29 July 2004
From: Executive Director, Malcolm Rich 
To: Members and Friends of the Chicago Council of Lawyers and the Chicago Appleseed Fund For Justice

• 2004 Annual Luncheon held on July 15th
• Chicago Appleseed issues comments on Proposed Changes in the Food Stamp Rules Affecting Individual Development Accounts 
• Criminal Justice Project receives $25,000 grant
• New publications available
  • 2004 edition of the Legal Services Directory
  • Fifth edition of the  Tenant-Landlord Handbook
  • L-19 Model Residential Lease
  • Fifth edition of the Directory of State Judges in Chicago

Chicago Appleseed Issues Comments On Proposed Changes in the Food Stamp Rules Affecting Individual Development Accounts

We sent the following letter commenting on proposed rule changes affecting individual development accounts, in light of our interest in improving financial education in the immigrant and low income communities.

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June 11, 2004

Mr. Matt Crispino
Food and Nutrition Service, USDA
3101 Park Center Drive, Room 800
Alexandria, VA 22302

Re: Docket ID 0584-AD30, 7 CFR 273.8(e)(19), Food Stamps and IDAs

Dr. Mr. Crispino:

I am writing on behalf of the Chicago Appleseed Fund For Justice (Chicago Appleseed) to comment on the proposed changes to the food stamp rule at 7 CFR 273.8(e)(19). Chicago Appleseed is an affiliate of the Appleseed Foundation and is a participant in a multi-state, nationwide effort aimed at improving financial education in the low-income and immigrant communities.

Chicago Appleseed supports policies and programs that help lower-income people build assets, thereby moving towards greater self-sufficiency and financial security. Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) are effective tools that use matched savings to assist lower-income people build assets. All deposits in IDAs are for specified asset goals, such as retirement, home or car purchase or repair, or higher education. The deposits may not be withdrawn for general household expenses such as food purchases.  Households that withdraw funds for a non-designated purpose forfeit the matched portion of the account and may be subject to additional penalties. As such, IDA assets are not readily available to households.

The proposed rule would implement a provision of the 2002 Farm bill that gave state agencies administering the food stamp program new authority to align the food stamp resource rules with the resource rules used in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance or Medicaid programs. The Farm bill allows states to exclude as resources for food stamp eligibility those assets excluded under TANF and Medicaid, except for cash, licensed vehicles, and accounts that are "readily available" to the household. The Farm bill does not require the USDA to limit the types of IDAs that states may exclude. However, the proposed regulations limit excludable IDAs to those with the asset goals of home purchase, higher education or business start-up. As noted above, deposits in IDAs, regardless of the account asset goal, are not readily available to the household. Accordingly, the proposed regulations err in limiting IDA exclusion to only three specific asset goals.

Evaluations of IDA programs have demonstrated that with a combination of incentives and support, lower-income people can and will save. Along with welfare reform, these efforts have consistently received strong bipartisan and White House support. The proposed limitation on the types of IDAs that states may exclude is detrimental to such efforts to help lower-income families build assets. The proposed rule will only increase the high level of confusion and misinformation among lower-income food stamp recipients as to whether they are allowed or encouraged to use bank accounts and build assets as they attempt to become self-sufficient. Therefore, we recommend that the final regulation grant states the flexibility to exclude all IDAs if they already do so in their TANF or family Medicaid programs.

Chicago Appleseed commends the proposed rule’s attempt to provide states with greater ease of administration by allowing states to align resource rules across benefit programs. However, the proposed changes to the food stamp rule is likely to increase administrative burdens on state agencies by requiring caseworkers to examine each IDA participant’s written IDA agreement and determine whether the IDA use meets the food stamp eligibility requirements. IDA savers often change asset goals as they move through an IDA program. Accordingly, caseworkers may have to review a food stamp recipient’s IDA papers periodically to ensure that the recipient’s IDA goals comply with food stamp eligibility requirements.

For the foregoing reasons, Chicago Appleseed opposes the proposed changes to the food stamp rule that limit the types of IDAs states may exclude as resources when determining food stamp eligibility.

Sincerely,

Malcolm Rich
Chicago Appleseed Fund For Justice

Criminal Justice Project Receives $25,000 grant from the Chicago Community Trust

In January 2004, Diana White, president of Chicago Appleseed, described an initiative of Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice – a comprehensive study of the criminal justice system in Cook County.  She stated:

"The last such study was undertaken in 1929 by John H. Wigmore. Seventy-five years and a constitutional revolution later, it is time to take a fresh look at one of the largest criminal justice systems in the world. We know where some of the broken places are – innocent people sitting on death row, DNA testing delayed for years, "witnesses" to crimes held in detention and isolated from lawyers prepared to represent them, prosecutions tainted by police misconduct, the disparate effects of the "war on drugs," etc. Our goal, however, is not to focus on any single facet of the system, but to see how the various parts of it interact with (or distort) one another on a daily basis."

The Chicago Community Trust recently awarded Chicago Appleseed a second grant of $25,000 to continue the project.  The project's advisory committee met on July 12th to begin identifying the particular issues we will be researching. The Advisory Board, while still in formation, includes Prof. Albert Alschuler, Prof. Susan Bandes, Darren Bowden, Daniel Coyne, Hon. Lou Garippo, Michael Howlett, Jr., Prof. Richard Kling, Patricia Mendoza, Prof. Randolph N. Stone, and Hon. Earl Strayhorn. Locke Bowman, Director of the MacArthur Justice Center, Thomas Geraghty, Director of Northwestern’s Bluhm Clinic, and Jack Heinz, Research Fellow at the American Bar Foundation are overseeing the project.  We have received pledges of cooperation from State's Attorney Richard Devine and  Public Defender Ed Burnette.

Diana White described the project in her January, 2004 column:

"We have designed a multi-faceted research strategy, which includes a survey of the relevant literature; interviews of randomly selected prosecutors, public defenders, private defense attorneys, and judges (current and former); interviews with prosecutors and defenders in other jurisdictions; interviews with criminal defendants and victims of crime; and questionnaires sent to all current prosecutors, current defenders, and sitting judges. Social scientists will help us analyze the data these standardized interviews and mail surveys produce. We will also review court records and statistics; analyze data relating to caseloads, case processing, and budgets; and examine the results against national standards."

Please contact me if you would like to participate and/or whether you would like to suggest particular issues we should address (Malcolm Rich, phone: 312-988-6565 or email to malcolmrich@chicagoappleseed.org)

Chicago Council of Lawyers / Chicago Appleseed Fund For Justice
750 N. Lake Shore Drive, Fourth Floor, Chicago, Illinois 60611
Phone: 312-988-6565 / Fax: 312-654-8644 
E-mail: ccl@chicagocouncil.org or caffj@chicagoappleseed.org
Website: www.chicagocouncil.org or www.chicagoappleseed.org