The Washington times., 1934-06-14
JUNE SUM HELD
TOO LOW To
MEET NEED
Shelter Of 1000 Families
Put Up to Landlords by
Director of Welfare
BY EARL GOODWIN

Approximately 1900 families on
the relief rolls Of the District of
Columbia have had their rent
money cut off for 3 portion OF
the month Of June at least be-
cause Of the deficiency in the
contribution of the Federal Gov
ernment.
This fact became known
through the protests Of many OF
those who have been dependent
on the relief checks for their
food and shelter; and although
the officials Of the relief admins
tration have made no announce
ment, it is well understood that
the matter Of supporting these
1000 cases for the, rest Of June
will have to be shared BY the
landlords.
Chronic Cases Affected
The cases which have been
picked by the relief administra-
ton for this cut are known as
''chronic cases." and include hun
dreds Of "unemployables"; peo.
pie who are physically unable to
work, or who have some de-
ficiency which keeps them chroni.
cally off pay rolls and on relief
rolls. Many Of these people are
cripples, in need Of much more
care than the ordinary relief
recipient who is the victim OF
hard luck or "the times"
Elwood Street, Director Of Pub
lie Welfare, was asked why the
cut in rent checks had been made
He said:
''The District asked for $725,-
900 and it got $71O, 900 from the
emergency relief money Of the
Government; even that was
$4,000 short of what was
needed. So we simply had to
make every possible economy.
We had to throw off many en-
pIOyeS; we had to rearrange
work relief schedules; we had
to comb the lists to make sure
that there were not unworthy
cases being supported.
1--WE had to make reductions
In the actual contributions of
cash for relief cases. We could
not very well cut the food allow
ance. Where there were work
ing people In families we had to
put some more of the burden on
those who are earning.
I'VE have 21,OOO families on
relief. OF this number about 10
per cent are in the unemplOy-
able class, people who can
never earn for themselves. We
have been paying all their rent
and giving them money for all
their food. So We stopped pay
ing the rent Of these people
for the rest of June. I don't see
how else we can meet the re-
ductiOn in Federal money. In
July / hope to be able to re-
sumo this rent contribution.
Meantime the landlords will
have to stand the burden until
the end Of the month at least.
Incidentally, there is no city
that I know Of where the relief
organization pays full rent and
gives full food allowance, al.
though in the case of the un-
empIOyables it is necessary that
this be DONE"
Personnel Defended
Criticism that the new welfare
organization is being made top
heavy by the appointment of new
officials has been coming to the
attention Of the Commissioners
and relief officials. DR.. Street was
questioned on this point. He said:
"The criticism against this re-
lief organization originally was
that it did not function properly.
Then we employed several Of
the best experts we could find
to supervise the work Of finding
out the truth about each case
90 that we would know all about
every man, woman and child ON
relief. That is the only way we
can dispense these large sums
properly and without waste.
"The employing Of o business
manager and q case work di-
rector with the proper assistants
Is not an extravaganza ut all,
but is actually q saving in money
because we now have people who
will be able to organize relief on
q scientific, business like, and