Things just got bleaker for California's poorest residents.

CalWORKs, the state's "welfare to work" program, took a major hit in the state budget deal that Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law Thursday, reducing grants to their lowest levels in more than 20 years.

Beginning today, monthly grants will be slashed by 8 percent, to an average of $460 for a family of three. That translates to an income that is less than 30 percent of the amount the federal government has determined is necessary to meet basic needs.

In addition, the new budget reduces the lifetime limit on CalWORKs cash assistance for adults from five years to four, and cuts funding for employment services and child care. Advocates also are lamenting the suspension of the Cal Learn program, which offers aid to pregnant and parenting teens in an effort to keep them in school.

Welfare officials said the cuts will make it more difficult to accomplish the CalWORKs mission of offering temporary cash aid, job training and other help to lift people from public assistance to independence. Some 1.5 million Californians get CalWORKs benefits.

"We are taking people who live on the bare minimum as it is, and they are going back to 1987 levels in funding," said Nancy O'Hara, assistant director of Yolo County's Department of Employment and Social Services. "Who can live on that?"

"We all understand that the state is out of money," O'Hara added. "But people still have to have enough money to live, and there are no jobs right now."

Cheryl Davis, Placer County's director of human services, said struggling families are starting to "double up" and pool income with friends and relatives.

"I hear it all the time from our families, 'This isn't enough to cover my rent' and 'How am I going to put food on the table?' " she said.

"It's very sad to see our families who have been hit hard by the economy having to sell their cars and their homes. These are people who never thought they would have to come to us for help."

CalWORKs is required to meet federal standards requiring at least 50 percent of clients to work 30 hours a week. But given the lack of jobs and training resources, Davis said, "we have concluded that we cannot meet that benchmark."

In Sacramento County and across the state, demand for benefits has increased in the sluggish economy. CalWORKs serves 35,000 families in Sacramento County, up 24 percent since 2007, said Paul Lake, the county's human assistance director.

Besides the loss of grants, budget cuts at the county level mean fewer social workers to help people deal with issues such as domestic violence, mental illness and physical disabilities, he said.

California is hardly the only state to impose deep cuts on welfare programs during the downturn. According to the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, every state last year had benefit levels below the federal poverty line, and half had levels as low as California's or lower.

But California's cost of living is higher than most other states, advocates said, so recipients get less for their money.

"Families are going to immediately feel the hurt from these cuts this summer, because many schools no longer are offering summer programs and free or reduced-cost meals," said Jessica Bartholow, legislative advocate for the Western Center on Law and Poverty.

Bartholow said the Legislature should have balanced the budget without deep cuts to the state's neediest citizens, by finding ways to raise revenue.

Brown worked for months to garner support from Republican lawmakers to allow the public to vote on a measure to extend higher state taxes. He was ultimately unsuccessful and hammered out a deal with Democratic lawmakers that closed the state's multibillion-dollar deficit with a mix of deep cuts and higher revenue projections.

"With limited resources, the governor has been very clear that these cuts are very difficult cuts and very painful cuts," said Ana Matosantos, director of the Department of Finance. "But they are what is required, and they are the judgment of the governor and the Legislature about how best to balance the budget based on the cards that they're dealt and the dollars they have available."

In a news conference Thursday, Assembly Republican leader Connie Conway said lawmakers want to offer a "safety net" to people who need help. "We just don't want it turning into a hammock with cute little drinks with umbrellas."

"It's a question of priorities," she said, blaming Democrats for the welfare cuts.

"They are the ones that made the priorities," she said. "So if people are suffering and hurting, they need to contact the people who did that to them."

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Call The Bee's Cynthia Hubert, (916)321-1082. Kevin Yamamura of The Bee's Capitol Bureau contributed to this report.

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