Also by June of next year, the number of people receiving payments through CalWorks, the welfare program for families, is expected to rise to 400,000 from the current 367,173. That would erase three years of reductions.
In a sign of how stressed the economy is, county officials report that just as many applicants are denied as are approved; these denials reflect strict qualifications in place for most programs.
For years, declines in the welfare rolls had been offsetting the costs of steady increases in numbers of people qualifying for healthcare assistance through Medicaid and other programs. The demand for those programs has been driven by a growing number of senior citizens and increasing numbers of people going without employer-based health and disability insurance.
That welfare and healthcare demands are increasing at the same time is worrisome to officials.
In an attempt to halt the increases, Miguel Santana, a county deputy chief executive, said he hopes in the coming months to place general relief recipients in jobs or in federally funded programs that provide cash and medical assistance.
"We need to act more aggressively than ever to stem the tide" in general relief, Santana said.
Many of those getting help say they have done everything they can think of to find work.
In the waiting room at the welfare office in Rancho Dominguez, where late last week even the line for a parking space was dozens of cars long, 32-year-old Erlinda Romero held a rolled copy of the Pennysaver, dogeared on pages listing jobs she pursued.
"I can't get a callback," she said, noting that training last year to become a medical clerk has not yet yielded a job. Meanwhile, she receives Medicaid benefits and $500 in monthly welfare for herself and four children.
Nearby, 50-year-old Ed Baldwin slumped in his chair waiting for his name to be called to renew his food stamps. He has been unemployed for three years, since being laid off from his job as a mechanic for heavy trucks.
"This is getting scary," he said. "There are no jobs."
County officials say they are worried that just as the need for county aid surges, the treasury is dwindling.
Property tax revenue, usually stable, is shrinking for the first time in 13 years.
This comes at a time when the county, the region's largest employer, has ordered a strict hiring freeze that will include the Department of Public Social Services. The department's director, Philip Browning, has been ordered to draft a budget for the next fiscal year that is at least 5% less than the current year's.
Although the federal government is acting to increase food stamp and unemployment insurance benefits, programs that are wholly funded by the county -- including general relief -- remain static.
The monthly benefit of $221 has not increased for more than a decade, and no one is proposing that it increase now.
"We've got to be able to do the basics. We are not going to be able to do it in the same way we have in the past," Yaroslavsky said.
"If the hiring freeze in effect shuts down an office," he said, "we are going to have to look at an exemption. But we do not print money in the basement of the county Hall of Administration."
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garrett.therolf@latimes.com
