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United Way asks Senate to restore TANF earmark for family-stability programs after reported cuts
Summary
United Way and the Seamer Institute told the Senate Finance Committee that removing a TANF earmark that helped family-stability programs expand kept children stably housed, reduced disruptive school moves and leveraged private matching dollars; they asked the Senate to restore the line item.
United Way of Central Ohio and partner organizations asked the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday to restore a TANF earmark that funds family-stability programs in several Ohio cities, saying the funding helped prevent disruptive school moves and leveraged private dollars.
"Beginning in 2019, the family stability programs in Dayton, Cleveland, Columbus, Akron, Toledo, and Cincinnati first received TANF dollars with a goal to serve a little over a thousand families and roughly 3,000 children per year," David Ryerson of United Way told senators. He said state support has allowed the programs to serve more families than originally expected and to leverage private matching funds.
Ryerson said the state TANF investment over six years enabled family-stability programs to serve 13,086 families and 33,202 children while preventing disruptive school moves and helping families maintain stable housing. He asked senators to restore a TANF earmark at $1.5 million per fiscal year and to include a private-match requirement to continue leveraging nonpublic funds.
Why it matters: Witnesses argued early intervention and housing-stability services reduce more expensive downstream costs — school instability, foster care and rehousing expenses — while building local partnerships that multiply state dollars.
Discussion vs. decisions: Senators had no follow-up questions in the hearing; the witness asked the Senate to restore the TANF earmark at the requested level. No budget action was taken during the hearing.
Ending: United Way requested the Senate restore the earmark and continue private-matching requirements to preserve current service levels and local leverage of state dollars.
