BY B.G. GREGG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Hamilton County is fast becoming a national model for welfare reform.
The county's efforts to decrease welfare rolls have received national attention for much of the past two years, including visits from national media, private firms looking for ideas and universities conducting research.
They come for good reason. Ohio is a national leader in reforming welfare, and Hamilton County is the state's urban leader, cutting the number of recipients from a high of 64,639 in 1992 to 26,065 in June. During that time, monthly cash payments to welfare recipients have dropped from $7.3 million to $3.1 million.
At one point, one in every 13 county residents was a welfare recipient. Now, it is one in every 33.
"I'm not surprised at the national attention we've received, because we've shown at a state and national level that we can make this work," Hamilton County commissioner Bob Bedinghaus said. "When we were asking for the power to make decisions at the local level, we knew all along we had superstars in our Department of Human Services that could back up what we were saying."
Some of Hamilton County's most innovative efforts are being copied around the country. They include:
- Integrating different services into "business units" so that welfare caseworkers work side-by-side and share information with counterparts from child-support enforcement, child welfare and child-care assistance.
- Moving services to neighborhoods.
- Partnering with private entities, such as ACT Inc., to provide temporary emergency assistance and divert people from joining the welfare rolls.
- Assigning all two-parent welfare families to the same caseworkers, so concentrated efforts can be made to put someone in the family to work.
George Washington University and Ohio State University are conducting welfare research in Hamilton County, and private firms from as far away as California have visited. The county's success has brought reporters from the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and The News Hour with Jim Lehrer.
In addition, Hamilton County's reform leaders have given speeches around the country to large public organizations, such as the Child Welfare League of America, and to county and state governments and private companies.
John Harwood, a reporter who covers politics for the Wall Street Journal, came to Cincinnati in 1997 to write about those struggling to go from welfare to work. He was pointed to Cincinnati by Gov. George Voinovich's office.
"I asked about where I might find particular types of welfare cases and innovative approaches with it," he said.
Kathleen Maloy, senior research staff scientist at George Washington University's Center for Health Policy Research, said she decided on Cincinnati for a study on welfare diversion programs because it was recommended by the state's Department of Human Services and by colleagues who know the field, and because of information she had read about the county on the Internet.
The state often recommends Hamilton County when researchers and others call about welfare reform.
"Hamilton County has been a leader in implementing welfare reform," said Arnold Tompkins, director of the state's Department of Human Services, "(Hamilton County's human services director) Don Thomas' leadership has played an essential role in the county's success. He clearly shares the vision of Ohio Works First."
Mindy Good, director of communications for the Hamilton County Department of Human Services, said the county's success is due to early planning.
"We started talking to clients a good year to 24 months before the legislation was passed," she said.
Lora Jollis, the county's welfare czar, said those early efforts included mobilizing and contracting with private, neighborhood agencies.
"Some of the recipients might not pay attention to what we tell them, but they will pay attention to what the Corryville Family Resource Center tells them or what the counselors at Talbert House tell them," she said.
Ms. Jollis added that the county's Human Services Planning Committee, which meets once a month and contains local residents who work with welfare recipients, has propelled new reform, while she hears other planning commissions are fraught with political infighting and are not as efficient.
Also, she said, county commissioners have given Mr. Thomas the freedom to try new approaches, even risky ones.
Ohio's welfare reform plan allows counties to develop their own ideas for reducing welfare rolls and rewards them for success. But counties are financially penalized if they are not successful. Commissioner Bedinghaus said the human-services department accounts for 40 percent of the county's budget, so commissioners pay close attention, but they trust human-services officials because of good track records.
The county's success has its drawbacks. Ms. Jollis worries the attention will bring raids on her staff, especially computer experts who could design programs for private companies dipping into the welfare-reform arena. She and others in the department have already turned down lucrative jobs in the private sector.
"I hope they love their jobs here too much to want to go," she said. "This is the best laboratory you could ever work in."
