Case Management For Money
Dawn Mendelson is the Artistic/Program Director for Piece By Piece, a Social Enterprise non profit based in South Los Angeles with services provided in Skid Row. Piece By Piece uses mosaic art to provide healing and job training/supplemental income.
Piece By Piece is one of the core members of the Skid Row Arts Alliance. The Arts Alliance held a gathering at the Skid Row History Museum and Archive on Tuesday June 12 to explore the Benefits Cliff, meaning how folks who receive government benefits can unexpectedly have their benefits reduced by making too much money — falling off the cliff.
The guest presenters by zoom were Leap Fund based in New York with a mission of “offering tools and resources that inform conversations, provide transparency, and expose benefits cliffs, empowering informed decision-making”. Piece By Piece pays Leap Fund for access to these resources and Dawn continues to receive training from Leap Fund on how to use these resources as a personal Coach. Leap Fund is totally separate from all the government services they’ve researched over the past few years.
Benefits Cliff as a phrase hasn’t been around long, but it describes a situation many people have found themselves in over the years with little understanding or help on how to recognize they might be about to fall off a financial cliff, where the extra money they are making will result in a reduction of benefits and they are now actually receiving less. For artists this can take the form of selling some paintings and then getting a letter saying your rent just doubled.
For more information, go to www.benefitscliff.com.
I mentioned during the zoom time with Leap Fund the phrase “case management for money” to describe the bigger picture of the benefits cliff as it relates to the Skid Row Action Plan.
According to AI, a case manager is “a professional who oversees the process of assisting individuals experiencing homelessness. When serving homeless adults, case managers focus on connecting them with services to stabilize their housing, mental health, and primary health situations. The goal is to ensure timely access to and coordination of fragmented medical and psychosocial services while considering costs and improving health outcomes.”
The Skid Row Action Plan is a County planning and implementation process of a comprehensive strategic plan for Skid Row launched through this June 28, 2022 Motion by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors — Skid Row Action Plan: Improving the Lives of Residents on Skid Row by Addressing Homelessness Stemming from Decades of Institutional Racism.
During a gathering in Skid Row about the Plan last December, Supervisor Hilda Solis said she’s hoping the Action Plan will be a model for all of California.
The final Plan was released April 15, 2024.
Given the County focus on health through the Department of Health Services, Department of Mental Health, and Department of Public Health, the finished Plan has a great deal to say about increasing personal health services, but the Action Plan also addresses Skid Row as a neighborhood community through the section on Economic and Community Development. This Development has numerous Plan economic recommendations including job training, education, employment opportunities, supporting entrepreneurial efforts, and benefits counseling.