Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today described New York City's legislative proposal for the next stage of welfare reform in a speech at LaGuardia Community College. Mayor Bloomberg's speech was based on a detailed, nearly 30-page position paper developed by the staff of the Human Resources Administration (HRA), one of the most successful welfare agencies in the country during the first five years of reform. During that time, the welfare caseload had been cut from 1.2 million to less than 450,000, and in the first four months of the Bloomberg Administration, the caseload dropped by nearly 25,000. The City's proposal builds on that success by expanding the definition of welfare reform to include prevention and retention -- preventing people from going on welfare and helping those who are employed retain their jobs. HRA Commissioner Verna Eggleston and representatives from the welfare community including contractors, business leaders, and HRA staff also attended the announcement.

"New York City is the country's leader in welfare reform and we are committed to the principles that created that success," said Mayor Bloomberg. "We are going to build upon the accomplishments of the Giuliani Administration. We will not allow our City to recede to a culture of dependency. Everyone who can work, should work; assistance should be temporary; and fraud will not be tolerated. And we can do more by broadening the goals of welfare reform. Preventing people from going on welfare and helping those who have made the transition from welfare to work stay employed are the goals of the next phase of welfare reform."

"HRA will continue to move public assistance clients towards self-sufficiency by developing their skills and placing them in jobs," said HRA Commissioner Eggleston. "The federal government should not micromanage welfare reform. It should hold localities to high standards, and give us the tools we need to reach those goals."

In order to prevent the next generation from going on welfare, the City's proposal states that federal reauthorization should allow flexibility in the use of funds to be used for goal-oriented educational and vocational initiatives that lead to genuine work skills. Long-term welfare reform is impossible without education reform that provides children and young adults with the skills and tools needed to create a better future for themselves. Additionally, while New York City has moved more than half a million people off welfare, many of them still have limited skills and resources. An essential goal is providing them with the support they need to remain in the workforce such as help with childcare, health insurance and housing, and training to maintain self-sufficiency and possibly, movement up the career ladder.

The success of welfare reform should not be measured solely by reduction in caseloads, but also by the ability of people to become and remain self-sufficient. To that end, the City is proposing the following:

• Work Requirements: New York City is already a leader on work requirements - it is one of the few jurisdictions that even comes close to the current requirement that 50 percent of families on public assistance work. The City proposes keeping the requirement at 50 percent and giving states that can achieve a 70 percent participation rate a bonus. In addition, expand eligible work activities to include full-time participation in substance abuse treatment and domestic violence counseling for up to six months, and increase the caseload limitation for education and training from 30% to 40%. And combine work with training. For example, New York City currently has about 18,000 people in its Work Experience Program, almost all of them working three days and attending training or other job related activities the other two.
• Education: The single biggest factor in prevention is better education. Educational and vocational programs including after-school programs, internships, summer jobs and other work-related experiences, degree equivalency programs, and personal skills development must be targeted to the next generation of potential welfare recipients: the children of current public assistance recipients, teen mothers and fathers, foster children and those aging out of the foster care system, children in low-income families, high school dropouts, juvenile offenders and other at-risk groups.
• Transitional Support: Families that have moved from welfare to work should be given the support they need to remain in the workforce, such as help with childcare, transportation, health insurance, housing support, and job training. The City also proposes including the non-custodial father within the definition of "family," and thus makes him subject to TANF work requirements and eligible for TANF services. This will encourage men to take responsibility for their children. In addition, suspend time limits for "fully engaged" families on welfare in which an adult is working full-time and participating in time-limited, goal-directed education and training activities.
• Childcare: Increase State flexibility to meet childcare needs through a variety of funding streams.
• Funding: Maintain adequate levels of TANF block grant funding, and simplify rules for State contributions to expand local autonomy.
• Legal Immigrants: Fully restore eligibility for TANF, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and SSI benefits to all non-citizens legally residing in the United States, and eliminate federal restrictions on state and local public benefits for such individuals.
• Regulations: Simplify State and local administration of TANF and related programs. For example, provide uniform rules for all means-tested benefit programs, including food stamps, TANF and Medicaid.

The federal legislation that created Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) in 1996 must be reauthorized this year and is currently being debated in Washington. Today, the City is submitting to Congress its proposals for that new legislation.