NYC Food Stamps Bungling Left Thousands Of Families Hungry: Advocates

NEW YORK CITY — Bungling by New York City officials left tens of thousands of families waiting for much-need food stamps and cash assistance benefits, advocates said.

Only 39 percent of food stamps, or SNAP, benefits were processed in a timely manner by the city during the past year, according to the Mayor's Management Report released last week.

The timeliness number fell to just shy of 29 percent for cash assistance, the audit found.

Advocates with The Legal Aid Society blasted the city's performance as "outrageous and cruel" given that low-income families faced skyrocketing inflation, as well as that SNAP benefits are federally funded.

"No low-income household should ever be forced to forgo groceries and other critical needs due to bureaucratic failures," Legal Aid advocates said in a statement.

City Hall officials didn't return a request for comment by publication. The audit itself blamed the delays on an unprecedented increase in applications, fewer staff and recent changes in law, among other factors.

"(Human Resources Administration) is taking aggressive action to fill critical vacancies, invest in technology and implement process improvements to improve timeliness," the audit states.

But Legal Aid advocates pointed out the delays aren't a new problem. Timeliness rates for Cash Assistance and SNAP were 82 percent and 60 percent, respectively, during the 2022 fiscal year, the audit states.

The low numbers for food stamps prompted Legal Aid advocates to file a class action suit in January that sought to address "systemic failures" that deprive needy households of food and cash benefits.

A judge in July leveled a preliminary injunction that orders the city to eliminate the delay backlog by March 2024.