Advocates for poor urge Guinn to release money for needy families

Scott Sonner

Tuesday, March 6, 2001 | 3:13 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Gov. Kenny Guinn and others have widely exaggerated the success of welfare reform across the nation and Nevada, where 16 percent of the state's children still live in poverty, advocates for the poor said Tuesday.

"When welfare reform was enacted, the Congress and the states pledged that it would help families climb out of poverty," said Teresa Benetiz, a board member of the Reno-based Nevada Empowered Women's Project.

"But for too many of Nevada's poor citizens, that promise has turned out to be hollow," she said at a news conference.

Leaders of the nonprofit group blamed the Republican Guinn for perpetuating a myth that the more than 20,000 Nevadans who left the welfare rolls over the past six years are now gainfully employed.

They urged him to immediately release a portion of $19.2 million in unspent funds Congress approved to help low-income families in Nevada in the form of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.

They said part of that temporary assistance money should be spent to improve Nevada's position as a state with one of the lowest cash grant levels in the nation. It allocates $348 a month to a family of three.

"Many of our most vulnerable children and adults in Nevada are still living at poverty's edge because the state has not followed through and used the funds that Congress approved to help these families become self-sufficient," said Brenda Carrera, director of the Empowered Women's Project, a multicultural alliance working on behalf of poor women and children.

Leaders of the group said the number of Nevadans on welfare rolls has dropped from a high of more than 40,000 in 1994 to an estimated 16,000 today.

But they said many of those people didn't find jobs and many who did continue to live at or below the poverty level working minimum-wage jobs with no insurance benefits.

More than half of those who have left welfare for jobs have been unable to pay rent, buy food, afford medical care or keep their telephone or electric service from being disconnected, the group said.

Overall, 11 percent of the state's residents and 16 percent of the children are living in poverty - about the same as in 1994.

"The goal of welfare reform should be to reduce poverty, not kick people off the welfare rolls," Benetiz said.

"Nobody chooses to be poor. No mother chooses to raise her child in poverty," she said.

Guinn's press secretary, Jack Finn, did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment.

Benetiz cited Guinn's state of the state address in January, in which the governor boasted that Nevada's welfare rolls have declined by 60 percent the past six years.

Guinn said in the speech:

"Nevadans have gone back to work in record numbers, earning the state a federal finance award, for the second year, as one of the top 10 states in the nation for welfare reform."

Benetiz said there's no way to tell exactly how many former welfare recipients are now employed in Nevada.

"The truth is, nobody knows. But we do know that the poverty level has not gone down. So we know people didn't suddenly get rich and drive off in Cadillacs to Las Vegas," she said.

Food banks and other low-income service organizations are reporting a rise in demand, she said.

The news conference was called Tuesday in conjunction with the release of a report by the Washington-based Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, outlining an $8 billion stockpile of temporary assistance funds that have gone unspent nationally.

Benetiz said Guinn has proposed saving the $19.2 million in Nevada in a "rainy day fund.

"We say people need it now. You can hold onto part of it, but you don't need $19.2 million in a piggy bank," she said.

Rhonda Harries of Reno said she is an example of a low-income mother struggling to make ends meet.

"A lot of people say all the welfare mothers are just lazy, and it is not true," said Harries, who is separated from her husband, has two children and has been out of work for a year with health problems.

"I work hard to support my family," she said.

"There are a lot of things you can do to make money fast, but they are illegal - sell drugs or prostitute yourself, or you could go hungry so your kids can eat.

"I did the latter. I went hungry two or three days a week so my kids could eat."