Posted on 09/22/2002 10:55:29 PM PDT by 357 SIG
Support necessary step in transition from public assistance, advocates say
HAYWARD -- Welfare recipients and their advocates on Friday pitched strategies to clear one of the biggest barriers to getting off welfare: a lack of adequate transportation.
They asked a panel of elected officials and their aides to consider an emerging approach to the problem: programs that would give poor people access to cars.
"What this car means to me, as a mother, is liberation," Monica Morales, said of her car. The mother of four from Livermore bought her 1999 Ford Aerostar van with $3,000 she earned working on the 2000 U.S. Census.
Morales, who said she left an abusive marriage in 1999 and ended up on welfare, discovered just how important her car was one week when it broke down, forcing her to scramble for rides to get her four children to school.
Several mothers talked during the town hall meeting about how hard it can be to get around on public transit and how few resources are available. The meeting was sponsored by LIFETIME, an Oakland groupCARS, Local 2 that wants education for welfare recipients.
A Metropolitan Transportation Commission study on setting routes to help the poor get around found that more mass transit isn't always the best solution to their commute problems, MTC transportation planner and analyst Evelyn Baker said.
Donna Currier of Oakland said she has a hard time getting her two kids and herself to school each day on public transit. She said Alameda County gives her a bus pass only for herself, and not for her two children, who advocates said should be eligible for bus passes.
Getting to the bus loaded with bags of groceries can be tough, Currier said. One day she missed the bus from the supermarket and didn't see another. So she took a ride home with a stranger.
The number of programs to help the poor buy cars has grown from seven in 1998 to 60 or more this year, said Sue Wong of the National Economic Development & Law Center in Oakland. San Francisco and Los Angeles also help the poor get low-cost car insurance, Wong added.
San Joaquin County started a car ownership program in 1999, buying retired cars from its Public Works Department and then donating them to Catholic Charities. For the cost of registration, transfer of title and a smog check, someone trying to get off welfare can have an essential tool, said Rob Vasquez of the CalWorks Employment Center.
Alameda County is working on a low-cost car program and hopes to have it in place sometime next year, a welfare department staffer said.
The county already provides funding for mileage and car repairs, cut welfare recipients and advocates said these programs had problems.
With or without the flux capacitor?
I'll never buy a Chrysler or GM product ever again (and don't even get me started on European or Korean cars).
Lifetime? The cable channel?
For the very few on welfare who actually want off it and would prefer to work, I can see where not having a car, not living close to mass transportion (but where you live is a choice too), and maybe being offered a job when the buses aren't running could make it difficult to get back on your feet.
All the same giving them more handouts isn't going to help at all, most will take advantage of getting a free car and of course expect the taxpayers to pay for their gas, car repairs, insurance etc. Instead if someone needs a car to get started, maybe their could be a program that lends them one for 3 months.
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