Recommended Article: “99 Weeks Later, Jobless Have Only Desperation” (NY Times)

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — Facing eviction from her Tennessee apartment after several months of unpaid rent, Alexandra Jarrin packed up whatever she could fit into her two-door coupe recently and drove out of town.

Ms. Jarrin, 49, wound up at a motel here, putting down $260 she had managed to scrape together from friends and from selling her living room set, enough for a weeklong stay. It was essentially all the money she had left after her unemployment benefits expired in March. Now she is facing a previously unimaginable situation for a woman who, not that long ago, had a corporate job near New York City and was enrolled in a graduate business school, whose sticker is still emblazoned on her back windshield.

“Barring a miracle, I’m going to be in my car,” she said.

Ms. Jarrin is part of a hard-luck group of jobless Americans whose members have taken to calling themselves “99ers,” because they have exhausted the maximum 99 weeks of unemployment insurance benefits that they can claim.

For them, the resolution recently of the lengthy Senate impasse over extending jobless benefits was no balm. The measure renewed two federal programs that extended jobless benefits in this recession beyond the traditional 26 weeks to anywhere from 60 to 99 weeks, depending on the state’s unemployment rate. But many jobless have now exceeded those limits. They are adjusting to a new, harsh reality with no income.

In June, with long-term unemployment at record levels, about 1.4 million people were out of work for 99 weeks or more, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Not all of them received unemployment benefits, but for many of those who did, the modest payments were a lifeline that enabled them to maintain at least a veneer of normalcy, keeping a roof over their heads, putting gas in their cars, paying electric and phone bills.

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TANF goes up – are families the winner?

Happy Cinco de Mayo folks…

The Associated Press reported today that there’s been a huge increase in people applying for TANF…article below:

OLYMPIA, Wash. —

The recession has more poor people applying for a Washington welfare program called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

The Seattle Times reports enrollments in the past year increased 18 percent to about 59,000 families.

The cost of the monthly grants to poor adults with children is expected to total $1.56 billion in the next two-year budget, a 9 percent increase.

A family of two – a parent and child – receives $453 a month. The amount increases by about $100 for each additional family member. Many families also receive food stamps worth about $100 a month.

Participants must take part in the WorkFirst job training or education programs.

As great as it is for folks in a crunch to recieve help, it’s that last line – that participants must take part in the WorkFirst program – that is the pinch in this situation. At Helping Hand House, our goal is to get families off of public assistance as quickly as possible, and into jobs that can support the household. We believe (and research backs us up on this) that the keys to sustainably ending family homelessness are education and living-wage jobs. WorkFirst shortchanges people by requiring moms and dads to get jobs that ultimately pay little and keep families dependent on the government. And while it makes sense to get people working while recieving public assistance, it is unfortunately one of the main hindrances our case managers face in helping our families get off welfare and into the mainstream working world…

Thoughts? We’d love to hear your comments…