Public Employee Press

Food Stamp Crisis
Growing hunger-shredded safety net

By JANE LaTOUR

STARK HUNGER is stalking our land - rising in America since before the Great Recession hit in 2008. While economists have declared the downturn officially over, millions of families still depend on the nutrition safety net to eat.

In California, one in four families can't afford food for their kids and health-care advocates worry about the consequences. In February 2011, 44 million Americans were receiving benefits from the federal food stamp program, 12 percent more than a year earlier.

Every barometer points to the dramatic increase in poverty and hunger. The number of children in need of free or subsidized school lunches rose from 18 million nationwide in 2007 to 21 million in 2011 - a 17 percent increase.

Reflecting the national trend, the lines outside New York City's food pantries and food stamp centers are the longest in recent memory. In October, overcrowding at the Fordham food stamp center led the Human Resources Administration to shut it down, increasing the burden on the three other centers in the Bronx. On Nov. 14, so many people showed up at the center on DeKalb Avenue in Brooklyn that HRA had to call in the Fire Dept. to block applicants from entering - a tragic sign that the safety net is shredding.

As lines stretch down the blocks outside, visits to city food stamp centers show waiting rooms crammed with clients, many trying to calm hungry children as they sit for hours.

Most familiar with the problem are the staff - the clerical workers and others whose jobs involve helping the applicants. Some of the workers need food stamps themselves.

At Brooklyn's Thornton Street Center, Clerical Associate Latasha Vaughan says she is happy with the hustle and bustle of her work. "I love what I do and I like helping people. But I need to be paid for it."

The mother of five, with four children at home, struggles to make ends meet. "I'm in here at 8 a.m. every day. I work until 7:30 p.m. and do all the overtime I can get - without overtime I wouldn't be able to survive." Last year, two weeks before Thanksgiving, her electricity was cut off. "It cost $217 to get it turned back on," she said. After paying rent, electricity, child care, and other costs, she still comes up short. Food stamps help fill the gap - $350 a month worth - "Which in no way comes near to feeding my kids," she said.

"Doing more with less"

Clerical Associate Kaxandre Choute is another single mother who has to work all the overtime she can get. With children ages 7 and 13, she also depends on food stamps. "I get $280 a month," she said. "After paying rent and the costs of everything else, including $120 a month for an after-school program, I'm struggling. But as long as I have a job and a roof over my kids' heads, I am happy."

Eligibility Specialist Augustine Blackwell has been working at the Thornton Street Center for 17 years. "It's been two years since I had a raise," she said. "Everything's going up - the rent, light, gas, food, transportation - meanwhile my salary has stood still." Blackwell sees her co-workers trying to survive. "It's getting harder by the minute, for everyone," she said.

The food stamp workers feel intense pressure as they scramble to cope with oversized workloads. Staff cuts and center mergers have reduced their numbers as demand has increased. The endless lines and clients' outcries spilled into the tabloids, and the City Council responded with a hearing on the crisis. On Jan. 31, HRA Deputy Commissioner Patricia M. Smith told the City Council's General Welfare Committee of the city's efforts to streamline the process for applicants, but testimony from union representatives and client advocates outlined in detail the gaping holes in the safety net.

Testimony submitted by Clerical-Administrative Local 1549 President Eddie Rodriguez focused on members' problems. Staff are "stressed out from dealing with angry clients who have been waiting long hours. Sometimes they have to deal with workplace violence issues as tempers flare in the waiting rooms," he said. "In order to deal with the current situation, the city needs to acknowledge that staffing must increase."

SSEU Local 371 Vice President Rose Lovaglio Miller told the City Council members the problems at the centers are "a direct consequence of City Hall's 'do more with less' policy. Caseloads are rising, safety concerns are rising, and staff morale is falling." Caseloads have soared, with almost 2 million city residents now receiving food stamps - an increase of 700,000 in four years - while the agency has reduced its budgeted headcount by 1,300 positions through attrition.

"The biggest problem is the serious lack of staffing and closing of centers," said Local 1549 2nd Vice President Ralph Palladino. "Demand has gone up by 65 percent statewide since 2006, mostly in New York City, and faster in the last four years, yet the city has cut staffing," he testified.

Administration policies cause another tragic problem, Palladino explained: The delays, long lines, chaotic waiting rooms and days lost from work - caused by inadequate staffing - discourage people in need from getting their rightful benefits, so that about 47 percent of those eligible for food stamps in New York City have not applied.

Joel Berg, director of the Coalition Against Hunger, testified "on behalf of the city's more than 1,100 soup kitchens and food pantries - and the nearly 1.5 million New Yorkers who live in households that can't afford enough food." He described the red tape and bureaucracy that make it tough to get benefits and stay enrolled.

"If the Bloomberg administration is sincerely interested in governing based on data, then they have to agree that something is very wrong regarding the management of the food stamp program," Berg said.

In the immediate aftermath of the hearings, HRA Commissioner Robert Doar met with DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts, Associate Director Henry Garrido, Rodriguez and Palladino. He agreed to hire more than 80 Eligibility Specialists. But DC 37's Research Dept. said that HRA needs to add more than 200 workers to handle the demand for food stamps.

"Mayor Bloomberg should only know how hard our members are working and how dedicated they are to getting the clients their benefits," said Grievance Rep Kathleen Newallo.