Protesters evicted from welfare office

About a dozen activists protested conditions inside a crowded welfare office in North Philadelphia this morning, prompting applause from some case workers and citizens and fury from supervisors and guards, who forcibly booted the protesters.

Volunteers with the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign walked into the second-floor office on Broad Street near Lehigh Avenue shortly after 10 a.m. Within minutes, they began chanting, marching with signs and distributing fliers to people waiting for service.

"What do we want? Better conditions! When do we want 'em? Now!" they yelled.

The protest lasted just about 10 minutes. Shouting guards and supervisors herded and pushed the activists back into the elevators and tried to forcibly confiscate the cameras of both the Daily News and a freelance photographer.

Afterward, an office supervisor refused to comment to the Daily News.

Picketers briefly continued the protest outside, vowing to return in two weeks to see if the office met their demands. The protesters say the consolidation of another office into the one on Broad Street has led to crushing workloads for case workers and long waits for clients.

The offices were consolidated due to financial constraints, state Department of Public Welfare spokesman Michael Race said.

At a time of soaring unemployment rates and welfare need, the office doesn't have enough staff or room to handle the demand, protest organizer Cheri Honkala charged.

Welfare applicants have to wait hours - or come back the next day - for help, she said. Applicants are forced to discuss personal matters publicly, because the office has no private rooms, she said. It also has no children's play area, creating a chaotic waiting area, she said, and case workers are too busy to answer phones, she added.

"The situation is very volatile . . . [it's] a moment away from an explosion," Honkala said.

Race acknowledged those problems, calling them "unavoidable" - and unlikely to improve.

"It's just an unfortunate reality that we have to do more with less, just like everyone else," Race said.

The number of cash-assistance applicants in Philadelphia has risen 11 percent, and food-stamp applicants, 26 percent, in the past two years, Race said. At the same time, the department has steadily lost staff during the past decade; Department staffing fell by about 3,500 positions between 2000 and 2009, the largest employee decline of any state agency.

"This is really the perfect storm: We've seen an increased demand for public assistance because of the economy," Race said. "But because of the economy's impact on state resources, we have limited resources ourselves."

No assistance offices have play areas, and most just have privacy screens or cubicles instead of private rooms, he added.