LOST IN TRANSLATION

Exposing the depth and extent of language and cultural barriers in the city's welfare system, a Brooklyn nonprofit group released a survey last week showing that 65 percent of respondents had trouble communicating with caseworkers.

From April 1998 to February of this year, the Bushwick organization Make the Road By Walking interviewed 724 welfare recipients as they left three welfare offices, including the job center in Long Island City, Queens, the city's largest welfare office. Overall, 65 percent of Spanish speakers surveyed had trouble communicating with their caseworkers; the problem was worse at the Long Island City center, where 74 percent of Spanish-speakers had this problem.

These results, focusing specifically on language issues, underscore a recent flurry of reports that document the difficulties of applying for welfare and social services in the city. Working with other immigrant support groups, Make the Road by Walking filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Civil Rights last Thursday. The groups charge that the city doesn't necessarily have enough bilingual staff to work with the clients who need them. If the discrimination allegations stick, the city's federal welfare funds could be at stake.

"The consequences of not being able to communicate are literally life and death," said Andrew Friedman, co-director of the 3-year-old organization. "It's an issue of being fed or not fed, of getting housed or not, and being homeless." Language barriers weren't the only issue: 55 percent felt frustrated by lack of respect from caseworkers.