Hoping to Keep Her Grandchildren:
One Grandmother's Concern About Foster Care, Welfare

Aired June 23, 1999

This is INFOhio After Nine, I am David C. Barnett, welcoming you to the 23rd day of June, 1999. Let's talk about an issue that affects the quality of life for many of our friends and neighbors in the region. It has to do with preserving families in a time when it's hard to figure out just what a family is anymore, the mom, dad, brother, sis, and Rover model of our popular culture just isn't true for a growing number of young, single moms balancing work and home life, and as "The Changing Face of Welfare" reveals itself, new rules, a lack of information, and a ticking time clock have created a feeling of confusion for many people on public assistance, and the relatives are taking care of their children. 90.3 correspondent Harry Boomer recently spoke with Faye, a grandmother who fears she may have to give up her children to foster care when the welfare benefits run out.

Faye–Welfare has told me that after the 36 months is up, which I have 15 left, there's no more welfare, for a lifetime, so I have two grandchildren, 5 and 11, and I have no income to take care of them at the end of that 15-month period.

Harry Boomer–Faye is right and wrong. Her welfare benefits will run out in 15 months, or three years after she went on the system. The state set that limit as part of its welfare reform. Faye is mixing up her personal eligibility with that of her minor grandchildren. When she falls off the welfare rolls, she will be caught by another net that will help her support her grandkids.

Carla Funk–I have seen that she is a 57-year old woman . . .

HB–That's Carla Funk, Faye's self-sufficiency coach. She works out of the Clark-Fulton Neighborhood Service Center on the near west side. Faye lives less than a mile away.

CF–At 59, she would be eligible for the GAA program on her own, and that is the program where a person is considered for, due to age, non-employable, but they are too young to receive SSI disability, which is 65. However, if they do have a disability, they can always try for disability through the SSI program.

HB–Faye says she did that four or five years ago. So far, she says, nothing has come through for her. Still, she's determined to come through for her grandkids, ages 5 and 11.

Faye–Their other grandparents are not going to take care of them, so that leaves me. I mean, I took them to start with because I wanted to, you know? I didn't want my grandchildren in foster care. They belong with family, and as long as I'm alive and able, they should be with me. But without money, I can't take care of them, and when you're faced with either feeding them and keeping them at a home, what do you do? You've got to put them somewhere, and nobody's thinking about this, they're not thinking of the end results. I heard it on TV once that some of our politicians have said, "we should go back to the old orphanages." I think it's very bad, because then the children are not going to be taken care of, they're not going to have family, and nobody's going to care what happens to them. It's going to be like when you put an older person in a nursing home, they have no family. They're just there, nobody cares.

HB–Again, Carla Funk, Faye's self-sufficiency coach, talking about Ohio Works First, OWF, the name of the state's welfare reform program.

CF–In her case, she would really not have to worry. She will be 59 when the eligibility for herself under the OWF program expires. Her grandchildren will still be covered under OWF.

HB–In her case, she would really not have to worry. She will be 59 when the eligibility for herself under the OWF program expires. Her grandchildren will still be covered under OWF.

Faye–They're not thinking of the end results. They've taken everybody off welfare, but they haven't found out what's happening to these people who are off welfare. They don't know how many times they have to go to the churches to get food for their kids. They don't know the times that the kids say, "I'll eat in school," breakfast and everything, they don't eat at home because they have no food. Then in the summer they have to go to the centers for lunch and breakfast and things like that. I think government makes very bad decisions, like with our health care, that has been just a total waste. Welfare reform is not working with the poor. It's really not working, you see people living on the streets, they don't-you know, when children don't have a home, it's not working, or when you see two or three families having to live together, you've got the mother, the children, and the grandparents, all living together because they can't afford to live anywhere else. That's not helping people. So it's just a big mix-up, nobody understands what they're doing.

HB–While that's not totally true, even Carla Funk admits, welfare reform has been difficult.

CF–These past two years have been quite confusing for all of us, including the coaches. Our job descriptions have been revised, reworked, reorganized, the whole agency has been reorganized, and the regulations may not be at all times clear.

Faye–It's just a big hassle for the person who has no money. It's like everybody should've been born rich and we're going to punish you if you weren't, or everybody should've made good choices. Well, everybody don't make good choices, and then they pay for them later, but you shouldn't make children pay for what their parents do.

HB–Faye plans to go talk with her self-sufficiency coach, Carla Funk, soon. That's when she will find out exactly what's available, so she can keep her grandkids with her. For INFOhio, I'm Harry Boomer in Cleveland.