What sort of disabilities are involved? The parents often have serious and persistent mental illness, low IQs due to developmental disability or traumatic brain injuries, and debilitating chronic illnesses. The children’s disabilities are across the board – severe physical disabilities, mental illness and developmental disabilities.

Who determines an individual is disabled? The federal government, through a process that can take up to two years, and results in a determination that the individual is unable to sustain on-going and full-time work.

What will these families live on? A mother with a disability and with two children would go from having about $1,100 a month to pay for rent, food, clothes, transportation, etc. to having $674 a month, the maximum disability assistance available to an individual through the federal Supplemental Security Income program. That is $8,000 a year, a level the Census Bureau recognizes as extreme poverty.

What will happen to the families? Many of these families will lose their housing and those who have struggled with unstable housing already are likely to join many others in those counted among the long-term homeless.

What will happen to the children? Homeless children with other risk factors miss more school, score the lowest on standardized test scores and fail to show advancement in school compared to all other students, including other very low income students.

With the state’s budget crisis, don’t we have to focus on costs that are growing more expensive every year? The forecast anticipates a slight decline (a $4.2 million decrease) in spending for grants to people on the state welfare-to-work program, the Minnesota Family Investment Program – without these cuts.. This decrease is a continuation of a trend that started in 2009. (p.15 Minnesota Department of Human Services Forecast, Feb. 2010)

Minnesota has not increased the amount of cash assistance it provides families since 1986. A family of three still receives $532 a month at maximum.

Minnesota has federal welfare-to-work money still available from the stimulus bill that is intended to prevent just this sort of cut. Instead the Governor proposes moving it around through the tax budget to pay for a $28 million general fund cut.

This cut will save the state $20 million in 2011 and about $32 million a year in subsequent years.

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