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Mom given $10,800 in taxpayer funds for poor families spent most of it on luxury Miami trip: ‘I wanted to blow it’
“I wanted to blow it. I wanted to have fun,” admitted Canethia Miller, 27, one of 132 mothers across Washington, DC given the cash in the “Strong Families, Stronger Futures” pilot progr…
nypost.com
Mom given $10,800 in taxpayer funds for poor families spent most of it on luxury Miami trip: ‘I wanted to blow it’
By
Social Links for Melissa Koenig
Published Feb. 23, 2024
Updated Feb. 23, 2024, 10:21 a.m. ET
A mom of three given nearly $11,000 in a taxpayer-funded program for impoverished families has admitted blowing most of it on a luxurious five-day trip to Miami — even getting a $180 glow-up to not look like a “working” mom while there.
Canethia Miller, 27, was one of 132 mothers in Washington, DC accepted last year into the “Strong Families, Stronger Futures” pilot program designed to help those living around the poverty line, according to the Washington Post.
She chose to take a no-strings-attached $10,800 lump sum, rather than $900 monthly payments — and immediately spent more than $6,000 on the trip for her, her three sons and their father.
“I wanted to blow it. I wanted to have fun,” she told the DC paper.
6 Canethia Miller, 27, left, used most of a nearly $11,000 taxpayer-funded loan on a five-day trip to Miami. The Washington Post via Getty Images
6 Kuteich – stock.adobe.com
“[My kids] got to experience something I would never have been able to do if I didn’t have that money.”
For the trips, Miller bought 15 new outfits for her children — one for each child for each day of the vacation — proudly telling the DC paper: “Every outfit they wore was new.”
Then in Miami, Miller spent much of her new cash on steak dinners, new gadgets and toys for the children and a boat tour past some of the city’s most expensive mansions.
She justified her spending by saying she hoped to inspire her children and teach them that if they work hard enough, they may one day be able to afford one of the mansions.
Miller then ate up the remainder of the funds on bills and a used car, she said.
6 Miller claimed she needed the money because she was struggling after the birth of her third son. The Washington Post via Getty Images
She had claimed that she needed the money because her financial situation worsened after she had her third son in the summer of 2022.
Miller paused her education to receive a degree in social work to focus on the growing family and was living in a subsidized two-bedroom apartment at the time.
She was also receiving funds from the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families fund, which helped her cover her $120-a-month rent.
6 Miller spent more than $6,000 on the five-night trip and a $180 makeover. Canethia Miller/Facebook
But still, Miller said she was struggling to make her food stamps last.
“Groceries last us the first three weeks of the month, then it’s trying to figure out the last week of my benefits,” she explained.
“It lasts, but it cuts close.”
Now, she said she has opened a savings account in which she hopes to keep $50 — and insisted the government-funded program taught her how to save money for the future.
6 Miller said she wanted the trip to inspire her sons. Canethia Miller/Facebook
6 The “Strong Families, Stronger Futures” program was designed to help those living at or below the poverty line gain a strong financial future. AP
She is set to begin a new remote job that pays $30 an hour — an opportunity she credits with the confidence she gained in the program.
“A lot of communities in my area don’t know the financial gain of credit [or] saving for your kids; that’s why we’re broke. That’s why we don’t have nothing to pass down or no house to give down,” Miller explained.
“I’m trying to get to the level where I’m passing something down that really matters, so I can be set and my kids can be set, and they don’t need to push so hard like I’m doing now.”
The Post has reached out to Martha’s Table, the DC-based organization that administers the program, for comment.
She also spent $180 getting her hair and nails done makeover, excitedly recalling how good she looked for the trip.
“I didn’t have to look like a working, stressed mom,” she said of the pricy glow-up.