New York City struggling to process applications for food stamps
NEW YORK -- More than half all New Yorkers who apply for SNAP benefits, more commonly known as food stamps, are waiting and waiting for a response.
The federal money is there, but the city has been slow to process the applications and get it to those in need.
CBS2 found out why and what can be done about it.
The city's Human Resources Administration -- or HRA -- is promptly processing applications for SNAP benefits less than half of the time.
Henry Robinson of East New York, Brooklyn said he knows firsthand the system is difficult to navigate.
"I'm actually one of the individuals who rely on food stamps," Robinson said. "You have to reapply and it's a process all the time, and then, if you forget and they take it away from you, you have to do it all over."
"If you don't have the people in place to operate the programs, the programs don't work," City Councilman Lincoln Restler said.
Restler says more than half of all New York food stamps applicants are waiting for benefits to arrive, because HRA doesn't have enough workers to process the paperwork.
He says during the de Blasio administration, HRA staffing was about 15,000. Now it's down to 10,000, with a 20% vacancy rate.
"So we have resources that are available to us that the federal government is making available and inability of the city, of HRA, to staff up appropriately means people are not being connected to the resources they need and deserve and the food that keeps them healthy," Restler said.
CBS2 asked City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams if enough is being done.
"We are going to continue to our part in continuing to press the administration, work with the administration to try to fulfill these needs and try to push these agencies to do the work they are committed to do for New Yorkers," Adams said.
The city says making this worse is the number of applicants for SNAP benefits rose more than 50% in two years during the pandemic.
"We have a fiscal crisis," Mayor Eric Adams said. "There are some places where we are gonna say let's think differently about. That's what the team is going to do. We are not looking to do anything that's going to impact those New Yorkers who are in need."
The city is looking at ways to modernize the technology to process the applications more efficiently.
