MARION BARRY Tel: (202) 724-8045

COUNCILMEMBER Fax: (202) 724-8055

WARD 8 mbarry@dccouncil.us
Contact: Joyce Clements-Smith
jclementssmith@dccouncil.us

PRESS RELEASE

EMBARGOED UNTIL 1:30 p.m., Friday, 12 November 2010

Barry Launches Effort to Break the

Cycle of Joblessness, Hopelessness and Poverty
(Washington, D.C.) Marion Barry, Ward 8 Councilmember, and a ranking member of the Council’s Committee on Human
Services, called on his colleagues, community advocates, and fellow residents during his press conference today, to support his
recent efforts to break what he termed “the cycle of joblessness, hopelessness, and poverty” in the District of Columbia
through significant reform of the District’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. At Mr. Barry’s urging, the
Committee will conduct hearings on Monday, November 15, 2010 to consider legislation to address this problem that has been
introduced by Mr. Barry, B-18-1061, the “District of Columbia Public Assistance Amendment Act of 2010”.

“Mayor Fenty has not paid attention this problem, and the Fenty Administration has been ineffective. The Director of the
Department of Human Services has similarly failed to successfully identity the needs of TANF recipients or, work with the D.C.
Department of Employments Services to bring these folks back into the workforce” Barry said.

Barry went on to say, “While I have steadfastly advocated the provision of public support to residents who are most in need of
assistance, especially children, it is imperative that the District government develop and establish a financially, sustainable
public assistance plan to increase the transition of TANF beneficiaries from a continuing state of dependency on TANF to the
ranks of the employed so that they reach their personal goal of self-sufficiency. We need to identify what the District
Government is doing wrong and best practices across this country. My goal, through the induction of my legislation, is to break
the cycle of jobless, poverty and dependence on public assistance in this City.”

TANF is a federally-funded block grant that provides funding to states to partially support the provision of social services to
individuals and families with incomes that meet specified income levels; the income allowance for a family of two (one adult,
one child) cannot exceed $7,932/year. The same would be true for a family of four (two adults, two children) that exceeds
$12,276. Federal regulations currently impose a sixty month or five-year, life-time limit on the receipt of these services by
individuals and families. States and the District of Columbia Government have the discretion, however, to use their local dollars
to extend the period of eligibility beyond the federal time limit. Since the implementation of the welfare reform policies in
1997, the District’s TANF caseloads have neared, and exceeded the five-year time limit. During this time, the District, unlike
other surrounding jurisdictions, opted to extend TANF support to individuals and families beyond the five year limit. The District
now expends approximately $60 million per annum in support of the TANF program.

“In 2008, through a series of hearings, I discovered that out of 17,800 families who benefited from TANF, only 500 were in
compliance with the program. To me, that means the government doesn’t have a system to determine why this is happening

MORE
or, a plan to correct the problem. Currently, The District has over 17,505 families in the TANF program; over 7,000 families or,
more than over half of the entire TANF case load have exceeded the five year limit”, Barry said.

“I have to ask, why these families aren’t complying? What are the barriers that prevent them from complying, and why the
government doesn’t have the answers to these questions? The government can and has to do better in the provision of these
services to this population and the expenditure of the City’s scarce tax dollars.”

Ward 8 has one of the highest rates of TANF household recipients in the District numbering nearly 5,000 or, 30% of the total
TANF population. It has the second highest number of participants in the Section 8 housing program, 3,423, which is second
only to Ward 7 in the number of recipients being served by this Program.

“The District’s education system has failed our children who become adults; they do not have the skills to obtain gainful
employment; a situation that dooms them and their children to a cycle of poverty, joblessness, and hopelessness”, stated Barry.

“I want to make it very, very clear today, and in any future discussions of this subject, that my intent is not the permanent
removal of all families from TANF or, benefit reduction in the absence of a robust discussion. I am fully aware of the fact the
implementation of time limits will not automatically create participation in the workforce.” Barry added.

“My goal is to identity way to make our current TANF program more effective, better serve the recipients, and promote the
principals of self-sufficiency, personal responsibility, and upward mobility and stop this vicious cycle of poverty, joblessness,
hopeless, and dependency on public assistance.”

Council Member Barry’s legislation, if approved, could result in a reduction of the TANF rolls, and provide some fiscal relief to
the District which now faces a FY 2011 budget shortfall of $175 million.