Panel probes impact of welfare reform

Panel probes impact of welfare reform

Yawu Miller

In December, the state's Department of Transitional Assistance cut off benefits to more than 2,800 Massachusetts mothers under the state's new two-year welfare reform time limit.

Housing advocates say as many as 24,000 people in Massachusetts will be homeless at some point this year.

Times are tough for the poor, and progressives have no one to blame but themselves, said former state Rep. Saundra Graham.

"The only reason we have welfare reform today is because we let it happen," she said. "We let this happen to ourselves."

Graham, and other panelists who gathered for a recent forum at UMass …