"It’s outrageous that the Governor of New Jersey would tolerate or even worse, encourage his welfare offices to tell low income residents to move to Altoona for cheap housing and welfare benefits instead of offering to help them at home," Shuster said. "This isn’t governing, it’s passing the buck. It’s outrageous and it needs to stop now."

The Altoona Housing Authority recently experienced an influx of requests from New Jersey residents seeking assistance. The Altoona Housing Authority discovered that New Jersey residents were actively being encouraged to relocate to Altoona and other Pennsylvania cities from case workers in the Newark, NJ Housing Authority and Department of Public Assistance. Case workers in Newark were providing an actual list of cities in Pennsylvania for New Jersey welfare and public housing recipients to choose from.

"Social workers should be focused on helping the less fortunate in their communities. They shouldn’t be focused on playing ‘real estate agent’ for needy families," Shuster added.

In addition to his letter to Governor Corzine, Congressman Shuster also sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families to investigate the actions of New Jersey’s Department of Human Services. Also, Congressman Shuster is examining possible legislative remedies to correct this situation and prevent it from occurring again.

"It is my hope that Governor Corzine will take immediate action to halt this practice," Shuster said. "Federal welfare dollars are left up to the states to use at their discretion. However, once states like New Jersey get their funding, it should be spent to help their citizens in need. Anything else is a waste of the taxpayers’ money."