09-21-2006, 01:14 AM
thought I would share this with you, it is from today paper, My local paper.
This is becoming a all too common site as what is reported today, people driving up to the local food banks in thier mercedes and SUV's in need of food handouts because stock dividends are down people are now jobless, Banks forclosing on houses and having to hold on to them because they cant resell.
the
dest part now is the realy poor disabled are finding them selves competing for the same government resoces.
Reminds me of the old food stamp and welfare lines that streched for blocks around unemployment offices, churches, state aid offices, social sucurity offices...
yes there were scammers then as there are now, there seems to be no shortage of those who would feed upon the misery of those who are suffering.
I will let you reed the artical (I am pretty sure the spelling is correct)[
]
Although Oakland County is one of the richest counties in the United States, it has pockets of people that are habitually needy and those that have recently lost jobs and are now in need of assistance, according to Sharon Josephson, executive director of the Open Door Outreach Center in Waterford Township.
In the last year, the organization Josephson runs has experienced a 35-percent increase in the amount of food distributed to the needy families and residents of the lakes area communities it serves.
Lorrie McVey, director of Hospitality House in Walled Lake, said her organization has also experienced growth in the number of local families in need of assistance.
In May, the organization distributed food to 597 people. By last month, that number had increased to 985 people. The amount of food distributed has also increased, from 9,662 pounds in May to 14,555 pounds in August.
"That's huge, just for this quarter," McVey said, adding that this year the organization has given out nearly 91,000 pounds of food.
"The economy, is what I'm thinking," McVey said when asked if she could attribute the increases to any one factor. "Last year, I saw some trends that I thought might be applicable, but I can't say that I've seen them consistently other than, straight across the board, a difficult economy."
Information from the Michigan Department of Human Services, which administers state and federal assistance to Michigan citizens who qualify, also indicates double-digit spikes in state assistance granted to Oakland County residents.
Five assistance programs the department administers are the Family Independence Program (FIP); State Disability Assistance; State Emergency Relief; energy assistance, which includes State Emergency Relief and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance programs; and the Food Assistance program.
The FIP is intended to provide monetary assistance to families with children, and pregnant women, to help them pay for living expenses such as rent, utilities, heating, clothing, food and personal care items.
In order to qualify for the program, the children in the household must be under 18-years-old. Households with children who are 18-years-old or 19-years-old may also qualify, assuming the teenager is attending high school on a full-time basis and is expected to graduate before reaching the age of 20.
Additionally, a person without a child in the home — such as a pregnant woman, or parents whose child is in foster care and expected to return home within one year — can be eligible.
The State Disability Assistance program provides monetary help to disabled adults for purposes similar to the FIP, which include living expenses such as rent, heat, and other necessities.
Various criteria exist to qualify for aid through the State Disability Assistance program. This includes the receipt of other disability-related benefits such as Medicaid based on disability or blindness; residency in a special care facility; or certification from Department of Human Services medical consultants as being unable to work for at least 90 days because of mental or physical disabilities.
The State Emergency Relief program provides "immediate" help to persons and families who are facing conditions of "extreme hardship" or for emergencies that threaten health and safety, according to the Department of Human Services web site.
State Emergency Relief funds and assistance are intended to provide help in paying for heat and utility bills, home repairs, relocation, home ownership services, and burials.
Those with ongoing financial problems are not eligible for State Emergency Relief funds, which are instead intended for those low-income households which are typically able to meet their needs but may sometimes need assistance when unexpected emergency situations come about.
Eligibility for the State Emergency Relief program is in part contingent upon non-cash assets. State Emergency Relief recipient groups with only one member have a $1,750 non-cash asset limit, whereas groups of two or more have a limit of $3,000. Non-cash assets don't include homestead property, one vehicle, or personal and household goods.
Eligibility for the State Emergency Relief program is also based upon the demonstration of immediate need, such as a service shut-off notice; a verified need for energy-related home repair; and income.
Assistance for purchasing food is provided by the state through the Food Assistance program, which increases a person or family's ability to purchase food through monetary assistance.
The Food Assistance program is funded entirely by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and administrative costs are shared by the state and federal governments. The state Department of Human Services determines eligibility, which is based upon the financial situation of all members of a household.
The food purchased must be bought at any Food and Nutrition Service authorized retail food store or approved meal provider.
Over 61,000 Oakland County residents received assistance from the Department of Human Services under those programs this past July, totaling over $7.4 million in financial aide for that month alone — an average of nearly $122 per person.
Department of Human Services staff state total unduplicated recipients in Oakland County could have received assistance from more than one of the five programs examined in this report, but still be counted as one recipient.
Maureen Sorbet, a spokeswoman for the department, said the Department of Human Services maintains a presence in every Michigan county although the programs are operated by the state. Federal funding, as well as state dollars, are used to fund the programs which assist residents throughout Michigan.
"There has been some increase in the Food Assistance program, definitely. Medicaid is up. The FIP program is up slightly. The State Disability Assistance program, I think, has been creeping up, as well, but there haven't been huge increases."
In the past four years, from July 2006 back to July 2002, there has been a 57-percent increase in unduplicated recipients of state assistance in Oakland County.
In July 2002, there were 38,822 unduplicated recipients, receiving a total of about $3.94 million in total assistance — about $101 per recipient.
Between July 2002 and July 2003, the total unduplicated recipients of the five programs increased by 6,295 in Oakland County, equating to a 16.2 percent increase. The July 2002 figure increased to 45,117 (16.2 percent) in July 2003, when there was $4.89 million in assistance provided to Oakland County residents, averaging about $108 per recipient.
Between July 2003 and July 2004, there was a slightly smaller increase in total recipients in Oakland County, and in the amount issued to those people. In July 2004, there were 50,301 county recipients of assistance from the five programs, which is about an 11.5 percent increase from July 2003. There was a total of about $5.42 million in assistance doled out by the state in July 2004, at an average of $107.74 per recipient.
There was a 7.7-percent increase in total unduplicated recipients in Oakland County between 2004, when there were 50,301 recipients, and 2005, when there were 54,199 recipients, according to state data. Total assistance in Oakland County, however, increased by more than 15 percent, from $5.42 million in July 2004 to $6.26 million in July 2005.
An even greater increase between July 2005 and July 2006 was documented. There was a 12.6-percent increase from July 2005, when there were 54,199 unduplicated recipients in Oakland County, to July 2006, when there were 61,046. Also, the total amount provided to Oakland County residents increased by nearly 19 percent, from $6.26 million in July 2005 to nearly $7.44 million in July 2006.
Information from the Department of Human Services web site indicates an upward trend in Oakland County families receiving FIP assistance.
This July, there were 3,509 families that received assistance through the program. In July 2002, there were 2,886. There was a 27-percent increase between July 2002 and July 2006 in total assistance issued through the FIP program to Oakland County families. There was $1.42 million in assistance granted this past July, and about $1.11 million distributed in July 2002.
There were two small decreases in FIP assistance granted to Oakland County families. Between July 2004 and July 2005, there was a 1.2-percent decrease in the number of county families receiving assistance, from 3,316 in 2004 to 3,277 in 2005. However, in that same time frame, there was an increase of 6.7 percent in total assistance granted to Oakland County families, from about $1.33 million to about $1.42 million.
Between July 2005 and July 2006, there was a 0.5-percent decrease in total assistance awarded to Oakland County families through the FIP. On the other hand, there was also a 7.1-percent increase in total number of Oakland County families receiving assistance during July 2006.
Regional charitable organizations are also providing more food to needy Oakland County residents.
"The bottom line is that we served 1 million more pounds of food (in 2005) through the pantries in Oakland County than the year before (2004)," said Gerry Brisson, vice president of development for Gleaners Community Food Bank of Metro Detroit, which provides foodstuffs to local charitable organizations.
He said there are approximately 130 agencies which receive food from Gleaners annually and that there hasn't really been much of an increase or decrease in the number of organizations to which Gleaners provides assistance.
Concrete causes of Gleaners' increased food disbursement are difficult to establish, according to Brisson.
"Does it reflect a greater need, or more efficiency, or other things? That, we can't quite pinpoint yet. We can sure say, without any hesitation, that people got more food, so there must have been more need, or else there wouldn't be more food (distributed). We know that that represents a 35-percent increase over the year before."
Open Door's Josephson expressed concerns about the impact of increased distributions and reliance on the non-profit organization.
"We are going to have a huge increase in clients, and I'm afraid there may come a time when we're not going to be able to help new people, or we are going to have to cut back on what we are giving to our existing clients," she said. "That's heartbreaking if people are hungry."
While Gleaners spent more money last year to keep up with the increase in food distribution, Brisson said the organization is not in dire straits.
"Gleaner's isn't in any kind of a desperate situation," he said.
State fiscal woes have "placed additional burdens on the tax coffers, related to these programs," the Department of Human Services' Sorbet said.
However, only one time has the state had to stop taking applications for any of the programs.
"Last year, we did stop taking applications for the State Emergency Relief program as it relates to energy assistance because we did exceed all of the funding that was available, but we have not done that this year," Sorbet said. "That's the only time I am aware of where we've had to stop taking applications for that particular program."
When asked if the Department of Human Services was on track for keeping within budget this year, Sorbet said, "I believe we are."
At the Hospitality House in Walled Lake, the organization is looking at hiring its first paid staff member.
"We need to have dedicated people for food orders. We've been very, very blessed," McVey said. "We have a very generous donor base in our community: the churches, the schools, the individual families and businesses."
When asked about what she anticipates for the upcoming year, Open Doors' Josephson said: "It's going to get worse. We've seen such an increase this year. We have clients that come to us pretty much every month for food and things. We've seen an increase already of almost 300 new clients this year. That's not individuals, that's families."
About 4.8 percent of all Oakland County families had income levels which were below the federal poverty level in 2005, which varies depending on the size of the family and whether they are living in the continental United States, or Alaska and Hawaii. As of Jan. 24, a family of four living in the continental U.S. in 2006 was considered poor if the total income in the household was $20,000 or less, according to the U.S. Department of State.
Unemployment, when examined in one-year increments in Oakland County for the month of July, shows little correlation to statistics about the amount of financial assistance provided to Oakland County families. For example, in July, the unemployment rate was 5.6 percent in Oakland County, which had the 17th lowest percentage in the state.
However, though unemployment actually decreased from July 2005, when it was 6.2 percent, to July 2006, when it was 5.6 percent, there was an increase of 18.8 percent in monetary assistance provided to county residents through state programs. Unduplicated recipients also spiked 12.6 percent in the county for that time frame.
Additionally, though unemployment spiked up to 6.2 percent in July 2005 from 5 percent in July 2004, there was actually a 0.4 percent decrease in the number of state aid recipients. However, the amount doled out to county residents through the programs increased by 0.8 percent, according to state data.
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This is becoming a all too common site as what is reported today, people driving up to the local food banks in thier mercedes and SUV's in need of food handouts because stock dividends are down people are now jobless, Banks forclosing on houses and having to hold on to them because they cant resell.
the
dest part now is the realy poor disabled are finding them selves competing for the same government resoces. Reminds me of the old food stamp and welfare lines that streched for blocks around unemployment offices, churches, state aid offices, social sucurity offices...
yes there were scammers then as there are now, there seems to be no shortage of those who would feed upon the misery of those who are suffering.
I will let you reed the artical (I am pretty sure the spelling is correct)[
] Although Oakland County is one of the richest counties in the United States, it has pockets of people that are habitually needy and those that have recently lost jobs and are now in need of assistance, according to Sharon Josephson, executive director of the Open Door Outreach Center in Waterford Township.
In the last year, the organization Josephson runs has experienced a 35-percent increase in the amount of food distributed to the needy families and residents of the lakes area communities it serves.
Lorrie McVey, director of Hospitality House in Walled Lake, said her organization has also experienced growth in the number of local families in need of assistance.
In May, the organization distributed food to 597 people. By last month, that number had increased to 985 people. The amount of food distributed has also increased, from 9,662 pounds in May to 14,555 pounds in August.
"That's huge, just for this quarter," McVey said, adding that this year the organization has given out nearly 91,000 pounds of food.
"The economy, is what I'm thinking," McVey said when asked if she could attribute the increases to any one factor. "Last year, I saw some trends that I thought might be applicable, but I can't say that I've seen them consistently other than, straight across the board, a difficult economy."
Information from the Michigan Department of Human Services, which administers state and federal assistance to Michigan citizens who qualify, also indicates double-digit spikes in state assistance granted to Oakland County residents.
Five assistance programs the department administers are the Family Independence Program (FIP); State Disability Assistance; State Emergency Relief; energy assistance, which includes State Emergency Relief and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance programs; and the Food Assistance program.
The FIP is intended to provide monetary assistance to families with children, and pregnant women, to help them pay for living expenses such as rent, utilities, heating, clothing, food and personal care items.
In order to qualify for the program, the children in the household must be under 18-years-old. Households with children who are 18-years-old or 19-years-old may also qualify, assuming the teenager is attending high school on a full-time basis and is expected to graduate before reaching the age of 20.
Additionally, a person without a child in the home — such as a pregnant woman, or parents whose child is in foster care and expected to return home within one year — can be eligible.
The State Disability Assistance program provides monetary help to disabled adults for purposes similar to the FIP, which include living expenses such as rent, heat, and other necessities.
Various criteria exist to qualify for aid through the State Disability Assistance program. This includes the receipt of other disability-related benefits such as Medicaid based on disability or blindness; residency in a special care facility; or certification from Department of Human Services medical consultants as being unable to work for at least 90 days because of mental or physical disabilities.
The State Emergency Relief program provides "immediate" help to persons and families who are facing conditions of "extreme hardship" or for emergencies that threaten health and safety, according to the Department of Human Services web site.
State Emergency Relief funds and assistance are intended to provide help in paying for heat and utility bills, home repairs, relocation, home ownership services, and burials.
Those with ongoing financial problems are not eligible for State Emergency Relief funds, which are instead intended for those low-income households which are typically able to meet their needs but may sometimes need assistance when unexpected emergency situations come about.
Eligibility for the State Emergency Relief program is in part contingent upon non-cash assets. State Emergency Relief recipient groups with only one member have a $1,750 non-cash asset limit, whereas groups of two or more have a limit of $3,000. Non-cash assets don't include homestead property, one vehicle, or personal and household goods.
Eligibility for the State Emergency Relief program is also based upon the demonstration of immediate need, such as a service shut-off notice; a verified need for energy-related home repair; and income.
Assistance for purchasing food is provided by the state through the Food Assistance program, which increases a person or family's ability to purchase food through monetary assistance.
The Food Assistance program is funded entirely by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and administrative costs are shared by the state and federal governments. The state Department of Human Services determines eligibility, which is based upon the financial situation of all members of a household.
The food purchased must be bought at any Food and Nutrition Service authorized retail food store or approved meal provider.
Over 61,000 Oakland County residents received assistance from the Department of Human Services under those programs this past July, totaling over $7.4 million in financial aide for that month alone — an average of nearly $122 per person.
Department of Human Services staff state total unduplicated recipients in Oakland County could have received assistance from more than one of the five programs examined in this report, but still be counted as one recipient.
Maureen Sorbet, a spokeswoman for the department, said the Department of Human Services maintains a presence in every Michigan county although the programs are operated by the state. Federal funding, as well as state dollars, are used to fund the programs which assist residents throughout Michigan.
"There has been some increase in the Food Assistance program, definitely. Medicaid is up. The FIP program is up slightly. The State Disability Assistance program, I think, has been creeping up, as well, but there haven't been huge increases."
In the past four years, from July 2006 back to July 2002, there has been a 57-percent increase in unduplicated recipients of state assistance in Oakland County.
In July 2002, there were 38,822 unduplicated recipients, receiving a total of about $3.94 million in total assistance — about $101 per recipient.
Between July 2002 and July 2003, the total unduplicated recipients of the five programs increased by 6,295 in Oakland County, equating to a 16.2 percent increase. The July 2002 figure increased to 45,117 (16.2 percent) in July 2003, when there was $4.89 million in assistance provided to Oakland County residents, averaging about $108 per recipient.
Between July 2003 and July 2004, there was a slightly smaller increase in total recipients in Oakland County, and in the amount issued to those people. In July 2004, there were 50,301 county recipients of assistance from the five programs, which is about an 11.5 percent increase from July 2003. There was a total of about $5.42 million in assistance doled out by the state in July 2004, at an average of $107.74 per recipient.
There was a 7.7-percent increase in total unduplicated recipients in Oakland County between 2004, when there were 50,301 recipients, and 2005, when there were 54,199 recipients, according to state data. Total assistance in Oakland County, however, increased by more than 15 percent, from $5.42 million in July 2004 to $6.26 million in July 2005.
An even greater increase between July 2005 and July 2006 was documented. There was a 12.6-percent increase from July 2005, when there were 54,199 unduplicated recipients in Oakland County, to July 2006, when there were 61,046. Also, the total amount provided to Oakland County residents increased by nearly 19 percent, from $6.26 million in July 2005 to nearly $7.44 million in July 2006.
Information from the Department of Human Services web site indicates an upward trend in Oakland County families receiving FIP assistance.
This July, there were 3,509 families that received assistance through the program. In July 2002, there were 2,886. There was a 27-percent increase between July 2002 and July 2006 in total assistance issued through the FIP program to Oakland County families. There was $1.42 million in assistance granted this past July, and about $1.11 million distributed in July 2002.
There were two small decreases in FIP assistance granted to Oakland County families. Between July 2004 and July 2005, there was a 1.2-percent decrease in the number of county families receiving assistance, from 3,316 in 2004 to 3,277 in 2005. However, in that same time frame, there was an increase of 6.7 percent in total assistance granted to Oakland County families, from about $1.33 million to about $1.42 million.
Between July 2005 and July 2006, there was a 0.5-percent decrease in total assistance awarded to Oakland County families through the FIP. On the other hand, there was also a 7.1-percent increase in total number of Oakland County families receiving assistance during July 2006.
Regional charitable organizations are also providing more food to needy Oakland County residents.
"The bottom line is that we served 1 million more pounds of food (in 2005) through the pantries in Oakland County than the year before (2004)," said Gerry Brisson, vice president of development for Gleaners Community Food Bank of Metro Detroit, which provides foodstuffs to local charitable organizations.
He said there are approximately 130 agencies which receive food from Gleaners annually and that there hasn't really been much of an increase or decrease in the number of organizations to which Gleaners provides assistance.
Concrete causes of Gleaners' increased food disbursement are difficult to establish, according to Brisson.
"Does it reflect a greater need, or more efficiency, or other things? That, we can't quite pinpoint yet. We can sure say, without any hesitation, that people got more food, so there must have been more need, or else there wouldn't be more food (distributed). We know that that represents a 35-percent increase over the year before."
Open Door's Josephson expressed concerns about the impact of increased distributions and reliance on the non-profit organization.
"We are going to have a huge increase in clients, and I'm afraid there may come a time when we're not going to be able to help new people, or we are going to have to cut back on what we are giving to our existing clients," she said. "That's heartbreaking if people are hungry."
While Gleaners spent more money last year to keep up with the increase in food distribution, Brisson said the organization is not in dire straits.
"Gleaner's isn't in any kind of a desperate situation," he said.
State fiscal woes have "placed additional burdens on the tax coffers, related to these programs," the Department of Human Services' Sorbet said.
However, only one time has the state had to stop taking applications for any of the programs.
"Last year, we did stop taking applications for the State Emergency Relief program as it relates to energy assistance because we did exceed all of the funding that was available, but we have not done that this year," Sorbet said. "That's the only time I am aware of where we've had to stop taking applications for that particular program."
When asked if the Department of Human Services was on track for keeping within budget this year, Sorbet said, "I believe we are."
At the Hospitality House in Walled Lake, the organization is looking at hiring its first paid staff member.
"We need to have dedicated people for food orders. We've been very, very blessed," McVey said. "We have a very generous donor base in our community: the churches, the schools, the individual families and businesses."
When asked about what she anticipates for the upcoming year, Open Doors' Josephson said: "It's going to get worse. We've seen such an increase this year. We have clients that come to us pretty much every month for food and things. We've seen an increase already of almost 300 new clients this year. That's not individuals, that's families."
About 4.8 percent of all Oakland County families had income levels which were below the federal poverty level in 2005, which varies depending on the size of the family and whether they are living in the continental United States, or Alaska and Hawaii. As of Jan. 24, a family of four living in the continental U.S. in 2006 was considered poor if the total income in the household was $20,000 or less, according to the U.S. Department of State.
Unemployment, when examined in one-year increments in Oakland County for the month of July, shows little correlation to statistics about the amount of financial assistance provided to Oakland County families. For example, in July, the unemployment rate was 5.6 percent in Oakland County, which had the 17th lowest percentage in the state.
However, though unemployment actually decreased from July 2005, when it was 6.2 percent, to July 2006, when it was 5.6 percent, there was an increase of 18.8 percent in monetary assistance provided to county residents through state programs. Unduplicated recipients also spiked 12.6 percent in the county for that time frame.
Additionally, though unemployment spiked up to 6.2 percent in July 2005 from 5 percent in July 2004, there was actually a 0.4 percent decrease in the number of state aid recipients. However, the amount doled out to county residents through the programs increased by 0.8 percent, according to state data.
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