Legal Groups Assail County Welfare System

Daylong waits for assistance, lack of attention paid to the mentally ill and cutoff of benefits without warning are just some of the problems in Los Angeles County’s welfare system that keep homeless people on the streets, a group of prominent attorneys told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

The findings, along with recommendations to correct the problems, grew out of visits to welfare offices made by hundreds of law clerks and attorneys who volunteered to provide free legal assistance to welfare recipients. The clerks and attorneys came from a cross section of Los Angeles law firms, including some of the city’s biggest and most prestigious.

‘Hundreds of Instances’

They found “hundreds of instances in which the county Department of Public Social Services erroneously denied homeless and other impoverished Los Angeles residents basic, subsistence-level benefits,” representatives of the County Bar Assn. and Public Counsel, the public interest law office of the county Bar and the Beverly Hills Bar Assn., told supervisors.

Pamela A. Mohr, director of the Homeless Project for Public Counsel, said that when the law students go to welfare offices, “often times, as they walked down the street, they hear shouts of ‘The lawyers are coming! The lawyers are coming! ‘ “

“The students are mobbed with clients the minute they walk into the office,” she said. Gail Ruderman Feuer, chairwoman of the county Bar Assn.’s individual rights section, said the project showed “just how pervasive are the flaws” in the county’s welfare delivery system.

In a report to the board, the lawyers accused the county of failing to assist the homeless mentally ill in filling out complicated forms to qualify for welfare in apparent violation of a court order.

Many of the allegations are contained in a lawsuit filed by the city charging that the county has been derelict in carrying for the homeless and seeking to force the county to provide more housing and relief for the needy.

“We had one client in the Echo Park office who was huddled in a corner for about seven hours, who was being totally ignored by everyone, started crying, was still ignored, and there was no one there to provide him with any kind of assistance,” Mohr told the supervisors.

“A lot of people give up,” Mohr said. “They leave the office and won’t get the assistance they need. It seems like it’s set up to encourage that.”

Lorraine Loder, co-chair of the Committee on the Homeless for the county Bar Assn.’s individual rights section, told supervisors that the county’s failure to provide special assistance “prevents hundreds of mentally ill and disabled people from receiving essential benefits that could forestall homelessness.”

The lawyers accused the county of wrongfully cutting of benefits to recipients. County rules impose a 60-day cutoff of benefits to healthy recipients who fail to try to find work. But the lawyers claimed that benefits were cut off to some recipients who were physically unable to work. They also contended that the penalty can be too severe, citing the case of a man who lost his benefits because he arrived late for work.

The lawyers also complained about average waits of eight hours at welfare offices.

“It was not uncommon to find people who had waited an entire day to receive the relief they desired,” the report said. “And, it was not unusual for a client to have waited an entire day in the DPSS office only to be told at the end of the day to return the following day.”

Among the recommendations made by the lawyers was elimination of the 60-day penalty “for all but the most severe violations,” adding staff to assist the mentally ill and people who cannot read or write, and staggering of appointments to reduce waiting.

Supervisors ordered welfare officials to respond to the lawyers’ report in 60 days.

County Welfare Director Eddy S. Tanaka told supervisors: “We’ll take a look to see if, in fact, these allegations are accurate and take appropriate action.” He insisted, however, that his office does not cut off benefits without warning. He also said his office assists the mentally ill in qualifying for welfare.

He acknowledged, however, that funding cuts have made it more difficult for his department to serve the 925,000 people on public assistance in Los Angeles County.