BY KYM LIEBLER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON -- Every month, the number of families receiving cash assistance drops in Warren County.
Doing whatever it takes to keep them from slipping back onto welfare is the singular goal of a community plan drafted by the Warren County Department of Human Services and approved Tuesday by Warren County commissioners.
Ultimately, it will mean less money spent on cash assistance and more earmarked for health and child care costs.
There were 255 families receiving cash assistance in April, 240 families in May, 225 in June and 199 this month, said Doris Bishop, acting director of the Warren County Department of Human Services. As the county's welfare rolls shrink, the amount it spends for day care grows steadily. Monies allocated for monthly day care expenses have increased from $97,997 in June, 1992 to $123,872 last month.
"We want to ensure that child care is not a barrier," Mrs. Bishop told commissioners. "We're focusing on each individual family and their requirements to meet self-sufficiency. With single mothers, child care is a huge issue."
In June, the county was either paying, or helping pay, for child care for 319 children. The county has contracts with 56 area child care centers, 38 of which are in Warren County.
The shift in how public money is spent helping the less fortunate also will extend to Ohio's Medicaid program, which pays health care costs for low-income people. Although more people are working, most are not receiving health benefits, Mrs. Bishop said.
There were 5,755 Medicaid recipients in Warren County in May. With the Ohio Healthy Start program covering children from birth through 19, as well as pregnant mothers, Medicaid costs are expected to climb while welfare rolls drop, she said.
Under Ohio Works First -- the state welfare reform plan adopted in October -- all of the state's 88 counties must tailor their welfare reform program to meet the unique needs of their communities. The statewide initiative calls on employers, health care providers and social services agencies to collaborate to help people achieve and maintain self-sufficiency.
Warren County's community plan will be submitted to the Ohio Department of Human Services by July 15.
While happy that hundreds of Warren County families have shifted into the work force, county officials know tough work lies ahead. Although 300-plus families have stopped receiving cash assistance since October, the most challenging cases remain, noted Commissioner Pat Arnold South. She worried the county may not meet the state goal of reducing its welfare rolls by 25 percent because it is faced with the most troubling and multifaceted situations.
"Our rosters are already so low, meeting the state standards is going to be difficult," Mrs. South said. "We have reached the point where we are dealing with the hardest of the hard to place." Although Warren County has the third highest per-capita income in Ohio and the third lowest poverty rate, its very low-income families are less apt to take advantage of existing resources and jobs because of multiple problems.
"How do we serve the hardest of the hard to serve?" said Barbara Kleefeld, account manager for the Ohio Department of Human Services. "The dramatically decreasing caseloads in Southwest Ohio present new challenges. We are down to incredibly low numbers."
But, she added, "This is a good thing."
