Disabled, impoverished: For some, losing the $261 a month will be devastating

More than 800 disabled, impoverished Utahns will lose their monthly state benefits over the next six months, pushing some into homelessness, advocates fear.

They are among the state's most vulnerable: typically unable to work beyond a small number of hours and waiting for Social Security benefits.

Their $261 monthly checks from the General Assistance program, which help them pay rent and afford medication, is often their only income.

"So you're going to have people with severe medical problems in the shelter or on the street," said Bill Tibbitts, an advocate at Crossroads Urban Center.

A coalition of anti-poverty leaders submitted a letter to the outgoing and incoming governors this week protesting changes that will go into effect on Aug. 1. The cuts are a result of a $3 million budget cut made by the Legislature in the past year.

Critics believe changes to the program, which serves about 1,500 disabled people, are too harsh and will have an even larger effect than predicted by Department of Workforce Services officials.

The state concedes that the full consequences of the changes are unclear, particularly how stricter eligibility requirements will affect the number of new participants.

"Until it occurs we don't know," said Helen Thatcher, an assistant director at Department of Workforce Services. "We don't intend to hurt people more than they're already being hurt."

New rules will limit the amount of time someone can receive General Assistance to 12 months instead of two years.

That limit will automatically kick hundreds off the program before they have secured Social Security benefits, advocates worry. But officials say new systems are expected to speed up the Social Security application process.

Tibbitts questions why more than half of the current recipients will lose their benefits -- many on Aug. 1, others in subsequent months -- when the budget was not cut in half. Anti-poverty leaders also are upset that a public comment period and public hearing has not yet taken place.

"Consequently, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to undo the harm caused to hundreds of homeless and near homeless people if the impacts of these rules are as great as we fear they will be," the letter to the governors states.

The state does plan to monitor the effects of General Assistance cuts. "We don't want to be so strict -- we don't want money left over," Thatcher said.

Madeline Wesson, 58, who lived at the downtown Salt Lake City homeless shelter for 17 months and has struggled with mental illness, relies on a General Assistance check to buy the basics that food stamps don't cover.

"What am I going to do if I don't have toilet tissue?" she said.

For residents like her at Grace Mary Manor, an apartment complex for the formerly homeless, losing their monthly General Assistance checks will typically reduce their rent to $25 per month. With no other income or savings, people often turn to panhandling or plasma donation to come up with the cash. - The Salt Lake Tribune