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Congress asks how Oregon does it Welfare successes attract GAO investigators By PETER WONG Alice said she had virtually no job skills, but since her son was about to turn 18, she would lose the welfare payments she depended on. Ann had pumped gasoline, done drywall and roofing work, but she was addicted to drugs and lost custody of her daughter. Aretha suffered the same problems, and even after she recovered from her addiction and regained custody of her daughter, "I still thought there was no place for me." All three women, whose names were changed to protect their privacy, have jobs today as part of Oregon's effort to move people from welfare to work. They and others told their stories Wednesday to two visiting evaluators from the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, which is writing a report about welfare changes in Oregon and seven other states. The evaluators, Margaret Boeckmann and Regina Santucci, spent a day in Medford talking with agency managers, field staff members, employers and welfare recipients. They also spent time in Portland, Salem and Eugene. "We are going to try to understand what the states are doing, and every state is doing something different," Boeckmann said. Boeckmann said it is too early to draw conclusions for the report, which was requested by U.S. Sens. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York and Carl Levin of Michigan, both Democrats. Field work will be done in January, and the report is due in the fall. Oregon was ahead of the 1996 federal welfare changes that Congress passed and President Clinton signed. In 1993, the Legislature approved JOBS Plus, which places recipients of welfare, food stamps and unemployment benefits in public and private jobs that are reimbursed by the state. In 1995, the Legislature limited how long people may get welfare. Following the national trend, welfare cases have dropped statewide (43,617 to 16,853) from March 1994 to August of this year, and in Jackson and Josephine counties (4,229 to 1,553). Monthly job placements of welfare recipients in both counties have increased from 1992-93. Of those locally who get jobs, 94 percent have not returned to the rolls. But the GAO evaluators wanted to hear personal stories as well as statistics. "It is rare that we speak directly to the people who have been there," Santucci said. For Alice, who faced the prospect of losing welfare payments when her son turned 18, what helped her most was a work experience program that led to temporary employment -- and the prospect of a permanent position -- in a government agency. "I was terrified of everything and everybody," she said. "I was mostly afraid of looking for a job. But they were there to guide us. They made me feel it was possible." Ann said she needed residential drug treatment -- and a job beyond what can be found in a work experience program -- to help her regain custody of her girl. She now works at a nonprofit agency. "Coming from an abusive household all my life, I had to have help," she said. "They showed me that I can do something else with my life." Aretha said her problems with drugs and drifting started after 11 years of a structured life in the Navy. She credited Betty Weldon, who moderated the forum for welfare clients, with giving her the push to overcome her problems, learn good work habits, and work at another nonprofit agency. Aretha is studying to become a drug counselor. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA