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By CURTIS KRUEGER © St. Petersburg Times, published March 24, 1999 Tamara Williams became a welfare success story one year ago this month, when she left her government checks behind and became a customer service representative for Time Warner Communications. But for Williams and thousands of other men and women across Florida who have left the welfare rolls, it is a precarious type of success. At one point, Williams said, she got behind in her power bill and had the lights turned off for part of a day. For months she relied on taxis, her brother-in-law and friends to give her rides home after finishing the night shift, when no buses were running in Clearwater. Like Williams, people across Florida are glad to be getting off welfare and into the workplace -- 50.8 percent say they are better off now than when they received government checks, according to a new statewide study of more than 1,000 former welfare recipients. But the same study shows the challenges these families face as they try to make it on their own. Since leaving welfare, 42.6 percent of the former welfare clients said that at some point, they had been unable to afford food to put on the table. More than 59 percent said they had gotten behind on utilities, 49.5 percent said they had gotten behind on rent and 38.3 percent said their telephone service had been cut off. And 53.9 percent said their job paid no benefits. This is the most detailed look yet at how people are faring as they leave Florida's redesigned welfare system. The state's welfare reform era began in October 1996, and limits most parents to two years' worth of welfare checks at a time, and four years over their lifetimes. In short, the new study shows that while getting a job helps, it does not necessarily provide someone with enough money to get by. "We really know that jobs paying just above the minimum wage do not promote self-sufficiency, and far too many of these jobs do not pay benefits," said Phyllis Busansky, executive director of the state's welfare reform program, called Work and Gain Economic Self-Sufficiency. Nearly 60 percent of those interviewed earned between $5.16 and $7.99 per hour. That means the state must look for more ways to encourage people to ascend in the workplace, not just enter it, she said. "We need to focus attention in the next few years on training and eduction, and looking at transitional services and looking at post-placement support." Camille F. Brockman said Lockheed Martin, one of the companies training Pinellas welfare clients, already has started. The company recently assigned two "job coaches" to find former welfare clients who are now working, but are under-employed. The goal is to help them find ways to get promotions or better-paying jobs. "A large part of the emphasis now has to move into career planning. You can't just find somebody a job and expect them to reach self-sufficiency," said Brockman, a project manager for Lockheed Martin who previously worked for the state WAGES board. One finding suggests that former welfare recipients need better information about other government programs. The study says that only 56.2 percent realized they could be eligible for food stamps despite having gotten off welfare, and that just 43 percent knew they could get help paying for child care. Nonetheless, many people do receive other state and federal benefits besides welfare, such as the 67.7 percent who said they receive Medicaid, the medical program for low-income people. More than 60 percent of the respondents said they owned their own car and that they drove to work. Robert E. Crew Jr., co-author of the $86,000 study and assistant dean of the College of Social Sciences at Florida State University, said another study will compare WAGES clients to people who did not receive benefits or training through the program. Researchers spoke with 4,500 people for the study, which included a 1,000-person statewide telephone survey and smaller profiles of individual regions across the state. Despite the scheduling hassles and other headaches that work sometimes entails, Williams said she will happily continue at Time Warner. She said her supervisors have been understanding and helpful when she has had a child care problem or a family emergency. And she was thrilled when a manager recently told her that she could see her becoming a supervisor in the future. "I felt wonderful," she said. "My self-esteem just went way up."
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