Recession Influx, 'Welfare Magnet'

By SUSANNAH CAHALAN

Beggars can't be choosers -- unless they're in New York City.

Homeless and unemployed, Kenneth Wecker, 62, moved back from Florida to his native city to take advantage of New York's social services -- but he refuses to live in any of the apartments the city has offered him.

"They want me to live in Harlem or East New York," griped the disabled retiree, who grew up in Brooklyn and suffers from non-Hodgkins lymphoma. "I'm not living there."

The former accountant was first told in 2007 that he was eligible for a taxpayer-funded monthly rent subsidy of $899 from the city through its Advantage New York program, started by the Department of Homeless Services. It's the most generous municipal rental-assistance program in the nation, DHS said.

When Wecker complained that wouldn't be enough once he found an apartment, the city said it would go as high as $1,070 a month for the rental of his choice. But he insists he needs over $1,200 a month to get the apartment he wants -- a one- or two-bedroom in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, preferably with an elevator since he has trouble walking up stairs.

He also collects $1,226 a month in federal Social Security disability payments and a small monthly allotment of food stamps that he says isn't enough to feed himself properly.

Wecker is part of a wave of benefit seekers who have arrived in the city since the Great Recession hit, social experts say. As middle-class residents flee because of high taxes, the poor and disabled look to New York to access some of the best taxpayer-funded social services in the nation.

The state and city have long been what some economists call a "welfare magnet." In particular, New York City offers better housing and Medicaid options than much of the rest of the country.

"That will draw people, and there has been a pattern in the past in the US of migrating for higher benefits," said Robert Rector, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

"Welfare is expensive everywhere, but it's even more expensive in New York, and the cherry on top is, yeah, you get some people coming in to benefit from how generous the state is in a few particular areas."

It's impossible to quantify how many city programs are accessed by out-of-staters like Wecker, because New York doesn't track that data. And of the dozens of programs offered in New York, none makes local residency a requirement for getting benefits.

But increases in applications for social services suggest a surge in welfare immigration. The Advantage NY program assisting Wecker, for instance, is providing city-funded leases to about 131 households a week -- a 79 percent increase over the previous year.

Demand for Food Stamps has soared by 30 percent in the city in the last two years -- up to 1.6 million. The federal government pays for 90 percent of those costs, but New Yorkers make up the difference.

That leaves the door open for people to come to the Big Apple -- where Medicaid qualifications are among the most liberal in the country, said Human Resources Administration Commissioner Robert Doar.

"The income levels for eligibility are higher here than in other states, so more people are eligible," Doar said. "Our benefit levels are more general and more generous than 70 percent of all the other states. [But] we impose a work requirement."

New York also provides dozens of housing programs, free heating subsidies and school meals for needy children, plus a program started in the 1980s to offer housing to HIV and AIDS sufferers.

The program, known as the HIV/AIDS Services Administration, currently helps about 30,000 people with food stamps, financial assistance, medical benefits and emergency housing.

"Nationally the government spends $1 out of every $7 on cash, food, housing and medical care for the poor and near-poor. And that would definitely be true in New York; it might even be higher in New York," Rector said.

"Many of these federal programs have a required state contribution to the state program -- so, yes, New York taxpayers are paying twice," said Rector.

That doesn't bother Wecker, who grew up in Brooklyn but moved to Florida six years ago before returning last year. The former payroll accountant originally moved south because his cousin told him the benefits would be better for him there. But it turned out the opposite was true.

"The benefits were nonexistent. I got nothing," Wecker said. "I was being squeezed."

He received $10 a month in food stamps and no apartment voucher. Living in Florida, where costs are lower, he got $800 a month in federal disability payments.

The city said that it tried to show Wecker four different apartments in Brooklyn but that he refused them.

Wecker, who's been living in his 2004 Buick LeSabre for 9½ months with two pet birds, said the apartments were in bad neighborhoods -- and were walk-ups.

"I want to be where I want to be," Wecker said.

Wecker's in line for the following benefits:

*A monthly rent subsidy of $1,070

*Social Security disability of $1,226 a month

*Will likely qualify for a heating subsidy, short-term financial assistance and help with home repairs

*Has Medicare health coverage for 80% of expenses.

New York City has some of the most generous social services in the country, including the following programs, for which residents can qualify:

Cash Assistance (welfare)

*355,000 people on cash assistance

*One adult with a maximum annual income of $9,192.96 gets a monthly benefit of $414.10.

Food Stamps

*1.6 million recipients, up 30% from 2007

*One adult with a maximum annual income of $13,284 gets $164 in food stamps a month.

Medicaid

*2.7 million recipients

*One adult with a maximum annual income of $8,700 gets 100% medical coverage.

Advantage NYC

*14,000 households put in city leases since 2007.

*One adult entitled to $962 a month in rental subsidies.

*Short-term Advantage subsidies pay for four months of rent, one month's security deposit, furniture allowance of over $400 and one month's broker's fee.

Subsidized Child Care

*A city agency pays child care for former welfare recipients who have left public assistance for a job.

HEAP

*Subsidized heating costs for low-income homes.

*One adult can qualify for HEAP if income is less than $2,030 a month.