by T.W. Budig
ECM capitol reporter

The recent General Assistance Medical Care (GAMC) debate at the Capitol has organizations who came together to fight for the program vowing to stick together for upcoming human services budget battles.

Stand Together Minnesota is focused on preventing cuts to General Assistance and the Minnesota Family Investment Program.

At a Capitol press conference today (Thursday, April 8), representatives from a number of organizations voiced feared over the results of having these programs for the poor cut.

Monica Nilsson, director of Street Outreach at St. Stephen’s Human Services in Minneapolis and president of the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless, threw a sleeping bag on the podium before her and tucked a mat along side to illustrate one form of “alternative housing.”

Without assistance, the homeless could lose even such tenuous gripes on shelter as a rented locker, she explained.

Monica Nilsson, director of Street Outreach at St. Stephen’s Human Services in Minneapolis and president of the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless, was one of a number of representatives from groups that assist the poor who came to the Capitol today (Thursday, April 8) vowing to stay banded together for upcoming human services budget battles. Nilsson threw a sleeping bag on the podium before her to illustrate one form of housing those receiving cuts in state assistance could face.

Nilsson spoke of human services cuts as the “plasma bill” — sending the poor to donate blood for cash until they become too depleted to give more, she explained.

“While most people in poverty will never beg, I’ve worked with people who have donated plasma hundreds of times until their blood levels are too unstable or they’re found to have a pacemaker,” Nilsson said.

Dollars on the freeways

“Minnesotans never feel good when they hand people a dollar at the freeway exit — and they never feel good when they receive it,” she said.

The GAMC fight wasn’t about a program, she said.

“It was about people,” said Nilsson.

Gerry Lauer, program manager at the Dorothy Day Center — one of Catholic Charities’ day and overnight shelters in St. Paul — spoke of increasing numbers of homeless seeking mat space on shelter floors. “It’s very difficult to say to someone, ‘You can’t come in,’” said Lauer.

One of the discouraging things about the proposed cuts, one activist explained, is that they aren’t really about reform or improvements but rather simply taking money away from the needy.

While Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty has released his supplemental state budget, House and Senate Democrats haven’t yet put forth their supplemental human services bills.

Not feeling safe

Activists are uneasy. “We are not at all feeling safe that hands are off these two critical resources,” said Deborah Schlick of the Affirmative Options Coalition.

Options exist, argue activists.

“We don’t need to make these cuts,” said Brian Rusche of the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition.

Religious groups are calling for prayer and reflection from Minnesotans the weekend of April 16-18 on the question of human services funding.

“What is essential about us as a people?” asked Rusche.

“Do we take care of one and other, or do we not?” he asked.