Adjusting to Different Transportation

Aired May 26, 1999

This is INFOhio After Nine, I'm David C. Barnett, welcoming you to Wednesday, the 26th of May, 1999, and this morning, we're going to talk about barriers, barriers to employment that you might not think about, barriers in school that may prevent you from getting a fair start in life. Dr. Howard Mims will join us to talk about the way we talk, the way some people say we should talk, and whether those people are really wry about that. The barriers of communication, after we pick up where we left off yesterday on the barriers that transportation can present for people trying to move from welfare to work. We talked about how the good, new jobs are being created on the outskirts of our county while the people who most need those jobs live in the urban core, as we continue our series on "The Changing Face of Welfare" in Northeast Ohio, and 90.3 correspondent Harry Boomer followed a woman who has some transportation challenges for sure.

Bonnie Newell–I catch the 15, and it takes me up to Harvard and Warrensville, and then you catch the 14, which will take you up to, what is that, Emory, I can't remember what street that is-South Green, and then I catch the bus that goes from South Green over, which is the 34, and then I'm at work. It takes about 45, maybe 45 to 50 minutes to get to work.

Harry Boomer–Bonnie Newell, the mother of three young daughters is slowly but surely making progress toward getting completely off welfare. She has a job as a collection agent, you know, a bill collector. But just getting to work is work for her. At around 8 in the morning, she catches the first of three buses about 30 feet from her front door on Harvard Ave. Before she went on welfare, she bought a car. It doesn't run well enough these days to get her back and forth to work, but the county welfare system has a program that's helping her get it at least in passable working condition. Newell explains the program.

BN–The car has to be in your name, it has to be your car, it has to be at least in working condition where they can help you get it running, not where it's just not running. If it doesn't start or it can't get to an auto body shop, they don't want to really work with it. I was fortunate because my flywheel went out, but I had enough in it to get it to the welfare where they could look at it and decide whether they wanted to work with me, and they were.

LaTonya Fisher–When I met Bonnie, she was real positive, but she lacked motivation. In the process of knowing that the program and the goals are serious, she did come around to trying to do whatever is necessary to meet her responsibilities and requirements.

HB–That's LaTonya Fisher, Bonnie Newell's self-sufficiency coach. She has worked as a caseworker for over 18 years and she's been helping welfare recipients living in the Mt. Pleasant area since July of 1998.

BN–I thought I was going to get it this week, but the money wasn't right to get it this week, so maybe tomorrow . . .

HB–Now Bonnie Newell has set another short-term goal, getting her car safely back on the road.

BN–The car's going to be, what, say $565 to fix, to get the flywheel fixed, and I tried to do it with the welfare plan, but a lot of companies don't want to wait on the vouchers because they're slow in paying, well, they're slow in doing a lot of things, which is making me, you know, get my job and do-like I was telling you earlier, it benefits me to just let a few things go and pay for it myself than sit back and continue to wait on them.

HB–One of the things she has let go is the telephone. She had it turned off to save money so she could get her car out of the shop.

BN–Hey, that's my baby. I paid for it [laughs-it's mine, you know, that's something that I did before welfare. It was the first thing that I bought that was mine, and I still got it, so that's important. I'm happy that they really took an interest in trying to help me fix it.

HB–LaTonya Fisher says there are three ways Mt. Pleasant Work and Training through the county can help welfare recipients meet their transportation needs.

LF–One, we assist with funds for transportation in the form of, say, a participant expense allowance, which can be used to purchase gas or to purchase bus passes. We also assist with actual bus tickets, bus tickets could be for two rides, ten rides, or whatever is needed, and in Bonnie Newell's situation, we have discussed auto repairs, which is a PRC, or a prevention retention contingency program, where we offer assistance to pay for minor repairs, up to a maximum of $700.

HB–Fisher says if Newell applies for assistance to get her car fixed, a voucher can be issued to the mechanic within a week. Newell says that's where the system breaks down, so Newell is trying to use some of the self-sufficiency skills she's learned since beginning to work her way off welfare.

BN–Once you go through the reform system, the classes, once they give you those tools, those skills, you shouldn't lean on-I mean, that's like saying, you broke your leg, OK, you go to the hospital and they put a cast on it, the doctor gives you a pair of crutches. Now within four to five weeks, you're able to walk, literally, without those crutches, however, it's better for the injury if you use those crutches. Now, after they take the cast off, you no longer need those crutches, unless the doctor says so, so the welfare reform system is somewhat the same procedures. My cast is off, and my doctor took my crutches.

HB–In a couple of weeks, "The Changing Face of Welfare" will examine health care. For INFOhio, I'm Harry Boomer in Cleveland.