State Plans To Limit Aid to Disabled Destitute

Program O’Malley Defended Now on Chopping Block

Maryland Department of Human Resource Secretary Brenda Donald has proposed limits to the state’s Temporary Disability Assistance Program (TDAP) effective 10/26/09 that will place at least approximately 18,000 disabled Marylanders at risk of homelessness.  TDAP provides $185 per month to destitute Marylanders who cannot work, and who are awaiting federal disability assistance from the backlogged Social Security Administration.  While federal initiatives have reduced the waiting time for disability claimants at SSA, the average processing times for such claims are two years.  Despite reports from SSA indicating the recession is prompting additional SSA disability claims, DHR will limit state assistance to a period of 24 months.

DHR faces an $11 million deficit in its FY 2010 budget and indicates its TDAP proposal, issued September 11, 2009, will save $3.5 million annually.  TDAP recipients have increased by 70% over the last 18 months, according to DHR statistics.

TDAP Power Pt

In August, 2009, Health Care for the Homeless surveyed 777 current and past TDAP beneficiaries and found that 64% use the modicum of assistance for housing.  According to the report, many TDAP recipients report “staying in a shelter that charged a nightly fee, in a program that charged some or all of their monthly TDAP benefits, or with family or friends who charged all of some portion of their monthly benefit.”  An additional 48% used TDAP funds for food, suggesting that monthly assistance levels under the Statewide Nutritional Assistance Program (formerly Food Stamps) are insufficient.  

Formal written opposition to the plan was submitted to DHR by Maryland Legal Aid, the Homeless Persons Representation Project (www.hprplaw.org), Health Care for the Homeless, and Maryland’s Alliance for the Poor (a statewide network of advocacy organizations, service providers, and faith communities that advocates on behalf of person in poverty) (http://marylandallianceforthepoor.blogspot.com/).  

“DHR published the proposed regulations on September 11^, 2009,” said Sabonis.  “Unless they change their minds or a legislative committee intervenes, the TDAP changes will take place 45 days from publication—on October 26, 2009.”  In addition to providing DHR with technical comments, Sabonis sent a letter to DHR and the Governor containing comments from 29 TDAP recipients that Legal Aid has served.  The Legal Aid clients indicated a willingness to speak publicly against the proposal.  “Their disabilities and situations differ, but they all live on the edge,” said Sabonis.  “If TDAP is removed, they will fall.” 

 The state disability assistance program, which has existed under various forms and acronyms over the last 15 years, has been historically a favorite cost cutting target for the state during time of fiscal stress, but not without political risk.  In 2004, then-Mayor Martin O’Malley lambasted then-Governor Robert Ehrlich for Ehrlich’s planned elimination of the program. 

In 1992, then Governor Schaefer reluctantly proposed cutting the program—then known as General Public Assistance—admitting that the result would be increased homelessness, begging, and institutionalization.  The cut was delayed briefly by a class action lawsuit, but scaled-down aid was recast as the Disability Assistance Loan Program (DALP), recognizing by program name the fact that state disability assistance was recouped from beneficiaries when their federal disability assistance eligibility was established.  

In 1995, Governor Glendenning sought to eliminate DALP, and was confronted with a “sit-in” at his office, demonstrations, a host of anti-cut editorials and legislative opposition.   He reversed policy, but not before changing DALP into the Temporary Emergency Housing Assistance (TEMHA), with the intent that assistance would be delivered in voucher form directly to those who housed the disabled.  The voucher program was never realized—cash assistance continued until 2004, when Governor Ehrlich also proposed its elimination.  Another unsuccessful class action lawsuit was filed, but it galvanized TEMHA support in the General Assembly, which directed DHR to re-institute the assistance, which it now calls TDAP.

TDAP Caseloads

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