Pretty much a universal rule of messes is that they flow downhill. That means, to a large extent, when the economy is in the tank, and government is tightening up, it falls to the township trustees office to provide poor relief to an increasing number of people. Dorothy Schneider, writing for the Journal & Courier, has a good article about the increased demands being placed on township trustees in Tippecanoe County, even as the legislature is considering eliminating that office.
The article provides a primer on how the poor relief system works:
Residents must file a written application upon first visiting the township office. Only under special conditions will poor relief assistance be granted without an in-person request being made at the office.
Applicants have to provide information about income and assets, use of other community resources, relatives capable of providing assistance, past or present employment, pending claims or medical conditions.
The township trustee is required to investigate the circumstances of the applicant and each member of the household.
If emergency assistance is granted, payments can be made to the applicant for clothing, food and household necessities.
In my experience, township trustees have a greater sense of what’s going on with poor relief applicants than governmental entities that are farther removed. Are there efficiencies to be had by centralizing government? Sure. But there are trade-offs. In particular, I think a poor relief system administered by, say, the State would result in either more denials of people who qualify for assistance or more approvals of people who don’t qualify (or both.) The ability to make case-by-case determinations will suffer.
A comment to the story captured something special about people’s attitude toward government:
“Get rid of the trustees, they hinder more than help. . . . I have tried to receive help from them before with no avail. Even with my health issues, they still turned me down. What a waste of local government.”
The person apparently wants less government in the form of elimination of the trustee who denied him or her assistance for whatever reason, and more government in the form of assistance to him or her personally.
The vast majority of “poor relief” is already administered by the state. Haven’t you heard of the FSSA? They have responsibility for food stamps and Medicaid.
The township poor relief system is a joke. There are 1008 different standards for 1008 different townships. At least with a centralized system you could become aware of what the requirements are in order to receive relief.
The Star has reported examples of townships in which 80% of the poor relief budget is consumed by administrative costs.
I’m sure it varies from place to place – and that’s one of the big problems – but I know that locally, the township trustees are much better informed about the actual details of applicants’ financial condition than the State offices are.
Oh, and no, I’ve never heard of FSSA. What kind of question is that? Serious? Going out of your way to be rude? What?
As someone who has used the “poor relief” from my local township trustee office, it does not duplicate services that FSSA provides. I am awaiting a disability hearing. There have been months that I have been unable to pay my rent. My local township trustee office has kept me from becoming homeless. FSSA does not provide rental assistance to single, disabled men.
If FSSA or some other office were to take on the same services that the trustee offices do, I might support the elimination of the trustees offices. If not, I support their continued existence.
“It Flows Downhill”
…Nice euphemism.
Township trustees often take on cases that don’t fit the FSSA qualifications for Medicaid, etc. Also, if you live in a non-metro county, having a trustee close by can be crucial, especially if you don’t have access to transportation to get to the county seat.
In Marion County, the Trustees spend more for salaries and expenses than they do for the poor relief itself. If the state or county were allowed to absorb the Offices, then the amount spent on poor relief could double without any additional expenditures.