DC Welfare Mom Blows Checks On Luxury Miami Vacation

According to a story this month in the Washington Post, Canethia Miller, a Washington D.C. woman and mother of three, spent $6,000 out of a $10,800 welfare grant from the city on a luxury trip to Miami.

According to the Post, the D.C. resident and mother received $10,800 from a district pilot program aimed at helping low-income mothers to “improve their families’ outcomes and economic mobility.”

But instead of using the taxpayer-funded city welfare money to shore up her household finances or advance her job prospects, Miller took her kids to Miami to spend lavishly and party.

“Some of it I just left alone. The other side is, I wanted to blow it. I wanted to have fun,” Miller told The Post. “[My kids] got to experience something I would never have been able to do if I didn’t have that money.”

“The five-day, $6,000 trip to Miami was a dramatic upgrade from the Ocean City and Virginia Beach visits that Miller’s family was used to. Joined by the children’s father, a boat tour exposed them to million-dollar homes and luxury yachts,” as The Post reports. The mom, three children, and the children’s father saw Florida wildlife and ate at a Japanese steakhouse.

Before the trip, Miller bought new clothes and toys for her kids so they would have nice clothes to wear for the vacation and toys to play with during boring parts of the trip. “Every outfit they wore was new,” the mom proudly boasted.

She also spent $180 on a hair and nail salon visit before going to Miami. “Do you know how good I look in this picture? I didn’t have to look like a working, stressed mom,” she said.
The remaining $4,000 after splurging for vacation went to paying overdue bills. Miller did say she opened a savings account and deposited $50 in it.

Although she misspent the public funds, Miller says she thinks she did right by her kids by using nearly half of it illegally. She even argues that showing her kids what rich people’s houses in Miami look like will motivate them to succeed.