Food stamp demand on rise
Caseworkers seek more help
Boston Globe Northwest
Thursday, October 16, 2008
By Kate Augusto, Globe Correspondent
In today's poor economy, more people are turning to food stamps to make ends meet.
But increased accessibility to food stamps, and more demand for the program, has translated into longer lines and longer wait times for recipients. And caseworkers in some high-unemployment areas are now calling for more hands to keep up with the demand.
"Our lines are out the doors some days," said Linda Domingo, a caseworker at the Department of Transitional Assistance office in Lawrence.
The unemployment rate in the Lawrence, Methuen, and Salem area was 8.4 percent in August, lower only than the rate in some regions of Michigan, according to the latest figures available from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracks unemployment by selected metropolitan areas.
Across Massachusetts, food stamp participation has increased from 342,370 in July 2004 to 527,000 this July, while food stamp participation in Lawrence increased from 13,361 to 18,597 in the same four-year span, according to Kristina Saunders, communications manager for the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services.
At the same time, the number of cases per worker in Lawrence has soared from about 357 in 2004 to nearly 600 this year, said Mark Williams, vice president of Service Employees International Union Local 509, which represents more than 11,000 human services workers in state and community agencies.
"We applaud the [Patrick] administration's efforts in increasing participation, but when you expand the program . . . we need workers to go with us so we can get the job done," he said.
In 2004, Williams said, the Lawrence office employed about 82 social workers and supervisors, but now they're down to about 55. He said the office would need at least five more employees to keep up with the current caseload.
Domingo said this is the first time in her experience that it can take a case worker the maximum seven days to see a food stamp applicant or the maximum 30 days to process an application. She said applicants are often forced to make choices while they wait for approval, sometimes buying food on credit cards with 20 percent interest.
Workers from the office, other union members, and community activists held a "Rally for Hunger" in Lawrence earlier this month to call attention to the issue.
"It doesn't take rocket science to see where the economy is going, and that's why we had the rally," said Domingo. "We're not able to service people as quickly as we used to be able to."
Domingo said the effects of the depressed economy are far-reaching and more and more of the people seeking food stamps are in the middle class. "There's a preconceived notion of what a welfare client is, but that's not what we're seeing," she said.
Despite the increase in caseloads, Department of Transitional Assistance Commissioner Julia Kehoe said in a statement that the US Department of Agriculture recently ranked Massachusetts number one in the country for timely processing of food stamp applications.
"During these challenging times the Department of Transitional Assistance is doing all that it can to assist low-income individuals and families to meet their basic needs," Kehoe said. "Additionally, the department has been actively looking into ways to streamline the application process and ease administrative processes associated with the Food Stamp program in order to provide relief to current staff, and will continue to work to further improve our processes."
Fifty-percent of caseworker funding comes from the state and 50 percent comes from the federal government, Kehoe said.
US Representative Niki Tsongas, who represents the area, said in a statement that she applauds Governor Deval Patrick for his persistence in getting families eligible for food stamps enrolled in the program, but agrees more caseworkers are needed to keep up with the demand.
"As more families are served by food stamps, a reciprocal boost to the administration of the program must occur," she said. "There are no immediate or easy solutions given the severe constraints on the state budget, but I will work with the Department of Transitional Assistance in the Commonwealth and Department of Agriculture in Washington to address this growing problem."
Williams said if the economy continues to get worse, the problem for case workers may as well.
"This economy is going south and it doesn't look like it's going to get better any time soon, which will mean more and more folks will be coming to see us for assistance," he said.
Kate Augusto can be reached at k.augusto11@gmail.com