Two advocacy agencies – PA Cares for All and the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania – recently created an interactive online calculator which shows how much the elimination of the state’s General Assistance cash program could cost in the long run.

Republican Gov. Tom Corbett’s $27.1 billion budget proposal calls for the elimination of the General Assistance cash program.

Cuts to the GA program will affect about 68,000 people across the state, including about 1,700 Delaware County residents, according to figures from the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare. Delco has the third most GA recipients in the state.

Advocates say the elimination of this program will affect the “poorest of the poor.”

“Where will people turn when they have nothing? Where will they live? Change their clothes? Go to the bathroom? Get treatment, look for a job? This is a program of last resort. People will be forced into more costly alternatives,” said Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania Executive Director Liz Hersh in a prepared statement. “These systems are not only more costly, but are already overburdened. Homeless shelters are already dealing with unprecedented demand. There simply will be more people forced onto the streets, into abandoned buildings. It will be a costly health and safety problem.”