Local Government-Assistance Cases Soar : Economy: The recession is blamed for the record caseload of 64,562, triple the number of five years ago. More people with college degrees are being helped.

Welfare, food stamp and Medi-Cal cases in Ventura County have more than tripled since 1988 as a record number of people have sought government assistance in weathering the region’s relentless recession.

In April, there were 64,562 welfare, food stamp and Medi-Cal cases in Ventura County, contrasted with about 20,000 five years ago.

“This is simply a result of the recession,” Helen Reburn, the county’s director of welfare services, said. “We are seeing a greater number of what you would call middle-class people. People who have never had to seek any type of public assistance.

“Maybe their company closed and they were laid off. They end up here.”

The welfare caseload alone has increased by nearly 40% since April, 1988, to a total of 9,856 cases, or about 27,000 people, officials said.

The number of food stamp cases swelled by 74%, to 14,029. Officials estimate that about 40,000 county residents are receiving food stamps.

And the number of Medi-Cal recipients leaped from 6,072 in 1988 to 40,677 in 1993, straining the county’s social services system.

Although Ventura County’s unemployment rate dropped to 6.8% in April, down from 7.9% a month earlier, 3,900 fewer jobs exist in Ventura County than a year ago, according to a state report. April was the 27th consecutive month the number of jobs in the county declined.

While caseworkers still process paperwork for thousands of unskilled workers, more people are coming in with college degrees.

“There seems to be more professional people,” caseworker Jaime Warren said. “They’ve run out of unemployment and they are just in dire straits. They’ve lost their cars, their homes, their families.

“I’ve seen a few engineers, a few technicians. One day you can be very well off and the next day you are here. They’ve been trying to find work and they can’t. It’s tragic.”

County workers have been struggling to keep up as hundreds of down-and-out residents seek help daily.

On a recent morning in Oxnard, the waiting room of the county’s social services office was packed with people, mostly women and children.

Erica Clemens, 23, waited for nearly three hours to file an application for welfare, Medi-Cal and food stamps.

Clemens is unemployed and recently separated from her husband.

“The court ordered my husband to pay child support,” Clemens, an Oxnard resident, said. “But he says he is out of work and unable to pay. (Welfare) is the only support I have.”

Lewis Goodacre said he lost his job as a mechanic last July. Welfare also is all he has to support his three daughters.

“The economy went down and I went down with it,” Goodacre said. “I do little odd jobs once in a while, but I can’t find steady work.”

Goodacre’s wife, Cathy Anderson, who is also unemployed, said: “My child comes home the Student of the Month and I cannot even afford to take her out for ice cream.”

A typical family of three can receive $633 a month on the county’s largest welfare program, Aid to Families With Dependent Children. Single adults, meanwhile, can receive about $300 on the county’s General Relief program.

Goodacre said it’s just enough to pay the rent on the family’s apartment in Oxnard. Without it, they’d be homeless, he said.

Across the county in Simi Valley, a half-dozen people waited quietly to meet with social workers.

One woman, who asked to be identified only as Kelly, said she has been struggling to find work and take care of her 2-year-old son. She has been on welfare for two years.

“It’s humiliating,” said Kelly, 35, a Newbury Park resident. “I’ve worked all my life. I’ve paid into the system. I never expected in a million years I would be in this situation.”

According to social service officials, the welfare caseload has sharply increased in some of the county’s most affluent areas.

For instance, in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Moorpark the number of welfare and food stamp cases has more than doubled in the last five years.

While 862 welfare cases were reported in the three cities in 1988, the total increased to 1,530 this year. Food stamp cases increased from 619 to 2,015.

The only welfare program in the county to decrease this year was General Relief for single adults, mostly because of new county regulations requiring recipients to present documentation that they are trying to find jobs.

If they fail to meet the requirements, Reburn said, they are automatically dropped from the program. In April of last year, 458 people received General Relief payments contrasted with 380 last month.

Despite the decrease in General Relief, the county has found itself ill-equipped to handle the sharp increases in other forms of assistance. Offices that once provided caseworkers with ample room are now overrun with files.

“It’s putting a tremendous burden on all of our services for the poor,” county Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg said. “The numbers are scary.”

And the situation is expected to only get worse.

“I’ve heard predictions that we are probably looking at a continued increase for the next couple of years,” Reburn said. “I just hope not at the same rate.”

Welfare, Food Stamp and Medi-Cal Cases In Ventura County, April 1988 through April 1993

April 1993: 64,562

Source: Ventura County Public Social Services Agency