2 Cities May Be Exempted From Food Stamp Cutoff

The Board of Supervisors will decide today whether to exempt residents of Santa Ana and Stanton from a county welfare reform measure that cut off food stamp benefits to more than 1,000 able-bodied adults.

The exemption, proposed by the federal government last month for areas with high unemployment rates, would continue food stamp benefits for at least six months to adults who live in the two cities.

About half of the 1,110 adults who lost their food stamps last month will be eligible to receive them again if the exemption is approved, according to a county report.

Officials from both the county’s Social Services Agency and the two cities said they are unsure whether the exemption might lure more people into Santa Ana and Stanton in hopes of regaining food stamp eligibility.

“We really don’t know yet whether this would have a magnet effect for us,” Stanton Councilman Harry M. Dodson said.

Santa Ana City Manager David N. Ream said he doubted that the exemption would make his city a magnet for able-bodied welfare recipients. “It’s a limited amount of people for a limited amount of time,” he said.

The exemption, Ream added, seemed like a reasonable response to allow individuals to ease into the new requirements brokered by welfare reform.

Robert A. Griffith, assistant director of the Social Services Agency, said federal officials used a complex formula to determine that Santa Ana and Stanton had a job shortage great enough to merit an exemption.

Griffith said county officials were puzzled that only Santa Ana and Stanton were selected even though neighboring communities appear to face similar economic problems.