U.S. media generally claimed that the Trump Administration and supporting state Republican governments didn’t like to see Americans on food stamps. Why, then, is the denial of food stamps to New Yorkers actually much worse right now? Are not its Senators, its governor, and 70% of its U.S. Representatives Democrats?
According to a long report by the City Limits organization on Dec. 23, half of all New York City food stamp applicants—there are 1.7 million of them and they must reapply and requalify at regular intervals—cannot get their applications processed. The city’s Human Resources Administration workforce is 20% short of its assigned workforce. Processing of applications within 30 days was at 92% in 2020, dropping to 60% in 2021, and down again to 46% in 2022. Meanwhile, applicant households have to borrow the food money they need, at pawn shops or otherwise. (https://citylimits.org/2022/12/23/as-nycs-food-stamp-crisis-worsens-state-agency-withholds-relief/ )
But although New York State actually administers the program and the city’s processing backlog is now huge, the state will not intervene and grant a waiver of the recertification requirement, as it has done as recently as three years ago. The state’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) claims the city HRA has to shape up first, and eliminate errors from its processing, or the state will lose federal assistance.
That’s right—the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is really a 100% federally-funded program! So why don’t the federal authorities intervene, with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand telling City Limits how she’s “very concerned about the thousands of New Yorkers who are waiting for their SNAP benefits to come through"? Gillibrand said her office is working with U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs SNAP, on this serious problem. But City Limits reported that the USDA said it was up to Albany’s OTDA to issue recertification waivers first. And the state, as noted, said that the city’s HRA must shape up its processing first…
It may just be, with the U.S. harvests declining in 2022 due to drought and fertilizer prices, that the real problem is not enough food being produced.
