E-Mail This Article to a Friend RARE VICTORIES Uncut BY KRISTEN LOMBARDI

It’s not every day that the Romney administration reverses one of its onerous "reforms." But that’s what happened late last week, when the Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) ended up shelving a controversial consolidation plan that would have shuttered a busy office in Revere.

The DTA’s Revere storefront was set to close on February 13, much to the dismay of the 4200 welfare recipients who live in East Boston, Chelsea, Lynn, and Revere and who receive services there. But last Friday, these recipients and their allies discovered that the DTA is keeping the office open after all.

"I’m so relieved," says Maria Blanco, a member of the anti-poverty group Survivors, Inc., which had protested the February 13 closure for weeks, along with a coalition of labor unions and welfare-rights organizations. Blanco receives monthly food-stamp benefits from the Revere office, to which she can get in a half-hour via the T. If the office had closed its doors for good, she would have had to take three different subway lines just to reach the nearest DTA outpost, in Somerville — thus making life even more difficult for this working mother and college student. That the Romney administration has backed away from its original proposal, she says, "is a symbol. It’s like, ‘Wow, there is hope against the Romney agenda.’"

But don’t take the reversal as a sign that Governor Mitt has softened his hard-line approach toward the state’s poor and vulnerable residents. The Romney administration didn’t rescind its proposal out of concern for the hardships it would have caused low-income families. Rather, according to DTA spokesperson Dick Powers, it did so because another DTA office, in Malden, is facing renovation. Under the original plan, part of the Revere caseload would have been shifted to the DTA’s Malden storefront. "But," he explains, "we’ve received recent information that the City of Malden’s intention is to replace that building. Given this, we decided to keep Revere open" for another five years.

Besides, when it comes to his treatment of the disadvantaged, the governor showed his true colors in his House 1 budget for fiscal year (FY) 2005, which aims to slash cash assistance for many of the 16,800 elderly and disabled residents who currently receive benefits under Emergency Aid to Elderly, Disabled, and Children (EAEDC). In his budget, Romney tightened the eligibility requirements for disabled adults and legal immigrants, which would effectively knock people off the welfare rolls. According to the DTA, as many as 1856 legal immigrants and an additional 2700 disabled people are expected to lose their $303-per-month benefits if Romney’s proposed EAEDC changes survive the budget process. Observes Matt Borus, of Working Massachusetts, which also protested the DTA-office closure in Revere, "I’d like to think that the governor had softened his stance on the poor, but he’s certainly found ways to make it more difficult for low-income people to access any benefits."

Even so, for welfare-rights advocates, the latest DTA victory does seem sweet. "It shows that activists working together can actually gain from this administration," Borus says. "This will benefit immigrants, poor people, and union workers — none of whom are people that the Romney administration smiles upon."