Mary Jo Pitzl

The Republic | azcentral.com

On Friday, Arizona became the most stringent state in the nation for aid to poor families raising children.

That's when a one-year lifetime limit on cash assistance kicked in for families receiving help from the Temporary Aid to Needy Families program. It means an estimated 2,500 people — including 1,500 kids — will no longer qualify for the modest stipends the program provides. The average payment is $278.

When the Legislature approved the one-year limit last year, the justification was financial: The state was in a budget crunch and savings had to be found. But since then, state coffers have rebounded and, this year, lawmakers faced a modest surplus. Despite that, proposals from Democrats and advocates for the poor to keep the program at its two-year limit went unheeded.

"Are you kidding me?" asked Darlene Newsome, who runs the UMOM shelter for homeless families. "Are they telling people you can only be extremely poor for one year in your life?"

For Sandra Godinez, the benefit — $108 a month for her and her three children — was small, but helpful. However, as the cut-off date neared, she landed a better deal: She got a job through a state-run employment program that is tied to the cash-assistance program.

"It feels like we are free and we've had a chance to start over," said Godinez, 27, who fled a domestic-violence situation and was temporarily homeless last year.

ROBERTS: Ducey cuts off help to 1,500 poor kids

Ranks cut by 40 percent

Godinez was among the 1,600 families immediately affected by the one-year limitation. Through its jobs program, the state Department of Economic Security cut that number by 40 percent, but as of Thursday, 930 families were still without work and about to lose the cash assistance.

"The folks that are losing the benefit are in big trouble," said Cynthia Zwick, executive director of the Arizona Community Action Association. "Where are they going to go? What are they going to do?"

She predicted many would end up in shelters, which already are strained to beyond capacity.

Granted, the benefit is small, and state statistics showed the average time a family stayed on the program was 14 months. But, Zwick said, when you're dirt poor, anything helps.

Even with 930 families losing the cash stipend, other services for low-income residents still apply, DES said. For example, food stamps and medical coverage through the state's Medicaid program will continue, among others.

From five years max to one year

Federal law allows a state to keep a family on TANF for up to five years. But Arizona started to whittle that down after the Great Recession sent state revenue plunging.

At the same time, lawmakers redirected much of the program's federal dollars into the then-Child Protective Services division, to offset the loss of state dollars. By 2014, only 9 percent of the federal money was going to basic assistance, compared with 38 percent in 2007, according to the nonpartisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C.

The cut to one year of benefits was hotly debated at the state Capitol in 2015. The final vote to enact the policy came in the middle of the night during a marathon budget session; Rep. Kelly Townsend, R-Mesa, tearfully voted for the measure even as she reminded her colleagues that the Bible instructs people to care for widows and children.

Dems: Reverse cut to low-income families

This year, Democrats pushed to restore the program to a two-year run, given the improving economic picture. They got nowhere. Originally believed to save the state $9 million, TANF savings was revised downward to $4 million.

"The arguments about there not being enough money is not the real reason," said Sen. Katie Hobbs, a Phoenix Democrat and the co-sponsor of a bill that would have reinstated the two-year limit.

In her mind, it's ideologically driven: "That all government assistance is bad, that it creates dependence," Hobbs said.

That belief is strong among many in the Legislature's GOP majority. Jobs, not welfare, is the answer, legislative leaders say.

Aid program yields a job

For Godinez, getting the temporary cash aid led her to a job.

When she and her kids ended up in the UMOM New Day shelter for homeless families last summer, she applied for the cash assistance. In addition to qualifying for $108 a month in aid, she was immediately connected with a DES contractor that put her on the path to finding a job.

She gushes about what it has meant to her and her kids, ages 2 through 6.

She was able to save one of her monthly payments to make the down payment on the apartment she is currently renting through a transitional-housing program. She started work on her high-school equivalency diploma, and got assistance with child care, clothing, transportation, even new tires for her 2000 Taurus car.

"These little things help so much," she said as Desiree, 3 and Ricardo III, 2, chased each other through her tidy two-bedroom apartment.

Arizona first to establish lifetime limit on cash assistance program

Most importantly, she landed a job with the state's Division of Developmental Disabilities. Since March, she has been working part-time as a caregiver at a group home in the East Valley. Her monthly pay averages $1,000, eclipsing her former $108 stipend, which ended as soon as she started work.

Chevera Trillo, DES workforce administrator, said the TANF program's aid goes beyond making monthly cash payments: It also provides whatever other assistance a family might need to get on the path to self-sufficiency.

The agency works with two contractors, Maximus and ResCare, whose sole purpose is to work with TANF families and get them back into the job market. For some, that journey starts with community-service work, where they focus on the "soft skills" that boost their chances of landing and keeping a job: Getting to work on time, arranging child care, having a backup plan if something goes awry.

For Godinez, the TANF program opened the door to self-sufficiency. She wants to pursue a nursing degree after she earns her GED diploma. She's working to repair her credit rating. "I want to be a homeowner," she said.

She said determination, plus the state program, have moved her far away from the desperate situation she faced last summer.

"If someone really wants it, they can come out of it," she said.

Part-time jobs

Godinez's case may be an exception more than the rule, given 60 percent of the eligible families lose benefits as of Friday.

Few in Arizona are arguing for a return to the five-year lifetime limit, but poverty advocates argue one year can be harmful. Slightly more than half of the people who have been on TANF in Arizona stay on for less than two years, said Liz Schott, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. But some people need more time, she said.

Zwick agrees. "The notion that you get them a job and all is well is wrong," she said. There are other needs, some of which won't be met by the DES program, or covered by what generally are low-paying jobs, she said.

DES reports a range of job placements for the former TANF beneficiaries — from middle-management posts at grocery stores to clerical work to janitorial duties. About half of those jobs secured thus far are only part-time.

Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com and follow her on Twitter, @maryjpitzl.