Without Help From the Fathers:

One Welfare Mother's Story

Aired January 5, 2000

It is January 5th, a chilly January 5th of the year 2000, I am David C. Barnett, welcoming you to INFOhio After Nine. One of the important dates in this new year comes on October 1st, when many current welfare recipients will no loner be able to receive benefits. This morning, we continue our examination of the impact of absent fathers on Cuyahoga County's welfare system. Gail Thomas, who heads the county's Support Enforcement Agency will tell us about how they search out these missing fathers after we bring you a real-life story, a real example of what we're talking about here. Presidents Kennedy and Reagan were fond of referring to the "rising tide that lifts all boats." That was in reference to the benefits of a strong economy. But, as the year 2000 begins, millions of Americans on welfare seem to be stuck on the bottom in a time of economic prosperity. Many of these are single women whose absent spouses aren't paying that child support. As a part of our series, "The Changing Face of Welfare," 90.3 correspondent Harry Boomer spoke with a former welfare recipient struggling to make ends meet without much help from her children's fathers.

Harry Boomer–Even during what is bordering on the longest-sustained good economy in America's history, 11% of its people live below the federal poverty level. The annual salary of a person working a full-time, minimum wage job earns $11,500 a year. Bonnie Newell and her three girls aren't even doing that well. Surveys have shown that if the fathers of children on welfare were to support their children, most of them would rise above the poverty level.

Bonnie Newell–Well, if that's what studies suggest, then I'm going to agree with the studies, because I don't get help. If they helped, then I wouldn't be in the situation that I am in, and I wouldn't be struggling as hard. With the dropping off of money, that would be a miracle. Dropping off money, you probably will never see, and as you know, from us just talking freely, that may day care situation is $200 a week for the three children that I have.

HB–That's $10,400 a year, money Bonnie Newell doesn't have. But for a few more months, the welfare system is providing some economic assistance. Newell knows that, but what she would appreciate from her kids' fathers is more personal investment.

BN–I'm not even one of those women or one of those parents that is looking for money, money, money.

HB–Still, the children need economic support. Two of her children have the same father. The third has another dad.

BN–Here recently, it seems as though with different things that I've been going through and probably with me, being one of the fortunate people to be able to express the situation that I'm going through, not only with the public, but to the fathers in general, it seems like they're trying to help. But what I've come to face is nobody wants to give up what they're doing to help out the kids, not saying that they don't love them, just saying that they don't want to change what they're doing to help better what we need, so if that's the selfish act that they're going to take, then that's what I have to live with.

HB–As much as Newell wants and needs financial support from her children's fathers, sometimes, she says, it's better to seek help elsewhere.

BN–It really doens't have to be the baby's father, because a lot of us understand that when you go on to new relationships, it's hard to go back. You don't want to deal or settle for the problems, the anxieties, the mental stress, and I do mean mental stress, with trying to get back with your baby's father.

HB–That doesn't relieve a father of his responsibility to support his kids. To dramatize that point, the Cuyahoga County Commissioners unveiled its latest child support wanted poster. Nine deadbeat parents, owing almost $260,000 of back child support are displayed on a roving billboard.

BN–The majority of the fathers that I know, and I'm just going to look at my situation as well as some of my friends', because a lot of us have absent fathers, and a lot of us are struggling, so I guess that I'm going to say that that's good, but it's not good enough. Run their faces on the news. People watch the news. Advertise that deadbeat's dad, in reference to neighborhoods within where they live or where they originate from. That's the only way that the embarassment can really be brought. There's not enough billboards in the state of Ohio to advertise as many fathers that I know are deadbeat dads. I mean, I could introduce you, Harry, to a lot of women that are maybe not even on welfare, OK, but they're struggling, pretty much the same way I am.

HB–Newell knows very well that her economic situation affects every other aspect of her family's life.

BN–Let me put it to you this way. My oldest daughter came to me about a week-and-a-half ago and said, "we don't deserve to live here. We need to live somewhere else," and I'm telling her we can't afford to live somewhere else, but she's looking at what I've instilled in her in reference to being respectable in public to people, and then she's looking at where we live. Less than two-and-a-half weeks ago, I had to take an umbrella in the bathroom to use the toilet, and this was for three days. Me and my kids were without the use of the bathroom, so you tell me.

HB–Newell lives in Section 8 housing. She says she will take me on a tour of her humble abode. That story in a couple of weeks. For INFOhio, I'm Harry Boomer in Cleveland.