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Maybe make it like WIC, where the card or coupon or whatever is only good for what it's supposed to be used for? Not sure how that'd work mechanically - just a thought.

I know when I worked as a grocery store checker, back in the day, the store's system was built so WIC coupons could only be used for certain items. You could present all the WIC coupons you wanted, but you couldn't buy your smokes or beer with 'em.

I'll get flamed, but I think the WIC program is one of the most sensible programs to help needy families. I just hate standing behind them at the store. Takes forever...

Here in CA, some counties switched to an EBT type of card for food stamps. Much more efficient. I cannot understand how bungled this evacuation became. Penthouses? Condos? Tattooes and condoms? Ohhhh man : (

WIC coupons could only be used for certain items. You could present all the WIC coupons you wanted, but you couldn't buy your smokes or beer with 'em.

I do not know how WIC coupons differ in form and use from food stamps; however, I have many, many times seen folks at the nearby convenience store use food stamps to purchase a very small "allowable" item ... get a large amount of change ... and spend every bit of it on Lottery tickets. How does one guard against something like this and prevent it?

Excellent comments. In every disaster, there's a certain amount of fraud and waste in the relief efforts. I know of people who have been caught hosing down their furniture in hopes of getting new furniture from relief agencies. After the WTC, many of the complaints you heard about survivors not getting paid were disputed claims, in which, for example, an estranged wife, a brother, and parents of a victim all claimed to be the nearest relative.

While the system could certainly work better, Xena's suggestion of using the WIC system (it's now the Lone Star Card in Texas) which limits items that can be purchased, would be a good start. I think that would fit in with Centurian2000's suggestion, also. gbaker, your story is not at all unusual. After a tornado in Texas that affected about a five mile by two mile wide swath, people came from forty and fifty miles away for food, ice and furniture.

These are things that have to be looked at in the future. Even restricting items purchased can't keep someone from buying $150 designer jeans instead of $12 Walmart jeans, but it could put a stop to tattoos, fancy restaurants, etc.

BTW, as an aside, having worked emergency services for a long time in all types of neighborhoods, I've noticed a lot of people on welfare living in government subsidized housing who have been able to come up with enough money for $2000 to $3000 worth of tattoos. This still comes back to the fact that a lot of these people needed the money for food, but were too stupid to save the money, and blew it on junk. you can't give (some) people more money than they can waste or throw away.

could present all the WIC coupons you wanted, but you couldn't buy your smokes or beer with 'em.

Well, Looterguy and his buddies stole all the smokes and booze they needed, as well as everything else that wasn't nailed down, and all nailed down things they could manage to pry up.

Being the generous nation that we are, we donated millions in food to them, so much so, that it's going to waste sitting around unused and unwanted.

So what's a poor confused looter gonna do? He's sitting on a pile of free food, which conveniently conceals the pile of free electronics, jewelry, booze, clothes, etc... they looted, and now, they are being handed thousands of dollars in cash. They have nothing else to spend it on, so why not go get a $450 tatoo. Why not spend $150 at the condom store? Hey, we should be glad that person spent the money on condoms. If only more of these welfare riders would use condoms, a few major problems could be solved in just 2 or 3 generations.