Oakland Social Services "Kettling" the Poor
While participating in the Berkeley/Oakland protests, I learned the term "kettling" - this is when the police herd a mass of protesters into a hidden area and sit on them for some period of hours to keep them from making any trouble. The protesters may be handcuffed with ziplocks and denied water. Press and cameras are kept out of the area so the kettled protesters are effectively subtracted from the visual record of the movement.
Yesterday I went to Social Services to submit a huge McJesus package of paperwork for "general assistance" and food stamps qualification. General Assistance is that piddling $336/month *loan* you can get for three months out of the year if you're able to work (whether you have a job or not) in an area where gentrification has pushed rent for a studio up into the $1500 ballpark--if you can find one. If you have never been embroiled in this system (one way is to become disabled but be caught in the eternal backlog of applying for SSI), this is the equivalent of signing on to eternal paperwork absurdist hell, where you get spammed with letters that mean nothing but you are unnable to reach a person to clarify that, where you have 3 day deadlines but the State takes forever to fix things if they screw up, where half your time is spent appealing because of the State's own errors - because their default is to shut everything off in case of a problem.
So...just the fact you're going to Social Services means you've been caught in the trap: you're in the part of society that's fed busywork, and kept on a hamster wheel of appointments, and monitored for compliance, and sent to "behaviorial" sessions instead of a psychological therapy, and surveilled by fraud investigators in case you try to pad that $336/month with money for basic necessities like toilet paper. Your pinned into poverty like an insect in order to keep all those other State employees pushing paper, earning a salary, and safely holding on to their pension plans.
My experience on Tuesday was so typical, I thought I should write about it here and hope that the message sinks in somehow.
First, there is a huge line around the room to take a number to wait to get called to a window. Normally I'd have to wait in that line. That's an ADA violation in itself, since I'm mobility impaired. Social Services is stubbornly defying the ADA on that point by insisting I need to bring a friend or relative with me as an escort to get any accommodation for disability. Ironically, when I'm in that line, I'm usually holding some paperwork where I've checked a box and otherwise indicated that I need accommodation for disability. I've just never gotten it.
This time I was in a special situation where I supposedly had an appointment for an "interview". I needed this interview because I wanted my caseworker (a new one - the third one I've had) to go over it and make sure I filled out everything right. The last thing either you or your caseworker need is for some mistake to gum up their procedures! Since I had the interview appointment, I was able to sit down in a chair and wait for the P.A. system to summon me. Or so I thought.
Finally the P.A. system summoned everyone waiting for G.A. Qualification to Room 131. I moved with the herd to room 131. When the caseworker in charge there took attendance, she couldn't find my name on the list. Luckily I thought to bring my interview letter with me as well as all my paperwork and documentation. The caseworker glanced at it and told me to go back out to the main lobby to "Window 8".
At "Window 8" there were 2 other people in line in front of me. I had to wait for them to get through their issues. When I was finally able to speak to the person at Window 8, she told me she had nothing to do with anything - try Window 12. There was no one at Window 12 (perhaps because so much time had passed at that point). I went back to Window 8. Luckily, someone at Window 7 heard the confusion and said I should be in room 130, not room 131. So I went to room 130. There I was scolded for being late and almost turned away. But I explained I had been in room 131, and I wasn't exhibiting the poor behavior of being late for a Social Services appointment. So they handed me a xerox of my Rights and Responsibilities and let me take my seat.
At that point I found out that my new caseworker wasn't going to interview me: in fact she didn't even know about the people who had come to submit their paperwork that day. But the caseworker in the room would take my McJesus packet ONLY if it was COMPLETELY and CORRECTLY filled out. So I could turn the packet in but I couldn't go over it with anyone. I vaguely remembered something like that happening last year.
Then the caseworker tried to issue a few warnings and answer a few general questions. She warned people to return paperwork by deadline or they wouldn't receive their check. Someone noted that the deadline is usually 2-3 days (and the paperwork usually demands documentation like copies of checks, etc.). Someone complained about delays in the mail and other problems. The caseworker then invoked the Supremacy of the Needs of the Bureaucracy: caseworkers had over 900 cases each - there was nothing they could do about the 2-3 day deadlines, the best thing people could do for themselves is comply and follow up and try to make up themselves for errors in the system if the caseworker didn't get their documents.
The caseworker then warned everyone that the State was currently investigating EVERYONE for possible welfare fraud. This surveillance involved interviewing friends and neighbors. And the best way to protect ourselves is to self-report any changes. (See my sig about what can happen if you self-report changes and your casework fraks up.)
It occurred to me at that moment that those investigators probably make a pretty decent salary. Say, 50k/yr for a start? And their job is to keep people being doled out $366/month pinned down into helplessness. And possibly to drive them into paranoia, lol.
Anyway, at the end of the session I remembered I had intended to ask my caseworker for a particular form I couldn't get online. I was told to get the form from the lobby.
The form was not available in the spinning kiosk of forms in the library. I then tried to sidle up to a free window to see if someone there would just slip me the form. No dice - she told me to stand in the line that winds around the room! (This is the line to take a number to go to a window - 2 to 3 hour process!!!). Being disabled and knowing already that Social Services in Oakland thumbs its nose at the ADA, I was now pissed.
First I attempted to go to the room with the Client Advocate. The Client Advocate's door was closed. There was no sign on the door: no way to tell if she was gone for a few minutes or gone for the day. There was no sign-up list. There was no chair right beside her door where you could wait and simultaneously hold your place in line to see her. I stood there for a while, not knowing if the Client Advocate would come or not (she is often just not there that day). After a while I gave up.
Then I went to the in-house phone banks. Social Services also tries to avoid making these a tool of empowerment. There are no numbers posted for general services - only specific names of caseworkers. Also there are no chairs to sit in, and you aren't even allowed to lean on the phones: so, again, mobility-impaired people are expected to suffer to make their call and keep their phone call short.
Except if you call the Operator the phone call won't be short. I discovered that the Social Services Call Center is apparently handled by one guy. He repeatedly had to put me on hold and answer all the other calls as we spoke. Every time we got disconnected, and I called again, I got this poor sap. He wanted to connect me to the Civil Rights Officer because by that time I had multiple ADA complaints: but he couldn't connect me to an inside line. However, I didn't have a cellphone so I would have to go out somewhere to call the Civil Rights Officer: that would defeat the purpose of getting my form and me being on site to point out the half a dozen ADA violations I had experienced right there. I needed something like the capacity to "call a manager". But Social Services Oakland deliberately does not offer that. What they do offer is a lot of security guards roaming around, snickering at various freak outs.
What kind of freak outs?
- The ONE copy machine didn't work. People needed copies to submit their documentation.
- A homeless woman was given an outside line number to call to find the name of her caseworker, which didn't work on the internal phones. When she went back to get help, she was given the same number again. I was the one who had to help her.
- "Customer Service Survey" kiosk which claimed it wanted client input had no forms/cards.
- missing/disorganized forms in the large form kiosk
- people being trained/disciplined to use some bar code machine system to turn in their forms - WTH!
I never did get to issue my ADA complaints to anyone there. The poor besieged phone guy agreed to just mail me the forms, and I agreed to call the Civil Rights Officer from home, though that wouldn't be nearly as satisfying as pointing out the ADA issues in situ.
Since I had to stand at the phones, I was now in a lot of pain. It was only then I realized that not seeing the caseworker meant that I didn't get to ask for bus tickets to cover the expense of getting to and from Social Services.
I repeat - this is not an abnormal situation. This is NORMAL. Social Services is a Rube Goldberg machine that is used to kettle the poor in Oakland. After everyone is done reading the Torture Report as performed by the CIA, they should check out some of the torture that goes on right here on American soil.
*****
Ps. While I don't support the vandalism/looting component of the current Berkeley/Looting riots, I hope this post adds some additional perspective/weight to this article: http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/in-defense-of-looting/
= new reply since forum marked as read
They are so busy trying to save money that they thank the lord every time someone falls off the rolls, even if it's accidental, or if it's just a delay. There is no incentive built in the system to encourage anyone to care what happens to the individuals that are thrown to the wolves.
Congratulations on your successful clawing endeavors! Keep on clawing there! You can do it! 