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Fordham Urban Law Journal

Articles 31 - 42 of 42

Full-Text Articles in Social Welfare Law

Urban Welfare Reform: A Community-Based Perspective, Margo D. Butts Jan 1995

Urban Welfare Reform: A Community-Based Perspective, Margo D. Butts

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Essay advocates for community-based efforts to redeem the welfare system. It first discusses the causes of welfare dependency, and the adverse effects of current reform proposals. It then outlines goals for effective welfare reform, and describes the welfare reform program being implemented by the Bedford-Stuyvesant community. It concludes that effective welfare reform requires community initiated programs that focus on remedying factors leading to poverty, best identified and dealt with on a local level.

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Trying To Fit Square Pegs Into Round Holes: The Need For A New Funding Scheme For Kinship Caregivers, Randi Mandelbaum Jan 1995

Trying To Fit Square Pegs Into Round Holes: The Need For A New Funding Scheme For Kinship Caregivers, Randi Mandelbaum

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article discusses the inadequacy of the current welfare system in meeting the needs of so-called "kinship caregivers." It summarizes the provisions of the two major programs for these individuals - the Aid to Families with Dependent Children fund, and the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act. It explains the difficulty for kinship caregivers under these systems, and outlines a proposed legislative solution whereby individuals in nontraditional family structures could more easily qualify for welfare.

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Replace Welfare For Contingent Workers With Unemployment Compensation, Stephen Bingham Jan 1995

Replace Welfare For Contingent Workers With Unemployment Compensation, Stephen Bingham

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This essay examines the manner in which the current unemployment insurance system maintains poverty and increases dependence on public assistance programs. It examines the plight of the working poor, the inadequacy of unemployment compensation, and the failure of welfare to compensate for the weaknesses of the unemployment system. It then proposes reforms to the unemployment compensation system, and a new system for employable individuals without ties to the workforce, explaining why this proposal makes sense in light of the current unemployment situation.

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Protecting Women's Welfare In The Face Of Violence, Martha F. Davis, Susan J. Kraham Jan 1995

Protecting Women's Welfare In The Face Of Violence, Martha F. Davis, Susan J. Kraham

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This article argues that the Aid to Families With Dependent Children program provides a valuable means of continuing support for impoverished women. It points out that such women are at an increased risk of domestic violence, and that they are often unable to escape from abusive relationships because they and their children are economically dependent on their partners. The article criticizes proposed reforms to AFDC from this context, arguing that without the safety net provided by public assistance, many women and children would be trapped by financial constraints in dangerous or life threatening relationships. Thus, an adequate level of public …

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Race, Rat Bites And Unfit Mothers: How Media Discourse Informs Welfare Legislation Debate, Lucy A. Williams Jan 1995

Race, Rat Bites And Unfit Mothers: How Media Discourse Informs Welfare Legislation Debate, Lucy A. Williams

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The goal of this article is to expose and critique the media images of poor women that drive legislative debate in AFDC public policy issues. Part II discusses the media image and its centrality in shaping social perceptions of welfare. Part III explores the impact of media images on law-making by focusing on three statutory time periods: 1935, when the AFDC program was initially enacted as part of the Social Security Act; 1967, when the first mandatory work requirements were, added to the AFDC statute; and the present, when states are implementing widely divergent categorical eligibility requirements that restrict AFDC …

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The Threat Of The Wandering Poor: Welfare Parochialism And Its Impact On The Use Of Housing Mobility As An Anti-Poverty Strategy, Susan Bennett Jan 1995

The Threat Of The Wandering Poor: Welfare Parochialism And Its Impact On The Use Of Housing Mobility As An Anti-Poverty Strategy, Susan Bennett

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Essay discusses how, if one accepts the premises of mobility-based anti-poverty strategies, the geographical parochialism and structural rigidity of the welfare system undermine mobility goals. The Essay also examines the possibility that current trends in housing policy will undercut anti-poverty goals.

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Note: Finger Imaging: A 21st Century Solution To Welfare Fraud At Our Fingertips, James J. Killerlane Iii Jan 1995

Note: Finger Imaging: A 21st Century Solution To Welfare Fraud At Our Fingertips, James J. Killerlane Iii

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Note describes the finger imaging process and summarizes the current New York Social Services law regarding public assistance. It also outlines the current finger imaging bill before the New York State Legislature. Part III examines and considers the two major policy arguments against the implementation of the program. Part IV outlines the legal controversy regarding finger imaging and addresses each express concern as well as constitutional issues. Part V compares New York's finger imaging legislation with similar legislation already in place in California and argues that the New York program will be as effective as California's. In conclusion, this …

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The Homeless: Judicial Intervention On Behalf Of A Politically Powerless Group, Neil V. Mckittrick Jan 1988

The Homeless: Judicial Intervention On Behalf Of A Politically Powerless Group, Neil V. Mckittrick

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The "new" homeless are more diverse, encompassing more minorities, women, younger people, and more families. This Article argues first, that judicial intervention on behalf of the homeless is necessary and appropriate because the homeless constitute a politically powerless group and second, that comprehensive legislation, beyond that which has been enacted thus far, is necessary to address the causes of the problem.

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Homelessness In A Modern Urban Setting, Mark Malone Jan 1982

Homelessness In A Modern Urban Setting, Mark Malone

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Homelessness in urban settings is a problem in increasing numbers, typically as a result of mental instability or unemployment. New York State Legislature has attempted to deal with the homelessness problem, and is at the forefront of those jurisdictions which accord legal rights to homeless people through court decisions and legislation. This note examines the historic causes of homelessness, the purpose of vagrancy and loitering statutes, and why they have proven ineffective in dealing with the enormity of the homelessness problem. The Note concludes that further additions should be made to the New York State Social Services Laws on the …

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Note: The Federal False Claims Act: A Potential Deterrent To Medicaid Fraud And Abuse, Peter J. Sherman Jan 1977

Note: The Federal False Claims Act: A Potential Deterrent To Medicaid Fraud And Abuse, Peter J. Sherman

Fordham Urban Law Journal

A scandal that seems certain to occupy headline space during the foreseeable future is the abuse of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, under which state agencies provide medical assistance to the elderly, needy and disabled with largely-federal funding. Medicaid fraud and abuse wastes an estimated three billion dollars of tax money each year. Senate investigators who studied the problem found that "rampant fraud and abuse exists among practitioners participating in the Medicaid program" and among participating medical testing laboratories. The Federal False Claims Act (FCA), a statute more than a century old, provides a potential deterrent to such fraud and …

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Welfare Law-Afdc-Agency-Caused Overpayments May Be Recouped By Reducing Grants Of Recipients Who Have "Disregarded" Income Available To Meet Their Standard Of Need, Keith E. Danish Jan 1976

Welfare Law-Afdc-Agency-Caused Overpayments May Be Recouped By Reducing Grants Of Recipients Who Have "Disregarded" Income Available To Meet Their Standard Of Need, Keith E. Danish

Fordham Urban Law Journal

The Agency attempted to recoup the overpayments of a woman and her nine dependent children by reducing the family's AFDC grant, in accordance with a state regulation which authorized such recoupment where the welfare recipient had current income available in excess of the AFDC grant. The Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York held that the challenged recoupment policy did not violate the Social Security Act. The current heightened awareness that there are limits to state resources has resulted in the tightening and curtailment of welfare programs. Welfare agencies must make greater efforts to decrease errors which …

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Note: The Eligibility Of The Unborn Child Under Afdc, John K. Enright Jan 1974

Note: The Eligibility Of The Unborn Child Under Afdc, John K. Enright

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Note surveys recent litigation challenging the state denial of AFDC payments to pregnant women seeking benefit on behalf of their unborn children. Such decisions have focused on the issue of whether unborn children come within the definition of "dependent child" as set forth in Section 606 of the AFDC. Thus far, fourteen of seventeen reported decisions have included unborn children within the statutory definition. The Note concludes that the unborn child cases illustrate the difficulty of the rule that the Supreme Court laid out in Townsend v. Swank, which held that states must make AFDC payments to all eligible …

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