By Austin Fisher
KU Statehouse Wire Service

LAWRENCE — Belinda Parks sits with her 12-year-old daughter Rachel in the Lawrence Community Shelter cafeteria. Last month, she lost her job cleaning rooms at a Lawrence hotel. It was the first job she could find in four years.

Parks, 50, now relies on benefits under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

“If I didn’t have Rachel, I wouldn’t get anything,” she said.

A new law signed by Gov. Sam Brownback caps lifetime benefits under TANF to 36 months. Recipients can apply for an extra 12 months if they experience some hardship such as domestic violence. The law also sets a $25 daily limit on ATM withdrawals from a TANF account, and restricts purchases on items such as alcohol, tobacco, lingerie, tattoos, concert tickets, and tickets to a professional or collegiate sporting events, among other items.

“These changes are going to hurt a lot of people,” Parks said. “I wouldn’t be able to survive without welfare. Even if you make minimum wage these days, you can’t afford to pay your rent and eat.”

Parks said the law isn’t fair for people who are honestly looking for jobs.

“Sure, you’ve got people that use cash assistance for drugs, but I don’t think that’s fair for the people that really need help. They should give drug tests to people getting cash assistance.”

Last July, Kansas started drug testing TANF applicants who the Department for Children and Families (DCF) suspect of using illegal drugs. The department told ThinkProgress that 65 people had been referred by December, and 11 of those had tested positive.

Allison Marker, development director for the Lawrence shelter, said the new limits will be “very harmful,” and make it more difficult for residents to use the funds to pay for rent and other essentials.

“Our lowest income citizens don’t necessarily have vehicles and use public transportation to get social services or pay bills. It seems that this wasn’t fully thought through in terms of helping,” Marker said. “The past six months has seen a 16 percent increase in the Lawrence homeless population. Should this legislation pass, that number will get higher.”

About 17,600 people received TANF in 2014. Each year for the past five years, 1,500 fewer Kansas children have received TANF funds. In the same period, childhood poverty has increased by 22 percent, according to Kansas Action for Children (KAC), a Topeka-based advocacy group.

A November KAC report said the decrease was caused by 10 policy changes since 2006. The largest decreases came in 2011 when applications for TANF and Medicaid were separated into two forms, and in 2013 when applicants had to start registering with the public workforce system and fill out an assessment of their work skills.

Bryan Lopez, 18, is getting help from the Lawrence shelter to get a new birth certificate and identification card in order to find a job. He hasn’t spoken with his parents in two years. He said they’re somewhere in Missouri.

“I grew up poor my whole life so I don’t depend on money,” he said. “Right now I don’t have a quarter on me but I don’t really care. I know as soon as I want to, I could start working. I just need identification.”

Residents at the Lawrence shelter and the Topeka Rescue Mission said they’re willing to take any job they can get. One of those is Maria Black, a 22-year-old mother of three on cash assistance and food stamps staying at the mission’s Hope Center.

Black said she lost her dreams of being a hospice worker or a police officer when she was convicted of a felony.

“Now I just want to work anywhere I can. I would do anything. McDonald’s again. The lowest of the low,” she said.

The law prevents the use of welfare to buy cruise tickets, swimming pool passes and other luxuries. In early April, Sen. Michael O’Donnell (R-Wichita) supported the law and said it is meant to make welfare recipients spend their money more responsibly.

Joyce Stockham, south central region coordinator for the Kansas Statewide Homeless Coalition, said she doesn’t believe irresponsible welfare spending is an actual problem.

“Where is the data that this is really happening? The cruises? The tattoos? Gambling? I would love to see some data to support that,” Stockham said.

DCF told the Associated Press that out of $14 million in cash assistance distributed from July through February, $199,000 was reclaimed from 81 cases of fraud.

Stockham said welfare recipients usually aren’t irresponsible or lazy.

“The reality is that even in the best jobs, there are lazy and irresponsible people. Some of them end up on the streets because they have no other resources.”

The Hope Center and DCF will meet later this month to discuss the impact of the new law.

Austin Fisher is a University of Kansas senior from Lawrence majoring in journalism.