Hello Board of Health,

Thank you for considering my comment. I understand that these reinstatement periods in question are for people who have violated the conditions for receiving TANF. Now, I agree that SNAP and TANF should have consistent violation waiting periods, but the time frame for reinstatement into the program is unnecessarily extreme.

As people in the middle class, we tend to forget why these programs were instituted in the first place. Our children don't go to school with children from public housing, we don't shop in the same stores, buy the same food, wear the same clothes, or do the same things for leisure. Sometimes we do, but in reality, most of the time our nation is just as segregated as it was prior to the Civil Rights Movement.

TANF and SNAP are for families who need it. You cannot get TANF unless you meet very specific qualifications, and if we remember President Clinton's big initiative, families are only allowed TANF for a maximum period of 5 years. These families typically come from a cycle of poverty, meaning their parents, their parents' parents, and so on, have been unable to, as we claim here in the US, pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Generational poverty, which is what programs like TANF and SNAP attempt to address, only punishes our children and allows for a continued segregated society by class and consequently, race.

1st time offenders are not always people who purposefully broke the conditions to receive TANF. Government paperwork is often convoluted and confusing---remember FAFSA? We also know TANF payments are not enough to cover realistic family expenses, meaning our program fails to actually help those who need it.  Some families may not have understood their expectations or requirements. Other famililes are still starving or without basic necessities even on TANF. So to take away TANF for a full year after a first offense, and SNAP, is cruel and a true sign that our government is not made up of working class people, or even people who have working class associates. A 2 year waiting period for a second offense is equally degrading and harmful to Virginian families. Both TANF and SNAP should have 1st time--6 month, 2nd time--1 year, and 3rd time expulsion from the program reinstatement periods.

One last point--too often, since we are disconnected from the working class, middle class individuals criminalize those less fortunate than ourselves because humans often fear what is different or unknown. If you do the research, you will find that so few TANF and SNAP recipients actually break the rules that to have such extreme punishments for doing so will permanently disenfranchise the families punished. Yes, it is horrible for an adult to break the rules, but punishing children for years for their parent's mistake is taking an eye for an eye, making the whole world blind. I would love to help provide the Board with more information if you would like it. 

Thank you for your time.

--Vicki Yeroian, MSW