In my previous blogs I have included healthcare and low income housing as specific subjects. In this blog I am going to discuss nutrition, transportation and communication programs for low income persons and families. Together these five subjects: healthcare, housing, nutrition, transportation and communications programs for low income persons make up what is referred to as the “social safety net.” Others will offer different program types as the social safety net, most that I have read do not include transportation and communications; many include cash assistance as part of their list of programs that make up the social safety net. I do not include cash assistance simply because if we passed out enough cash we would not need any of the other programs. Let me be clear, I do not advocate just passing out cash which is sometimes referred to as “guaranteed minimum income.” Due to a lack of education or discipline, too many would spend cash on the wrong things.
I do place a higher priority on some programs over others. I rank healthcare as the number one priority simply because it affects many more than just those living at or near the poverty line. Second, I rank housing programs due to the lack of stability anyone experiencing homelessness or precariously housed inability to advance their economic position until that situation is remedied. Third is nutrition which would rank higher except for the fact we, as a society, do pretty well administering nutrition programs. Fourth, I rank transportation and communication as tied. Those are needed to help persons improve their economic status should that be their goal.
I want now to explore nutrition programs. The largest nutrition programs are Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Women, Infants and Children (WIC). SNAP is available to most persons under a specified income amount while WIC is available to some that meet the low income criteria and meet a couple other criteria such as pregnant women and children under a specified age. Both programs are administered by the states and are subsidized by block grants to the respective states from the federal government. Other nutrition programs include school lunch programs and commodity programs funded and administered similar to SNAP and WIC.
Additional programs such as food banks and hot meal services (soup kitchens) that are mostly funded and administered by non-profit organizations, many are faith based. Funding is primarily from private donations of food items and cash. Food banks typically are at a fixed location and provide various food types to be taken home and prepared later. Hot meal services can be at a fixed location where a prepared meal is served at a specific time(s) each day or sometimes made available by food trucks through outreach programs. Unlike SNAP or WIC there is little or no public funding for most of these programs. The eligibility criteria for these programs are usually not strict or nonexistent – anyone can get assistance.
While privately funded programs have little or no criteria; the government funded programs will have, at very least, low income criteria that must be proven and verified. Additionally, many states have work or volunteer requirements for participation. While the goal of requiring people to earn the benefits through paid or non-paid work requirements such requirement often create additional needs that burden the participants with other needs they cannot afford to meet. For instance, a person seeking to obtain employment needs reliable communication. Most job applications are now online and potential employers will need a phone number to contact a prospective job candidate. The same is true for persons needing to complete a volunteer service commitment. If a person is able to secure a job, paid or otherwise, then reliable transportation will be needed. Persons that cannot afford to feed themselves and their families likely cannot afford a transportation expense. For families with young children there is also going to be a childcare need to be resolved. The work or volunteer requirement for nutrition assistance is not a good idea.
Work or volunteer requirements not withstanding nutrition programs are more readily available than other social safety net programs. If such requirements are going to be in place we need to find a way to assist with communication and transportation expenses.
In all the years I spent working with low income folks, one thing always puzzled me. Every person I was assisting with low income housing programs always seems to have a cell phone. Even families that claimed zero income the head of household always seemed to have a working smart phone, frequently a top of the line model. When I asked them how they paid for it I would get responses such as “my boyfriend pays for it” or “I am on my mother’s (or any other family member) plan.” Many of them changed phone numbers frequently which led me to believe that they were just going from one carrier to the next and not paying the bill. When the phone got shut off for nonpayment they were just getting a new one from another provider. Regardless, if there is no work or volunteer requirement for nutrition assistance programs the need for federal financial communications assistance programs are minimal.
In the next instance, transportation was frequently a problem for low income persons; the lower the income the bigger the problem. Some social service programs did provide bus passes but were very stingy about providing them. Social workers would require a person justify each pass was being used for an approved activity. Again, if a work or volunteer requirement must be met a person is going to need reliable transportation. A personal vehicle is not affordable for most low income households. In addition to purchasing an automobile there are the expenses of insurance, fuel and maintenance. It’s not a good idea for the low income persons. Absent the work/volunteer requirement for nutrition assistance programs the need to federal financial transportation assistance programs lack necessity.
There are not many programs that provide reliable assistance for transportation and communication but if work or volunteer requirements are going to be implemented then communication and transportation subsidy programs need to accompany the requirement. A better idea would be to drop the work requirement for nutrition assistance programs but offer financial assistance with communication and transportation for any low income person who wanted to find work or volunteer in some capacity. Also, I previously mentioned childcare as a barrier to meeting work or volunteer requirements but offered no ideas of how to overcome the barrier. I have no good ideas for childcare assistance for low income families. Childcare is so expensive that anyone with enough marketable skills to earn wages high enough to justify the cost of childcare is likely not going to be low income.
To conclude, federal funding for nutrition programs such as SNAP or WIC are necessary for the health and betterment of society. Federal funding for these programs should be equal to demand and adjusted at least annually to the rate of inflation and there should not be a work or volunteer requirement. Programs for communication and transportation assistance need to be left to the communities due to the varying needs from one community to the next. Any community that believes there is enough benefit for a cell phone or bus pass assistance program should be willing to pay for it. Federal funding should be focused on universal needs such as healthcare, housing and nutrition and not on “wish list” programs that vary by community.
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