NEW YORK — “No more one-size-fits-all” was the theme of a public hearing on welfare policy held Thursday in downtown Manhattan. About 80 people, many of whom receive public benefits, came to give and hear testimony on a seemingly esoteric, 56-page “Employment Plan” issued by the Human Resources Administration (HRA), the agency that oversees cash assistance, food stamps and other “safety-net” programs for New York City’s poorest residents. Advocates and dozens of participants in the city's "welfare-to-work" programs took turns at the microphone, expressing their frustration with a system that, in one man's words, "in no way meets my individual needs. I sit in a classroom six to seven hours a day doing absolutely nothing," he said, while ostensibly being trained on how to find a job.

To the right of the podium was Steven Banks, the new HRA commissioner who, with over 30 years experience in legal services, built his career on suing the agency he now runs. His appointment by liberal freshman Mayor Bill de Blasio earlier this year was, in one housing activist's words, “the equivalent of a president naming Ralph Nader to oversee a federal consumer protection agency."

Banks' two-year proposal for the HRA (public comment ends Nov. 7, at which point the state yeas or nays the plan) softens certain work requirements and procedures for the approximately 260,000 people receiving cash assistance in New York City, 50 to 60 percent of whom have their benefits conditioned on weekly work, training, job-search or "work activity" hours. Advocates for the poor are, by and large, thrilled by the amendments. But critics accuse Banks of “dismantling welfare reform” and undermining New York’s triumph over fraud and waste. Former HRA commissioner Robert Doar, now a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, recently warned that welfare recipients and caseworkers will try "to steal — usually from government and usually to obtain benefits that one isn't entitled to," if given the chance.

Since Banks took over HRA, he has vowed to make it easier for New Yorkers to access public assistance. Some changes were introduced in the spring: no longer requiring adults to work full-time in order to get food stamps; allowing college enrollment to count as work in “welfare-to-work;” improving customer service; and being less quick to “sanction,” or withhold cash assistance, from recipients due to computer glitches or minor infractions, such as showing up late for job search.