DHR: Don't Fear Applying for Food Stamps

Officials from the Georgia Department of Human Resources say if you're out of work and receiving extended unemployment insurance thanks to federal stimulus dollars, don't be afraid to apply for food stamps.

The comments come after a newspaper report of a Marietta man who could not get food stamps because he got an extra $25 week for unemployment.

Dina Smith is a spokesperson for the Department of Human Resources. She says the man was never eligible for food stamps in the first place, because he earned too much.

"He came with the additional money already in tow, which is not the way that story sounds but I'm telling you that's the bottom line and truth. When he came, he was already getting the additional money, and he was not eligible."

Food stamp eligibility guidelines -- including income amounts -- are set by federal law. And, recipients of unemployment insurance cannot refuse the extra money provided by stimulus monies.

DHR mulling private mgm't of state mental hospitals

Private firms may soon run some of the State’s psychiatric hospital services, according to Department of Human Resources Commissioner, B.J. Walker.

The Atlanta-Journal Constitution says Walker considers the step, quote, “a creative way” to improve the state’s ailing mental hospital system.

DHR officials say Georgia could turn over one of its seven facilities to a private company, and others could be closed down.

However, DHR Spokesman David Noel called the idea only an “exploratory proposal.”

The State is also weighing moving mentally ill criminal defendants to a new facility in Milledgeville, according to the report.

Gov. Sonny Perdue in 2007 signed an executive order creating a state commission on mental health.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of Georgia's mental health system.

DHR furloughing employees as part of budget cuts

Governor Perdue has asked all state agencies to show they're cutting their 2009 - 2010 budgets between six and ten percent.

The Department of Human Resources is one of the agencies slashing costs, in order to meet a mid-September deadline.

DHR is the largest state agency, employing 19,000 people. It's ordering employees to take a one-day furlough a month, in order to save between $92 million and $150 million dollars.

DHR officials say that,

"All employees earning $35,569 or more (pay grade 15 and above), including all leadership and the DHR Commissioner, will take one furlough day each month."

Exemptions from the furloughs include:

"Child welfare and adult protective services caseworkers [DFACS] and their direct supervisors, all direct-care staff at state hospitals and employees earning less than $35,569 (pay grade 14 and below)."

DHR says they're tightening their belt in other ways, as well, including cutting:

"non-essential travel for state business, suspending all vehicle purchases until further notice, suspending non-critical equipment and supplies purchases for the next 90 days and suspending non-critical hiring unless approved by DHR Commissioner, SPA and OPB."

The new policy goes into effect on September 16th.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the state economic crisis.