Tennessee’s Department of Human Services has been looking at strategic ways to spend $750 million on needy families in the state. The large unspent balance had been saved over years of not spending a federal block grant given for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF. Now they are shelling out $175 million to seven companies.
The companies, spread across Tennessee, will be receiving $25 million each to fund three-year pilot programs. The focus will be to help low-income families.
Human Services Commissioner Clarence Carter says the goal is to help families be less dependent on public assistance.
“We don’t want any Tennessean to have to live a life of public dependency,” Carter said. “And so, these seven pilots are demonstrating our effort to how we achieve that objective.”
The Martha O’Bryan Center is one of the groups receiving the money. They’ve been serving needy families for more than a century. The Center’s COO Kent Miller says they plan to fund services for about 900 families.
“We really are trying to demonstrate that all families have dreams and aspirations, but the way the system is set up today, it disincentivizes families to move forward,” Miller said.
Commissioner Carter also stated that some of the pilot programs may not succeed in their goals, but the ones that do will be expanded.
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