Huddled masses exported

Editor's note: Because of the content of today's John L. Smith column, it is being moved from its customary position to the front page.

While Nevada officials scramble to make ends meet in the face of a $910 million budget shortfall, California's Tulare County has found a novel way to trim its overhead.

It hands welfare families a road stake and job leads and sends them to Nevada and other states to "become self-sufficient and MOVE up the ladder of success." At the very least they appear to be moving off one welfare roll and onto another.

Nevada isn't the only state targeted by the More Opportunities for Viable Employment program, but my state welfare sources confirm the local presence of a number of MOVE participants.

It's hard to blame the hard up for taking the handout and hitting the highway. And MOVE isn't the only program encouraging migration to Nevada. In one case I've learned about from state welfare sources, an elderly woman receiving emergency assistance and food stamps was also given a check to help her move and cover her first month's rent in Southern Nevada, where she was told "the retirement communities are nice and the cost of living is lower."

The challenge for that senior citizen, of course, would be finding a suitable retirement community that accepts welfare and food stamp recipients. You won't find many poor folks in Sun City.

In another documented case, a family was given more than $2,200 and sent from Tulare County in California's Central Valley to Las Vegas this year to start a new life through the MOVE program. The payment was broken down to pay for travel expenses, the first month's rent and apartment and utility deposits along with a stipend for food and living expenses. The family was asked to contribute its food stamps and its Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) check.

Regional MOVE Coordinator Karen Davidson said the fact only one family from Tulare County used the program to move to Southern Nevada so far this year proves there's no scandal. Since 2005, she counted only 16 families that were sent to Southern Nevada, although she admitted the figures were substantially higher in previous years.

While MOVE is marketed as an employment assistance program, it also acts as a relief valve for stressed social service and education systems in Tulare County, which in recent years has had one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. It also has a high rate of poverty, Davidson says. Not only is Tulare County relieving itself of welfare recipients, it saves precious education dollars and classroom space when the children of those recipients leave the public school system and are added to the burgeoning rolls of the Clark County School District.

Not surprisingly, Davidson doesn't see it that way.

"I really don't think it's that much of an impact," Davidson says.

In Tulare County alone, more than 1,339 adult public assistance recipients and their families have used the MOVE program in its 10-year existence. Other California counties embraced the program earlier in the decade, but most discontinued it for budget reasons, Davidson says, adding that MOVE has many success stories.

Although participants in the program must maintain contact with a "job developer" for a minimum of six months following the move, there's no guarantee employment will be found or maintained.

The MOVE Web site notes that qualified participants will receive "job search assistance," "cost of living, budgeting, and goal setting" advice, housing, school, and child care information, and everything from the weather outlook to crime statistics and recreation opportunities in their new area.

They are also told how to access "community resources" such as medical care, low-cost housing, and other social services. They even receive packing and moving tips.

With a couple thousand dollars in their pockets, participants receive more than a tank of gasoline and a map. A California county lessens its burden and increases the stress on Nevada's strained welfare system.

On the front line, Nevada welfare sources say they're well aware of what they call "dumping" from other states, and MOVE isn't the only program involved. It appears that knowledge might not have passed up the line to management.

In a recent e-mail exchange, Nevada Division of Welfare and Supportive Services Administrator Nancy Ford said the agency had no information on job-seeking welfare recipients being sent to Southern Nevada. In a follow-up interview, Ford explained that social service agencies often have jobs programs that can send participants out of state, but only with secured employment.

"It's inappropriate to send a family out of state unless they have a viable job opportunity," Ford says. "You've disrupted the family and their situation without going to anything that's going to be more stable for them."

In a recent e-mail on the subject Ford wrote, "If this was a concern the Division would advance conversation with the appropriate state and federal agency overseeing the program."

With Nevada's social service system more stressed than ever, it's time to start that conversation.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0295.