California grantees of the Legal Services Corporation have inflicted
significant harm on the state. They have thwarted welfare reforms, overturned
laws against abusive panhandlers, kept able-bodied men on welfare and
allowed illegal aliens access to government services. The cost of this
and other activism to Californians in both money and quality of life
has been high.
Lawmakers Outraged at Legal Services Subversion of Welfare Reforms
Last year, Governor Pete Wilson and state legislators expressed their
outrage over legal services repeated efforts to overturn the state’s ambitious
welfare reforms. Under the state’s “carrot and stick” approach, recipients
had their AFDC benefits cut 15% to make welfare less attractive but allowed
to earn more money to ease their way to self-sufficiency. However, the
Western Center on Law and Poverty succeeded in overturning one-third of
the cuts, claiming that the reforms imposed undue hardships on the poor.
Besides forcing the state to spend an extra $130 million a year, the increased
expenditures seriously dilute the state’s attempts to remove the perverse
incentives to welfare dependency. Governor Wilson said of the Western Center
that “It is outrageous that this self-appointed band of ‘welfare
advocates’ can substitute its distorted view of welfare reform” for the
policy of the “duly-elected state legislature.”
See K.L. Billingsley, “Welfare Legal Eagles Fly High,” The Washington
Times, September 6, 1994, pg. A1
Counties Sued for Trying to Keep Employable Adults Off Welfare
Over the last four years, legal services lawyers have halted the attempts
of several county governments to reduce welfare benefits for healthy, adult
men eligible to work. Many counties faced with tight budgets have sought
to restrict benefits to this least deserving category of recipients only
to have legal services thwart their efforts. In 1991, for instance, the
Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles forced Los Angeles County to increase
General Assistance monthly benefits from $312 to $341. In 1992, the Legal
Aid Society of San Diego prevented San Diego County from limiting adult
men to 3 months of assistance per year forcing the county to spend $6 million.
In 1993, the Legal Aid Society of Alameda County stopped that county from
imposing a similar three month restriction for 7000 employable adults at
a cost of $15 million. However, this year Sacramento County did win the
right, over the vigorous objections of legal services lawyers, to reduce
the monthly benefits for employable recipients from $286 to $221.
See Ronald Taylor, "County Ready to Enact Hike,” Los Angeles
Times, June 11, 1991, pg. 3 (For further background, contact NLPC)
Legal Services Attacks Crackdown On Welfare Fraud
Legal services groups have attacked an innovative welfare anti-fraud
program even though it has saved millions of dollars. Several California
counties, following the lead of Los Angeles County, now fingerprint welfare
recipients to prevent potential abusers from signing up more than once
for benefits. However, when Los Angeles County announced that it saved
$4.5 million in one month with a potential savings of $116 million over
two years, the only comment of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles
was “why we are so self-congratulatory” about saving money. When Sacramento
County announced that it would start fingerprinting, a lawyer with Legal
Services of Northern California said it was unfair because it would deter
those with outstanding warrants and arrest records from applying. A survey
of welfare recipients showed that 95% supported the program because it
would make welfare more credible.
See Leslie Berger, “Savings Seen in Welfare Fingerprint Program,”
Los Angeles Times, October 15, 1994, pg. B1; Maria Camposeco, “New
Welfare Anti-Fraud Effort Comes Under Fire,” Sacramento Bee, Dec.
26, 1994, pg. B1
Homeless Go On $400,000 Drug and Drinking Binge
In 1991, the Legal Aid Society of Orange County won $400,000 from the
city of Santa Ana for more than 30 homeless persons as compensation for
supposed suffering they experienced when police forcibly removed them from
the grounds of the city civic center. Despite the fact that the vast
majority of the homeless plaintiffs were drug addicts and alcoholics, the
settlement Legal Aid lawyers worked out simply gave each homeless person
$11,000 without any requirements that they get counseling for their maladies.
The predictable result was a wild binge of drunkenness, drug use and outlandish
squandering of money. One homeless person said he used his money to treat
his friends to a night on the town in a limo and looking for all the drugs
his money could buy. Another also admitted to “cruisin” in a luxury car
with friends and getting drunk. One man who fared better than the
rest said he found a nice apartment with a jacuzzi but says that he still
drinks and has no intention of getting a job. Within months, of the 31
homeless plaintiffs who received damage awards, 11 were homeless again,
several were running out of money and some had simply disappeared. Only
9 were legitimately trying to turn their lives around. All Legal
Aid lawyers had to say was that the homeless were entitled to use the money
as they saw fit.
See Gebe Martinez, “Money Didn’t Buy Them Happiness,” Los Angeles
Times, Dec. 2, 1991, pg. A1
Legal Aid Calls Cuts in Medical Assistance for Aliens Racist
In 1993, the Legal Aid Society of San Diego criticized San Diego County
for cutting off emergency care benefits to illegal aliens. The county took
the action when it discovered that $5.2 million of a $10.8 million emergency
care program for the uninsured was going to illegal immigrants. County
authorities say that they can not provide such care when services are already
limited for legal residents. Legal Aid said the cuts were racially motivated.
See Rex Dalton, “County to Halt Medical Funds for Migrants,”
The San Diego Union-Tribune, November 8, 1993, pg. B1