Local activists held an impassioned meeting last week with a top state official to discuss the governor’s cuts to a cash-assistance program that had been utilized by terminally ill Pennsylvanians, including those with HIV/AIDS.
Pennsylvania Welfare Deputy Secretary Lourdes Padilla met with members of ACT UP and other groups in Philadelphia Sept. 27 to discuss changes to the General Assistance program.
On Monday, three former GA clients filed suit against the state.
The GA program provided 70,000 Pennsylvania residents $205 a month and was used by many to cover medical expenses and other necessities. Gov. Tom Corbett (R) eliminated the program Aug. 1.
Representative of U.S. Positive Women’s Network Waheedah Shabazz-El recommend to Padilla that the state exempt those with chronic illnesses.
“Preventing people from becoming sick is cost-effective for our government,” she said. “Flooding homeless shelters, psychiatric hospitals, jails, foster homes is not the answer. This is not going to balance our budget. It’s going to cost you in the end.”
Padilla could not give an exact answer as to if this policy could be put in place.
She said she would bring that suggestion and others discussed at the meeting back to Harrisburg.
Members of Fight for Philly and the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania were also present, as was state Rep. Vanessa Lowery Brown (D-190th Dist.).
Padilla said Corbett is working to find alternative resources for former clients, including federal and other state programs.
“I’m very happy to say we have started that discussion. We have had meetings with the office of Social Security at the federal level,” Padilla said. “We’re going to be exchanging information and identifying what is needed for the Social Security office to make a decision on eligibility or non-eligibility.”
Padilla did not provide a deadline for when those decisions would be made, but she told members that progress has been occurring.
According to Padilla, her department has evaluated all 70,000 cases of former GA clients. She said she is compiling a report on alternative resources for former GA clients.
Shabazz-El cautioned that people with chronic illnesses have issues beyond affording their medications, such as transportation to and from doctors’ appointments.
“We’re talking about the difference between life and death for some people,” Shabazz-El said. “We’re talking about people having to fight for the right to exist. That should not be happening.”
Philadelphia Unemployment Project organizer Terrance Meacham wanted to know where the sense of urgency was.
“People are suffering right here and right now,” Meacham said. “We want this to happen tomorrow. We are not just talking about a law, we’re talking about people’s lives. We’re talking about people’s loved ones.”
University of Pennsylvania Dr. Joseph Metmowlee Garland, a clinician at the Jonathan Lax Center, which serves those with HIV/AIDS, said his patients were not misusing their GA income, which he said supported housing, transportation, food and phone costs.
“What are my patients doing now? Many of them are selling their food stamps to stay in their house. I regularly have HIV patients losing weight because they don’t have safe food access,” Garland said.
Garland said that many of his patients are facing the loss of their housing and may have to stay in shelters.
“It seems like a small amount of money but I am telling you that people are spending every amount of that money responsibly,” he told Padilla. “I’m telling you there is good cause for this. There is a reason why you are hearing emotions from this because it is a desperate situation.”
ACT UP member Jose DeMarco made it clear that his group isn’t ready to give up.
“We know that the governor’s approval rate is very low and we know that this is the election season, “ DeMarco said. “We will campaign against him. We will make sure that when Romney comes to town, he knows what we are doing in Philadelphia.”