In Alameda County, General Assistance payments were slashed for all recipients, from $300 per month to $221 per month, the bare minimum payment required under state law for counties that are determined to be under "significant financial distress." This reduction was temporarily halted by a Superior Court judge shortly after it went into effect, in response to a lawsuit filed by the Legal Aid Society of Alameda County. The judge required the county to restore payments to all recipients whose benefits have already been cut by sending supplemental checks. The County will appeal this temporary ruling, however, and seek to restore the cut.
In Contra Costa County, three significant restrictions on General Assistance payments were implemented in October. First, the housing assistance portion of the monthly benefits will now be paid directly to landlords. For a one-person household, this means that the monthly case benefits of $300 will be reduced to $142, and that $158 will be sent directly to the landlord. Recipients are required to have their landlords complete two forms: one to verify that the landlord-tenant relationship exists, and a second, called a W-9, to report the landlord's income to federal and state tax authorities. Recipients who fail to return both of these forms to their eligibility workers will have their housing assistance payments eliminated altogether.
Second, homeless persons will now be required to accept a referral for a shelter bed. Once the referral is made (whether it is accepted or not), the homeless individual's monthly cash grant will be reduced from $300 to $142. Only if no shelter beds are available at the time of the referral will the recipient continue to receive a $300 cash grant. People with mental impairments for whom shelter referrals are deemed to be inappropriate are not subject to this restriction.
Third, recipients who live with relatives will have their grants reduced. The relative does not have to be legally responsible for the recipient, and can include a spouse, parent, grandparent, sibling, child, aunt, uncle, niece or nephew. The county will consider the household unit to consist of all related individuals sharing the residence and will cut the recipient's grant to his or her pro-rated share of the grant for an entire family of that size. In other words, if you live with three relatives, your grant will now be reduced from $300 to $152, which is one-forth of the four-person standard of aid. Also, if you and your family rent your home, the first restriction outlined above applies; the housing assistance portion of your grant ($26) will now be sent directly to your landlord. Your cash grant will be only $126 per month. Fortunately, this third restriction on benefits was temporarily halted by a judge in response to a lawsuit filed by Contra Costa County Legal Services, and supplemental checks have been sent to recipients whose benefits were already cut. A hearing on whether this restriction will be halted permanently will take place on December 8, 1995.
Call Contra Costa County Legal Services at (510)233-9954 if you have
questions about these cuts, particularly if: (1) your landlord refuses
to sign the W-9 form; (2) you are homeless and you are being referred to
a shelter far away in another part of the county; (3) you have a mental
disability and are being inappropriately referred to a congregate shelter;
or (4) you live with relatives and your reduced grant may cause you to
become homeless. If you have concerns about how the General Assistance
cuts in either Alameda or Contra Costa County may affect you or your community,
please write to your county Board of Supervisors or your local newspaper.