. Roy Richardson and Dr. Art Thomas of the KU Counseling Psychology Clinic are on call for assistance at the center, he said.
Persons needing speech and hearing assistance are cared for at the KU Speech and Hearing Clinic, Luney went on. As soon as remodeling is finished in June, this clinic will be moved into the center.
Recreational activities, such as baseball and basketball, as well as social dinners are held at the center, Luney said.
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Transportation for the elderly to go downtown is another service provided by the center, said Luney.
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