Tennessee could use unspent block grant money to help poor workers with transportation, uniforms, other costs – The Tennessean
While some other states are using federal block grant money to temporarily help poor families with expenses as parents receive workforce training or attempt to hold down jobs, Tennessee has significantly reduced spending in that area.
Under the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant program, states have broad flexibility to create programs to help struggling families get back on their feet while working to learn job skills, as well as funding workforce development programs.
In Tennessee, which has amassed a surplus of $732 million in unused block grant funds, the state in 2018 spent nothing from its TANF block grant on those types of work support services, according to the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
In the same fiscal year, Tennessee spent $120,127 from separate state sources toward those programs, HHS reported.
In a statement, DHS spokesman Sky Arnold said that figure “only includes state dollars for transportation assistance provided to Employment and Case Management Services customers.”
There are 3,145 of those customers, a number that is decreasing as more people have gone back to work, Arnold said — despite those services being intended to help people retain employment.
Arnold said Tennessee used another $360,000 of the TANF grant in 2018 on transportation, though that line item is not clear in an expenditure summary from the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
Across the country, the median TANF amount spent on work support in the same year was $1.4 million, though some other states spent nothing on it. Some other Southern states made even more of an investment: Georgia spent $2.2 million and Alabama spent $3.3 million on logistics to help people stay in work.
Tennessee’s low level of work support funding through TANF shows a drastic drop from years earlier, when the state reported spending an average of $9.5 million a year on the category between 2000 and 2008.
Such services could include transportation costs like car payments, repairs and insurance; tools, uniforms and fees to obtain special licenses; and a variety of other costs associated with getting and keeping a job.
“There are some difficult choices for students,” said Shanna Jackson, president of Nashville State Community College, where many of the adults attending to learn new skills are struggling to pay bills while they work to climb the economic ladder.
“We have adults that have to make decisions about whether you buy food or whether you put gas in your car to get to school. Sometimes people go, ‘Is it really worth it to me to do this right now?’ “
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Gov. Bill Lee has stressed the need for Tennessee to bolster its workforce training efforts and help people find skilled labor jobs, particularly in rural areas.
On Wednesday, the state’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development announced it would split $3 million in state grants between 38 distressed and at-risk counties to provide more workforce development programs in those counties.
But hundreds of millions of TANF dollars remain untapped that could also support such a goal — one of Lee’s top priorities — with federal approval.
While the governor, state Department of Human Services and some legislators have pinned the large TANF surplus on a thriving economy and a decreasing need for the funds, a September United Way report found that 1 in 3 working families in Tennessee struggle to afford basic needs, such as housing, food, child care, health care, transportation and a phone.
For parents struggling to go to school or hold a job, more temporary help is needed
The Tennessee Reconnect scholarship can now cover tuition at technical and community colleges for adults, but doesn’t pay for students’ books, Jackson noted, which can cost up to $800 a semester.
While students at the community college can receive a free bus pass to get to class — and some through Nashville GRAD, a local city program, can now get monthly gas cards — Jackson said taking the bus can eat into a parent’s valuable, limited time to take care of children and hold down a job.
The college would like to find a way to partner with services such as Lyft or Uber to help students without cars get to class quickly. It’s also a suggestion for the TANF money that has been offered by the Beacon Center of Tennessee, a fiscally conservative think tank that discovered the massive block grant surplus while researching a recent report, “Poverty to Prosperity.”
Tennessee receives a $190 million TANF block grant annually from the federal government. Last year, the state spent $71 million of it.
Mark Lenz, president of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology in Nashville, said the majority of the school’s students, many of whom are single parents, are struggling.
The community of students and staff at the technical college try to take care of each other. Most of them drive older cars, but they can rely on student mechanics for help. Cosmetology students help their peers with haircuts for job interviews. They hold an annual food drive and stock a food pantry at their White Bridge Pike campus.
But there are $250 certification tests for students to take. Tools and equipment for new mechanics, welders and construction workers can cost more than $1,000.
Uniforms for nurses and the required equipment kits can add up to hundreds of dollars.
The TANF block grant could help with all of that, allowing those in training programs to use their limited money on other bills and expenses.
‘I put some stuff off to pay for what I can’
Faced with a decision to pay for college textbooks or pay the electric bill, Sheeteah Blair, 39, decided on the books.
“I know I can get an extension on the light bill,” Blair said. “I needed the textbooks.”
Blair is part of the first crop of students statewide to use Tennessee Reconnect. The mother of three, who recently saw her youngest son head to college, sees the college opportunity as her last chance.
Blair said after three semesters she has realized the program doesn’t pay for the necessities needed to be successful in college, such as supplies and textbooks. Even outside of the adjustments needed in her first semester to ensure she could succeed, the balance of school and work remains hard.
A broken-down car after her first semester in college meant Blair needed to purchase a new vehicle, adding another bill to pay.
“I just do what my grandma taught me, which is sometimes you have to rob Peter to pay Paul,” Blair said. “I put some stuff off to pay for what I can.”
Blair has found some small grants and scholarships to help her get through this period of life. But funding hasn’t been consistent or enough, she said. Meanwhile, looking for extra resources is time consuming.
And time isn’t something Blair has much of. If Blair isn’t at work, she is at school. If she isn’t at school, she is studying. If she must work overtime or tend to her family, it means less time to learn.
“What is going to really help is a $10,000 raise at work,” Blair said, “which is why I am in school.”
Community, tech college leaders say more resources would help students
Hearing about the potential to use federal block grant funds to assist technical college students with other bills, Lenz was enthusiastic.
“The TANF funds are something that could really help,” said Lenz, who in his early 20s stocked grocery store shelves and cleaned bathrooms at night while taking an apprenticeship and supporting his young family.
“We would be very careful how we would administer those funds if we were responsible for them. There is always going to be some people who take advantage of that system, but the majority of our students would really benefit from it.”
Jackson said that thinking from a student’s perspective, she believes additional resources would be welcomed.
“Anything that would help relieve some of the costs where they have to make a choice between ‘Do I go to school now or do I delay it because I have these expenses in my life that are related to school — the textbooks, the transportation, the child care’ — anything that would help students close that gap would be of interest to us.”
Jason Gonzales and Mike Reicher contributed to this story.
Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison.
Published 11:00 PM EST Nov 3, 2019
