Evening star., 1936-02-26
$6(O,O0O RELIEF
FUND APPROVED
BY COMMISSION
Will Act on Welfare Boards
Request to Prevent
Want in Capital.
SUM WILL BE SOUGHT
FROM BUDGET BUREAU
Present Money Will Be Exhaust.
ed by April Is, According
to Figures.
BY DON s. WARREN.


Acting to prevent collapse of the
program Of relief here, due to ex-
| haustion of funds, the Commissioners
today verbally approved request by the
| Board Of Public Welfare for a de-
| flciency District appropriation CT
100000 to meet needs between now
and July /.
The welfare Boards statement, filed
with the Commissioners this morning,
showed present funds would be ex-
| hausted April Is. Later in the week
the Commissioners expect to draft the
supplemental appropriations request
and send it to the Budget Bureau.
Commissioner Allen, who two months
ago estimated the additional needs
would be greater than $500, 900, an
nounced he would call upon private
social agencies and civic workers 70
support the request for extra fui ds.
The board submitted a financial
statement to indicate present District
funds will be exhausted during April.
The board calculated there will be but
S489, sos left March !. showing an ex-
pected deficit of s79.494 between then
and July !, when the new fiscal year
opens.
The estimate of the supplemental!
need was figured on the most con-
servative basis, making full allowance
for use of Federal funds to be made
| available here for care of the aged,
the needy blind and dependent chill
dren, the city heads were advised.
Burden Thrown on District.
The crisis, anticipated by Commis-
sioner Allen, former relief administra-
| tor, is attributed principally to the
sudden ending last November Of Fed
| eral grants for local relief. This threw
the burden of caring for all the relief
cases, not included in the Federal w.
P. A. program. onto District resources.
The Welfare Boards statement
stressed the point that while some 49,
600 relief cases have been transferred
| to w. P. A., there still remain nearly
10000 dependent on the District for
| aid.
Urging the Commissioners to pro-
( pose the additional District relief
funds be made available "at the earh-
est possible moment" the board said:
1T was impossible to anticipate,
when the original appropriation for
the present fiscal year was made, that
Federal relief funds would be with
drawn.
Hoped for Funds.
This request was not made pre-
viously because it was anticipated
that the general relief expenditures
would be reduced to a greater extent
by the assignment of employable un-
employed persons to works progress
projects.
1T was also hoped that social Sc
curity funds would be made available
earlier in the year, so that the full
amount of those appropriations could
be used to supplement the general re-
lief appropriation.
While more than $4,000 persons
previously on relief have been as
signed to works projects, there still
remain on the relief rolls 10000 FAM
lilies and unattached individuals.
About 4,500 of these are unemployable
and another 1000 are employable, but
ineligible for the w. P. A., because
they came on the relief rolls since
November l. The remaining 4,5o0
fall into smaller categories.
Larger Number Applying.
Some are on works projects, but
at wages insufficient for the needs
of their families. Some are tempo
rarily incapacitated because of illness
and so have lost wages under w. p. A.
Many have returned to the relief rolls
recently and so have not yet been
assigned to works projects. There
are still others for whom no projects
are available as yet.
1.-THE most surprising factor In the
statistics is the larger number of
persons applying for relief. The in.
take during the past month has been
as high as it was year ago, though
the total case load is only one-half
as large as a year ago."
The relief appropriation for this
year out of District revenues was $2,-
900, 900. Calculations by Elwood
Street, welfare director, show that
more than $1,000,000 was committed
by the end of December. Because
of the ending of the Federal grants
IS per cent cut in relief payments was
ordered for December. The cut was
lifted in January because of the suf-
fering by relief clients.
Street found there was available in
the District purse, February /, only
$864,505 for the remainder of this
fiscal year. February commitments
total $350,000. Allowing for $25,000
allotment to the Works Division, there
will be left, March I, but s489, sos, he
said.
The 100000 estimate allows for
some diminution of the relief load,
the welfare board said. It was fig-
ured there will be $500 families on
the rolls in March, $500 in April,
$500 in May and 49, 400 in June.
/