Harlem Food Stamps Distribution Center To Close, Report Says

HARLEM, NY — The city is closing a food stamp distribution center in Harlem this month because city officials believe it is under-utilized, according to reports.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program center on West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Junior and Malcolm X boulevards will close June 28, the New York Daily News first reported. Families who pick up their food stamps at the location will be forced to go to a different center in East Harlem near Third Avenue and East 126th Street, according to the report.

City officials decided to close the center because it was "underutilized," a spokesman for the city Human Resources Association told the Daily News in a statement. The spokesman said that 87 percent of New Yorkers receiving SNAP benefits do so over the city's phone app, not at in-person distribution centers.

But advocates said that the closure will simply inconvenience some of New York City's most vulnerable.

"The relocation of services from Central Harlem to East Harlem will most impact those who are already most vulnerable in the community: seniors, people who experience homelessness, people with minor children and disabled New Yorkers," Kiana Davis, a benefits advocate for the Urban Justice Center, told the Daily News.

Read the New York Daily News' article here.