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Volunteers Spur Interest
Federation Taking Hard Look at Poverty
By CHARLOTTE DUBIN
If it's any comfort to them,
the poor of the Detroit Jew-
ish community are being dis-
cussed as they haven't been
in years.
What may be one of the
most complex problems ever
to face the community, the
issue of poverty has gen-
erated considerable contro-
versy both within and with-
out the communal super-
structure.
But those in the position of
m a k i n g decisions — both
agency professionals and lay
leaders—readily admit there
has been more heat than
light shed on the entire ques-
tion.
In the year since The Jew-
ish News explored the ques-
tion of poverty in the Jewish
community, there have been
stirrings of discontent. Much
of, it has come from Sheila
Ordin, chairman of Coopera-
tive Council, a coalition of
14 women's volunteer groups
that has gone about quietly
helping needy Jews for the
past 40 years.
Determining that insuffi-
cient food was a critical prob-
lem . among . a . number . of
Jewish families which her
organization had assisted,
Mrs. Ordin established, six
months ago, a canned foods
distribution program with
the acronym CANS, Cans
Against Needless Starvation.
With food donations from
organizations and s y n a-
gogues, she and a small
group of volunteers each
week distribute cartons of
canned goods and other items
on a rotating basis to some
180 families (379 individuals).
Mrs. Ordin insisted, how-
ever, that the food distribu-
tion program could be con-
sidered temporary at best.
She has neither, the financial
nor manpower resources to
continue such a program in-
definitely.
Thus, she set out to im-
press upon leadership of the
Jewish Welfare Federation
and its member agency, the
Jewish Family and Chil-
dren's Service, the need for
financial assistance to the
poor and near-poor of De-
troit's Jewish community.
She was not the first to
call for direct aid- to Jews on
marginal incomes. As long
ago as November 1972, at
the Council of Jewish Fed-
erations and Welfare Funds
general assembly, former
JFCS President Herbert Sill-
man told a workshop on
"Serving the Jewish Poor":
"It is my belief that the
private sectarian agency, and
especially the Jewish agen-
cies relating to Jewish
clients, should supplement
the income of those clients
who cannot manage on pub-
lic assistance budgets or who
are not on public assistance
but who are living on mar-
ginal incomes.
"The amount of supple-
mentation and to whom," he
said, "obviously would de-
pend on the amount of funds
that can be raised, plus vari-
ous priorities for disburse-
ment of the funds among con-
10 Friday, April 12, 1974
—
flicting needs for various
types of services.
"However I believe that
the principle of financial sup-
plementation (emphasis his),
regardless of the amount
finally arrived at, is one that
should be established and
accepted by the Jewish com-
munity."
Until now the principle has
not been accepted by the
Jewish community. JFCS has
not seen its function as a
"welfare" service although
it has evidenced concern for
the poor in other areas.
Sam Lerner, director of
JFCS, said many clients on
marginal incomes already
get assistance in one form or
another through the agency's
housing relocation service
(including rent subsidies),
counseling and homemaker
services, the latter free to
those who cannot pay. A
small budget to cover emer-
gencies — plus the ever-
r e a d y aid of Cooperative
Council — also has been at
hand.
But Lerner emphasizes that
his caseworkers are trained
psychotherapists whose field
is counseling, not welfare
work.
The JFCS director, who
has quoted estimates of Jew-
ish poor as high as 8- to
10,000 (10 per cent of the
total Detroit Jewish popula-
tion), nevertheless objects to
a program like CANS, whose
very title assumes that De-
troit Jews are starving.
"Many people may be living
in poverty or near-poverty,
but we have found no star-
vation," he said.
In fact, Lerner added, the
poor have many and varied
needs, often unrelated to
food. Improving . the quality
of their lives may • call for
better housing, for transpor-
tation, for medical services,
or, simply, for human con-
tact.
Together with Mrs. Ordin,
Lerner compiled a list of 157
recipients of CANS dona-
tions — some of whom al-
ready were clients of Ler-
ner's agency. He then
assigned them to his case-
workers with the hope that
the results of a detailed sur-
vey will give some idea of
what 157 persons need — or
don't need — in the way of
Jewish communal assist-
ance.
There is particular interest
in Lerner's survey among
the members of a new joint
committee on poverty com-
prised of leaders of Federa-
tion's health and welfare di-
vision,. led by Arnold Faud-
man, and the family service
agency.
Lerner concedes that Mrs.
Ordin's sheer persistence has
performed a useful function:
She has piqued the interest
of lay leadership in the need
for special assistance to a
segment of the community
that is living at a subsistence
level.
Faudman himself is en-
couraging greater involve-
ment by the organized com-
munity in the problems of
the poor, and he gives credit
both to Cooperative Council
and to the Jewish Family and
Children's Service for their
efforts.
At the same time, Mrs.
Ordin insists that the Detroit
Jewish community is lag-
ging behind others in the
area of services to the poor.
She points to' the initiation of
kosher hot lunch programs
funded under the Older
Americans Act (Miami); to
free stores offering food,
clothing and other services
(Los Angeles, Chicago); and
to other programs that go
beyond what is currently of-
fered under the auspices of
the Jewish Family and Chil-
dren's Service.
Lerner fears, he said, that
the discussion of poverty
will reach such a pitch that
programs will be initiated as
a reaction and not as the
result of careful planning.
Public welfare, not private
agencies, will continue to
assume the major task of
assistance on a long-term
basis. Not since the Depres-
sion, he said, has the Jewish
social service agency worked
in the welfare area.
Although Lerner frowns
upon the CANS program as
poor social work, Mrs. Ordin
says she has proof of the
need for CANS in the more
than 100 replies from recipi-
ents who wer., lsked to give
their opinion the service.
Among them are 20 "adop-
tions," families and couples
who are getting assistance on
a one-to-one basis from in-
dividual organizations.
The requests are simple—
m any of them touching.
Wrote one elderly .couple
from the Herman Gardens
housing project: "If possible
to send Jewish foods we
would be very happy about
it because can't get to a Jew-
ish store because it is too
far and have no transporta-
tion it would be too heavy.
My husband had three opera-
tions since last October and
I can't carry heavy things.
There isn't anything in Jew-
ish products anywhere near
us."
An unemployed ADC-U
mother in Oak Park wrote
she would "appreciate any-
thing" on behalf of her and
her four children.
Transportation appeared to
be one of the biggest prob-
lems, after food. An elderly
woman living alone wrote
she gets state aid "and every
little thing you do for me
means so much. Now I only
have one problem. I go to
Shifman Clinic and I can
only go by car or cab and
it's just impossible to get a
cab in the mornings. If you
have anybody I can call
when I have to go to the
clinic I would really appre-
ciate it. I can't write so you
would have to mail me the
number."
One woman asked: "If
possible, I could use a winter
coat, size 16."
Are there recipients who
really don't need the aid but
simply know a good thing
when they see it? Faudman
thinks not. He noted that
social workers investigating
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS the 157 cases are finding that
the recipients of aid perceive
their needs to be less than
the so-called levels of support
they would require. "If a
family is making $250, when
what they really need is $400,
they don't say they need
another $150 — they only ask
for $50."
Mrs. Ordin said of the
CANS recipients "Maybe five
or six cases don't need the
food. But our delivery people
go into the homes and talk
with these people. They can
tell."
Lerner isn't so sure they
can tell very much. Or if
they should. In a 17-point
"Position on Poverty," he
warned: "Some problems
often result unless volunteers
are under professional direc-
tion and are trained in the
techniques of social study
and visitation so that the
essential dignity of the in-
dividuals and their rights to
confidentiality, privacy, self_
determination and independ-
ence are preserved in the
process of helping them."
He still insists that any
program will require a defi-
nition of poverty and restitu-
tion of the controversy over
standards of budgeting to be
used. "We really need a sta-
tistician to go over the survey
forms, .to collate and sum-
marize them as to what the
real needs are," he said.
While he's trying to resolve
that problem, four women
are working in the basement
of the Bnai Brith building to
coordinate the collection and
distribution of CANS. Mrs.
Ordin concedes that her pro-
gram is not on a firm foot-
ing and fears that dwindling
donations of canned goods
and cash, coupled with in-
creased food costs, will mean
a deficit. She said she is
appalled by the "general
apathy" in the community.
"We're figuring it costs $10
per person in canned goods a
month. Multiply that by 379
people, 123 of them children,
and you get some idea of
what we're spending a -
month. There's a long, hot
summer ahead, when groups
won't be meeting. I don't
know if I can keep this up."
Whatever program is as-
sumed—food, transportation,
direct subsidy or otherwise—
will cost money. The National
Council of Jewish Women,
which operates the kosher
Meals on Wheels program
for 35 elderly homebound
Jews, spends more than the
$20,000 annual figure origi'
nally projected. There is
some casework assistance
from JFCS, but the local
National Council hopes that
Federation will fund the pro-
gram at the close of the
three-year pilot effort.
Had the Jewish community
decided to go in on the hot
lunch program for the elderly
sponsored by the Office of
Economic Opportunity, it
would have required yet
another financial outlay:
staff, supplementary funds
and extra expenses of kosher
food, a facility for serving
meals and for recreation.
One problem was location
of a facility in the center of
a large Jewish population —
probably Oak Park — that
could accommodate the daily
influx at lunchtime. But other
than synagogues, which so
far have not made the offer,
there is no such facility avail-
able. Were the problems in-
surmountable? Many profes-
sionals say No.
It was suggested that the
United Hebrew Schools buses
not in use during many hours
of the day be utilized for a
transportation service to the
elderly. But that, too, is ex-
pensive. Is the problem too
great for the community to
tackle? Again, many say No.
How much would a "pov-
erty program." cost? Federa-
tion has allocated $18,000 to
JFCS for emergency cases—
$10,000 more than last year.
But without a survey, Lerner
says he doesn't know how
much a good program would
cost. Of one thing he is sure,
he said: the 450 cases on
the rolls of the Cooperative
Council "are only the sur-
face. Many more are un-
known." Depending on the
kind of program desired, it
could cost "anywhere from
$15,000 to $250,000."
Al's
A meeting was scheduled
Thursday at which the Fed-
eration health and welfare
division, JFCS and Coopera-
tive Council were to review a
number of cases and come
up with a figure to submit to
the community.
But is the community
ready to take on the burden
of an ongoing financial as-
sistance program should the
family service request it?
Faudman feels it is. "ThiF
community has raised $24,
000,000 — a marvelous fig-
ure. When I look at our prob-
lem of poverty, I am con-
vinced that it can be solved
more easily than the raising
of $24,000,000. We're working
rapidly, and I see a program
and the moneys available for
it."
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