A subsidy program for grandparents who take care of their children’s children has not been cut as deeply as Mayor Adrian Fenty proposed, after some late maneuvering by Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells. Fenty proposed slashing the subsidy program by half, or nearly $2.7 million. But Wells was able to find $900,000 in the city’s Child and Family Services Agency budget to reduce the cut to less than 25 percent instead of 50 percent.
“We’re delighted some of the money was restored,” said Judith Sandalow, the executive director of D.C.’s Children’s Law Center. The budget, though, “it still taking from the poorest people in our city who are taking care of our children and keeping them out of foster care.”
The subsidy had become a rallying point for child and social service advocates who were frustrated with the deep cuts to programs that help the poor in both Fenty’s and Mayor-elect Vince Gray’s proposals to fix a $188 million budget gap. Although the grandparent subsidy will now be reduced by less, another program that helps the city’s most-needy families will be cut down to nothing over the next five years.
The bulk of the cash Wells found for the grandparent subsidy was in a calculation error in Fenty’s proposal. Fenty’s budget calculated $477,000 in savings from not filling vacant positions, but the calculation didn’t include more than $500,000 that would be saved in the benefits provided for those positions.
Wells said “I’m not just being kind-hearted, I’m being smart with the District’s money.”
On average, grandparents in the subsidy program receive about $9,000 a year. Many of them use the funds to buy groceries and pay their rent. Without the monthly cash, the children the grandparents care for would likely end up in the foster care system — where the city pays about $45,000 a year for each child each year.
Even though the cut is less than proposed, it’s still a cut, Wells said.
“It’s still a big difference for them,” he said. “For someone on Social Security with that being your only income while taking care of a child, any cut would really be a lot.”
