Money from President Obama's stimulus package has created nearly 400 jobs for Los Angeles County residents, but the state's budget crisis now threatens to throw the newly employed back onto the welfare rolls.
The workers found jobs through a county-administered program announced earlier this year that is slated to use $200 million in stimulus funds and eventually create 10,000 temporary jobs.
If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to eliminate state welfare-to-work programs is passed by the Legislature, however, the stimulus money -- and the 10,000 jobs -- would evaporate.
"The potential of this program is amazing because we can lift people up, give them good-paying jobs and new skills," said David Sommers, whose boss, county Supervisor Don Knabe, announced the program earlier this year. "But with CalWorks on the table during state budget cuts, everything is put in jeopardy, and we are at a crossroads."
If the CalWorks welfare program is eliminated, welfare recipients would receive cash assistance but not job help. Anticipating that possibility, county officials already are attempting to persuade federal officials to make exceptions to rules so that the program could continue, Sommers said.
"The county is larger than most states, and we are asking the federal government to treat us like a state, circumventing Sacramento," he said. "The feds have the money to help, and we have the means. We can't allow anything to get in the way."
The workers hired through the program are paid $10 an hour for maintenance chores, clerical work and other functions in public, private and nonprofit workplaces.
Federal funds pay 80% of the wages for one year and the employers pay the rest. At the end of the subsidized period, officials hope that many of the workers will be hired permanently by their new employers.
Ana Martinez, who supervises 20 workers at the Los Angeles Regional Foodbank, said her agency would not be able to operate without them.
"Ever since I heard about the problems with CalWorks, I have been glued to the news," Martinez said.
The stimulus-funded program is an expansion of welfare-to-work programs that were in place before the stimulus package, but it offers higher wages and longer terms of government-subsidized pay.
Zoraida Cruz, a 28-year-old single mother, was hired through a CalWorks program last year before the enhanced wages went into effect.
