Homeless in Minnesota?  Who, Me?

I am homeless.  The employees of the Drake Hotel and 410 shelter have totally lost their minds.  Now they are telling tenants that if we are seen in the park across the street we will be evicted from the premises.  (And that is the only place the buses drop our children off.

They told us (and the Welfare Rights Committee) that there is drug activity.  So we are not to mingle with the drug scene dealers.  If these guys are known for their occupation, then why can't they be removed?  Instead, they threaten the mothers and children with eviction.  There must be more to it than that.  Is political awareness a crime like drug dealing?

Where is this crusade against homelessness going to lead us?  Into a riotous movement?  Because it sho' ain't a righteous one.  I want to shut the Drake and 410 down.  All the employees who talk down to us can talk down to the walls.  Then where will they pick up their checks?  No homeless families, no shelters or no need for shelters if this were the case.

Let's stop pointing our fingers at each other.  Let's make this a united issue, not a big me/little you event.  This is what they do.  Divide and Conquer.

While being employed living in the shelter, there is no way any of the employee's will:

1)  ration me one disposable diaper at a time or

2) pour my two year-old a four-ounce cup of open juice from their portable fridge.  (It's cheaper than supplying the Gerber baby juices).

The guards will take non-perishable food from your room and throw it away.  Then the same guard comes and asks to use your hot sauce or wants two or three cans of your pop.  AND he talks to you in a disrespectful manner.

I am a productive citizen and should be treated as such.  No more of that disrespectful treatment because of some stereotype hype.  If the shelter folks would speak to me respectfully, I would do the same.  It's best not to be judgmental ~ that's God's job.

No God-fearing person would let such abuse to another human continue and go on.  It's inhumane and unsanitary.

If I am homeless, I am living under code conditions.  I won't have clean clothes, sanitary facilities, money or laundry soap to keep myself or my children clean.  If I refuse to send them to school or look for a  job, they tell me I'm neglecting my children.  Who then, is really being negligent?

This country was founded on these principles "...in order to form a more perfect union" etc.  That right there suggests that all of us should come in to agreement together, not as a dictatorship.  That is what it's starting to look like.  Long live Hitler as far as I can see.

Why is America breaking families up and breaking down family structure?  Separating the only thing poor people have left ~ each other.  If we don't have family, we don't have anybody.

Yes Me, Peggy Watkins
Homeless in Minnesota

WELFARE RIGHTS COMMITTEE

What we stand for:

	WRC is opposed to welfare cuts.  There is not a kinder gentler way to cut welfare.  Welfare is what many of us need to survive, and already it's not enough.  We cannot compromise with people's lives. Welfare rights are human rights!
	WRC works to put out the big pictures:  what we all really need are living wage jobs, affordable housing, free education, childcare, and healthcare.  This society needs to recognize raising children as valuable work.  Until these things are in place for everyone there will be a need for welfare.
	We know that it is up to us, folks on welfare and low-income people, to lead the fight.
	We see the current attack on welfare as racist, sexist, and anti-immigrant.  We are committed to fighting all these oppressions.

What We Do:

	WRC is committed to educating our community ~ the low-income community ~ about our rights and how to fight for them.
	We leaflet and petition outside the welfare office 1-4 times a week, all year long.
	We analyze current law and policy from our perspective. We, the women, children and men on assistance, are the real experts on poverty and welfare.
	We make the issues understandable.
	We engage our members and other low-income people in all aspects of fighting welfare cuts: protests, testifying, public speaking, meetings with policy makers, media work, letter writing, petitioning, and drafting legislation.

Current Issues:

We are opposed to the Welfare “Reform” bill signed by President Clinton in 1996, and want it repealed.  Until then, we call on the state of Minnesota and the counties to use their own money to make up for the federal cuts and avoid punitive federal rules.  We are opposed to :

	Time limits on welfare
	Workfare in all its forms, including forced work at low-wage jobs.
	Limits on education while on welfare.
	All discrimination against immigrants.
	Grant cuts and food stamp cuts.

How We Do It:

	We are all organizers.
	WRC provides free childcare, transportation, and food at all our meetings.
	WRC provides transportation to all protests and rallies.
	WRC speaks four languages so far: English, Hmong, Spanish and Somali.

WRC VICTORY FOR POOR FAMILIES!

Members of the Minnesota Welfare Rights Committee and families from the low-income community fought a fierce battle at their State Capitol.  Republicans, headed by Rep. Goodno of Moorhead, tried to push through a law that would increase sanctions to 100%!  (Sanctions are a reduction in a welfare check imposed if a worker feels a mom is "not complying")

Welfare Rights Committee members protested, picketed, testified and carried out sit-ins at Rep. Goodno's office.  We were at the Capitol every step of the way to speak out against the cruel attacks that politicians were trying to push through.  In the end, we were successful in beating back many terrible attacks.

WRC Victories

1. Stopped the 100% Sanctions

100% sanction would remove families completely off welfare.  Welfare Rights Committee was successful in stopping this increase in sanctions. And we exposed how sanctions are now illegally forced on Minnesota families. Our position is that ALL sanctions should be eliminated.

2. Held Off the $100 Cut

Politicians tried to pass a law that families who live in any subsidized housing (Public Housing, Section 8) should lose $100 a month from the welfare (MFIP) grant.  Welfare Rights Committee fought for years to stop this $100 cut.  We successfully stopped the cut from going into effect every year until 2004. Now the politicians passed a $50 cut for families in public housing. We will keep fighting to undo this cut until we are successful.

3. Stopped Welfare Cuts to Immigrants

MFIP and GA money for some immigrants was supposed to stop in 2001.  WRC has fought for years for Minnesota to make up any cuts in federal money to immigrants. We have been successful in pushing Minnesota to continue cash assistance for immigrants cut from federal programs.WRC insists that Minnesota MUST stop discrimination against immigrants and continue all benefits for as long as needed.

Other WRC Victories

1.  Stopped Cuts in Post-secondary Education

In a cruel move, Republican politicians tried to cut education to only 20 hours a week. That means that Minnesotans would still have to do job search or work 20 hours a week on top of going to school.  WRC was successful in stopping this cut from going through, and they fought to get MORE education.

2. Exposed How Workers Impose Illegal Sanctions and Hurt Families

WRC testified in hearings and held protests and press conferences to expose the cruel sanctions in MFIP. We spoke out about how sanctions are put on families illegally the majority of the time. Sanctions are wrong in any situation because they push families into more poverty and make our families homeless. 

We were able to get some Senators and Representatives to speak out against sanctions in a press conference. They admitted that they are being done illegally. They offered bills to correct some of the problems and reduce the sanctions.

Problems with Minnesota’s Welfare Law, MFIP

Since it started, Minnesota’s welfare law has been a disaster.  Parents are being pushed into low-wage, dead-end jobs.  Only 32% of parents who got a job while on MFIP made enough to get off of the cash part of the grant (according to the Minnesota Legislative Auditors).  Most who are working while on MFIP say that working is actually worse than working under the old AFDC program!

Sanctions (cuts to the families’ welfare grant) are increasing homelessness and hunger.  Most sanctions (80%) are being done to families illegally. This is the result of incompetence or outright malice on the part of job counselors. But by the time they are caught, it’s too late.

Parents are being consistently denied job training and education. Even when it can be proved that the education would allow them to  get off of welfare for good, it is denied.

A family of three gets only $532 a month.  The food stamp grant never lasts the month.  Rent eats up almost the entire grant.

Minnesota has not raised grant levels since 1986. And that was a 1% increase.  No one would ever “choose” to live in such poverty.  Welfare is last resort for our families in desperate circumstances.  

Welfare and Education

People constantly tell kids to “stay in school” because “that is the only way  they’ll get a good job.”  But then they say to our moms, “school is not important, you just need to get work.”

They praise middle class moms for staying home to take care of their kids and they sanction welfare moms when they fight to do the same.

Christina
Minneapolis, MN

Where Do Our Tax Dollars Really Go?

Minnesota:  In 1999, Minnesota spent over $20 billion dollars.¹ The state’s spending for the MFIP program was $191 million, or 1% of state spending.²  However, of the total state money spent on MFIP, only 40% ($76.4 million) goes directly as cash grants to families.³ The bottom line is only .4% of state general fund money goes directly to the families on MFIP!

Federal spending: In 1999, the US had outlays of $1.7 trillion.⁴  $16.5 billion of that went to TANF block grants to states.⁵ Less than 1% of federal spending goes to welfare.

Stealing from the poor: States have plundered their federal TANF block grants for non-welfare purposes. Minnesota is already spending our federal TANF money on things that used to be state-funded (sliding-fee childcare). And they spend it on non-welfare items: ethanol, judges, a visiting nurse program, housing and after-school programs.

What should our priorities be?  In 1997, Minnesota spent $1.76 billion on corporate welfare.⁶  In 2001, the US government spent 47% of the budget on military spending.  Meanwhile, we are seeing our families on the streets.  We have been paying taxes for a safety net that we expected to be there when we need it.  It is up to each and every one of us to make sure that our safety net stays in place.
______________________

¹  MN Dept. of Finance (http://www.finance.state.mn.us/)
²  MN Dept. of Finance
³  MN DHS.  The rest goes to the Bureaucracy.  An MFIP grant to a family is made up of about 60% federal TANF money and 40% State money.
^4/5 Congressional Budget Office (www.cbo.gov)
⁶  Minnesota Alliance for Progressive Action