State launches $180M public-private pilot program for welfare services
The state Human Services Department is accepting applications for its Tennessee Opportunity Pilot Initiative that will invest $180 million in public-private partnerships developing programs to move vulnerable Tennesseans toward self-sufficiency.
The program is part of the TANF Opportunity Act passed this year.
Here is the Human Services release:
NASHVILLE – With the launch of the Tennessee Opportunity Pilot Initiative the Tennessee Department of Human Services (TDHS) is taking a groundbreaking step to transform the way Tennessee serves its most vulnerable families. Over the next four years, this initiative will provide up to $5 million in Planning Grants and $175 million in Implementation Grants to further the Department’s vision of fundamentally changing the way government assistance is delivered to families in Tennessee.
This first phase will award Planning Grants of up to $500,000 each to public-private partnerships dedicated to developing innovative strategies that will move Tennesseans with economic, social, and developmental vulnerabilities beyond their current circumstances and on to self-sufficiency. With the Tennessee Opportunity Pilot Initiative, we have an unprecedented opportunity to create a new vision of government support. This new vision will shift the focus from the quantity of benefits, goods, and services provided to the quality of life for those served. TDHS invites Tennessee-based collaborative groups – large and small – that fall into one of the following categories to apply:
— Tennessee Nonprofit organizations
— Development Districts (city/county economic planning organizations)
— Local government agencies (political subdivisions)
— Human Resource agencies created pursuant to the Human Resource Agency Act of 1973
Planning Grants will provide the resources needed for grantees to develop their vision, overall design, budget, and other important aspects required for their Tennessee Opportunity Pilot Implementation Grant proposals. Planning Grant applications must be submitted online no later than Friday, October 15, 2021 at 5PM CST. Next spring the Families First Community Advisory Board will select the 6 Pilot Program grantees (2 in each grand division) to receive up to $25 million in Implementation Grants over a three-year period. TDHS will also operate a pilot. Collaborative groups must be selected for a Planning Grant to be eligible for the larger Implementation Grants.
“The Tennessee Opportunity Pilot Initiative Planning Grants offer an entry point for public- private groups to work together to form new ways of helping our citizens grow beyond life’s current challenges,” said TDHS Commissioner Clarence H. Carter. “We are putting an important stake in the ground for how Tennessee addresses our vulnerable citizens. To make this vision a reality, we need partnerships from across all regions and sectors of Tennessee – partners committed to transforming the lives of those in need so that dependence on government support is a mile marker in their life’s journey, not a destination unto itself.”
More information on application requirements, including applicant eligibility, can be found in the 2021 Tennessee Opportunity Pilot Program Planning Grant Application Guide.
Funding for the Tennessee Opportunity Pilot Initiative is provided through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. TANF is a federally funded program that emphasizes work, family strengthening, and personal responsibility to empower families for long- term success.
The Tennessee Department of Human Services is dedicated to making our state a place where all Tennesseans can move beyond the barriers they may face, to self-sufficiency, and on to new heights.
Boyd ‘Welfare to Work’ TV spot: He worked for $1 an hour at age 8
Press release from Randy Boyd campaign
Nashville, Tenn. – Randy Boyd, Republican candidate for Governor, launched his latest campaign commercial “Welfare to Work” which highlights Boyd’s belief that those who are able to work should work, not permanently live on government assistance.
Legislators approve raising welfare payments for first time in 22 years
The state House gave final approval Monday to legislation increasing Tennessee’s welfare cash payments for the first time in 22 years while toughening the program’s anti-fraud provisions, reports the Times Free Press.
Criticism of welfare bill evokes Fowler flashback
Former Sen. David Fowler (R-Signal Mountain), right, speaks to Rep. Darren Jernigan (D-Nashville) on March 7, 2018.
Democrats were horrified last week by a GOP lawmaker’s statements about Republican Gov. Bill Haslam’s bill that increases fraud enforcement while boosting cash payments within the state’s welfare program.
“We’re talking about cash money that can be used to buy anything from cigarettes to liquor to prostitutes,” Rep. Tilman Goins, R-Morristown, said during a House floor debate last week.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that Minority Leader Craig Fitzhugh (D-Ripley) called Goins’ statement “one of the cruelest things I’ve heard on this floor.”
Haslam proposes 20% increase in welfare benefits
Besides requiring work for more food stamp recipients, Gov. Haslam is also proposing to increase welfare benefit payments for the first time since 1996, reports the Times Free Press.
Haslam pushes more work for welfare recipients
News release from the governor’s office
NASHVILLE – Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Department of Human Services (DHS) Commissioner Danielle W. Barnes today announced plans to reinstate the federal work requirement for able-bodied adults without dependents in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that was waived in 2008 during the economic recession. With the state’s record low unemployment rates and significant job growth, the waiver is no longer needed across most of the state – but will remain in place in 16 counties designated as economically distressed.
84 TN welfare applicants have failed drug tests since 2014
Tennessee started drug testing some applicants for welfare benefits under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program in 2014, in accord with a law approved by the Legislature two years earlier, and since then 84 people have failed the tests, administered at a cost of $38,934, reports WSMV-TV.
“Is this law working?” asked reporter Alanna Autler.
“I don’t know if it’s working the way it was written in the sense we’re being compliant with the way it’s written,” said Stephanie Jarnagin, with the Tennessee Department of Human Services. “But I don’t think it’s up for us to decide whether or not it’s good policy necessarily.”
… More than 54,835 people applied for TANF in Tennessee between when the law passed in 2014 and Dec. 31 of last year. During that same time period, 814 people were flagged to be drug tested. Of that pool, 84 people failed the drug test.
… Jarnagin said 167 people have abandoned the application process since 2014 when the law took effect. But she said DHS has no idea why people walk away, and the reasons could range from moving out of states to a change in financial circumstance.
… Failing a drug test doesn’t necessarily mean that applicants lose their shot at TANF benefits. The applicant can go through a drug treatment program, which they must pay for.
In the event the state does deny an applicant benefits, the cash assistance can still be given to the applicant’s family. In 16 cases, benefits were routed to children through a protected pay play, Jarnagin said.
Jarnagin added it’s inaccurate to think this law saves money since any denied benefits would go back to helping other recipients. She said currently there is neither a waiting list nor a backlog for benefits.
The report includes comments from House Majority Leader Glen Casada in support of the law and from Senate Democratic Caucus Chairman Jeff Yarbro saying it needs to be reexamined and “maybe we need to go a different route.”
Rep. Butt drops bill to ban buying sweets with food stamps
News release from Rep. Shelia Butt
NASHVILLE, Jan. 17, 2017– Last week, State Rep. Sheila Butt (R-Columbia) introduced legislation seeking a waiver from the federal government to change the way public assistance dollars are spent on food. Due to ongoing discussions regarding this very issue in the newly GOP controlled federal government under an incoming Trump administration, Butt is pulling the legislation in hopes of federal action.
“Last week I introduced a Bill, (HB43) for the Tennessee State Legislature to consider this sJession that, if enacted, would have limited the “junk food” or non-nutritional caloric foods that could be purchased with what we call SNAP (or food stamp) benefits on an EBT card. (Note: Previous post, somewhat expanded from the original version, is HERE.)
Just this past week the USDA published a detailed report showing that the number one item being bought with SNAP benefits are soft drinks,” said Butt. “The report shows that the No. one purchases by SNAP households are soft drinks, which account for 5% of the dollars they spend on food. The category of ‘sweetened beverages’ which includes sugar-added juices, energy drinks and sweetened teas, accounted for almost 10% of the dollars spent on food.”
“In this sense, SNAP is a multibillion-dollar taxpayer subsidy of the soda industry,” said Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University.
Rep. Butt proposes ban on ice cream, cake for food stamp recipients
State Rep. Sheila Butt, R-Columbia, proposes in HB43 to prohibit use of food stamps to purchase products “high in calories, sugar, and fat without any nutritional value, including, but not limited to, soda, ice cream, candy, cookies, and cake.”
The bill provides that those buying candy, cake and ice cream with government-provided funds be required to reimburse the state Department of Human Services. Businesses caught selling the unauthorized products in exchange for food stamps would face a $1,000 fine on first offense; $2,500 on second offense; $5,000 on third and subsequent offenses.
“We have so much obesity in this state that we can’t just sit around and do nothing,” Butt tells Cari Wade Gervin, who, well, doesn’t think very highly of the proposal. Her commentary, HERE, has the headline, “Sheila Butt to the Poor: Let them not eat cake.”
On her website, Butt has a post on her proposal HERE. An excerpt:
“I go into convenience stores almost every day and see the most non-nutritional foods on the counters and in the aisles marked ‘EBT Approved.’ These are the same foods that we have banned from our children’s lunchrooms,” said Butt. “By allowing their purchase with EBT cards, we are actually enhancing diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity in at-risk communities.”
Butt takes issue with the idea that taxpayers should be subsidizing unhealthy lifestyle choices for those on public assistance programs, which she says taxpayers end up footing the bill for on the back end as well.
“Taxpayers are supporting unhealthy lifestyle choices on the front end and up paying for resulting health care costs on the back end,” explained Butt. “This is very counterproductive, counterintuitive and costly.”
