sgusers5的部落格

Source: Star-News, Wilmington, N.迷你倉C.Sept. 18--More than 600 New Hanover County residents have been unable to receive emergency assistance from the county Department of Social Services (DSS) over the past two months -- in part due to the agency losing its $320,000 general assistance fund this year.The county commissioners zeroed out the general assistance fund when creating the 2013-14 budget. Though the budget year only began in July, DSS program manager Gwen Stahl said this cut in funding has forced DSS to "get creative" when assisting those in need.DSS staff on Tuesday presented a comprehensive report to the Social Services board of all emergency financial assistance requests made between July 1 and Sept. 6.The report stated that an average of 34 clients were making emergency requests each day in that time period for a total of 1,653 total individual clients.The requests were primarily for electric bills, rent and water and sewer bills. The breakdown also indicates that DSS helped cover payments for prescription drugs, mortgage payments, food, fuel, and other services -- such as the purchasing of eyeglasses.When a client comes in to make one of these requests, DSS social workers conduct an assessment of the individual or family to determine the real need, according to Stahl.The records from the past two months indicate that DSS was able to help 671 people with "some type of assistance," but it also states that 610 people were "unable to be assisted.""If I'm doing my math right, that's about 30 percent of people who came in a crisis that we could not help," board member Diana Wooley said. "That is a really high number for me. That's a real problem."There are no specific standards a resident must meet to qualify to receive money from the general assistance fund. DSS statutes only specify that it must be given out "as appropriate based on the situation or need." These rules also give it a cap of $500 per household, per year.But since some of these requests are fulfilled by grant money, they freq儲存倉ently have more specific standards. For instance, clients hoping to get funding from the Duke Energy Progress Settlement Fund to pay their electric bill must be at 200 percent of the poverty level.There hasn't been a change in the number of people applying for aid, according to Stahl, but DSS staff members are "having to help in a different type of way, whether it's a referral to an outside agency or problem solving in a new way.""We have to ask them what resources do they have that they may not have thought of using yet," she said.Since funding from DSS for these requests is not as readily available, Stahl said they are now making phone calls to the companies on their clients behalf, such as in helping to set up payment plans, as well as relying on outside agencies, like the Salvation Army, a lot more.According to the report, 372 new clients who came in with an emergency assistance request were referred to other agencies."DSS staff is doing whatever they can and they are helping as many people as possible, but you can't give what you don't have," said Commissioner Jonathan Barfield, who represents the commissioners on the DSS board.Barfield was the only member of the board of commissioners who voted against dropping the general assistance fund from the DSS budget."The reality is there's going to be a lot more people without," Barfield said. "It's nice that DSS is able to work with outside agencies and refer them there, but they're going to run out as well if they even have anything to begin with."The report is currently just for informational purposes, DSS officials said.Barfield said he would share the information with his fellow commissioners, but he said a longer time period to collect this information would likely be necessary before anything would change at the county level.Ashley Withers: 343-2223On Twitter: @AshleyWithersCopyright: ___ (c)2013 the Star-News (Wilmington, N.C.) Visit the Star-News (Wilmington, N.C.) at .starnewsonline.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉