A plethora of Alaskans were waiting for food stamps beginning in the season through this winter because of the influx of applications within Alaska’s Division of Public Assistance. More than a thousand are waiting.
Now , Gov. Mike Dunleavy is poised to sign the bill which will invest thousands of dollars in a speedy solution to end the state’s lengthy backlog. But insiders and advocates say the emergency money doesn’t reach enough — and the largest issues aren’t being addressed.
“Very much of a band-aid’
The bill will allocate $3.1 million in overtime compensation and hundreds of temporary and contract employees. Dunleavy’s capital budget proposal comprises $54million for a revamp of the department’s old computer system.
These funds follow from $1.7 million the governor diverted to aid in replenishing food banks due to the fact that delays in food stamps have caused strain on the food aid system across the state.
Ron Meehan, who manages policy and advocacy for Food Banks of Alaska, explained that the funds are already being used. Green beans, pasta, corn, and trail mix are loaded onto trucks and heading to food banks throughout the state.
He claimed that it will have a significant impactand only for six weeks.
“It’s very much a band-aid,” he said. “It’s an extremely temporary fix. It’s not intended to fill in the whole gap. It places us in a better position than the one we were prior to having it.”
Based on Meehan’s math that the state typically gives out $348 million per year for food stamps, a four-month delay means that approximately $120 million dollars aren’t going to Alaskans. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme, known as SNAP is able to provide at minimum 10 times the amount of food as the food bank system provides in Alaska.
State officials have also said they’ve been able to complete hundreds of food stamp backlog applications. However, Meehan says the food banks in the state haven’t seen any relief yetthere’s a lot of demand, particularly among working families.
The Kenai Peninsula, the food bank is serving an average of three families every day. Some of them aren’t using the service for the past. In Cordova where Cordova, the Salvation Army has gone from serving the 57 families it serves to the 80. In addition, the Fairbanks Soup kitchen in Fairbanks has fed an unprecedented number of customers every month since November.
“The people we care for are angry, overwhelmed, and they’re in need of food,” Meehan said. “We’ve been told by people who have been drinking their soup in order to feed their children eating dog food, or being apathetic for days on end.”
A problem with attrition caused an “human catastrophe”
Beneficiaries such as food stamps claim that the whole thing could be eliminated. In order to fix things the government must determine how to attract and keep trained employees.
State leaders blamed the failure of backup to its outdated computer system. It also triggered a flood of recertifications following the pandemic were withdrawn and a cyberattack occurred in May of 2021.
“That’s completely false,” said Fred Rapp who is an eligibility worker for 15 years working for the Fairbanks office. “COVID as well as the cyber hack that took place was the only thing that did was to finally reveal what was going on at the division. This meant that it could not truly be concealed from the general public.”
He noted that people began to quit in 2010 during the Parnell administration as a result of a mix of staff reductions and radical adjustments to procedures which included the abandonment of the department’s traditional case management model, in which the eligibility staff worked with designated families.
And he added that the benefits available to Tier IV state employees don’t encourage them to stay. ( Teachersand other state workers have also reported similar issues with Tier IV.)
“We have lost a lot of intelligent and smart people because they were not willing to deal with what was happening for long,” he said. “You have to keep your egos on the floor. If you don’t keep them in the seats the rest of what you’re trying to achieve will not work.”
Rapp stated that he’s been asking elected officials to tackle the high rate of attrition since the time Gov. Parnell was in the office. He claimed he is aware of the negative effects of the dysfunctional department each day.
The winter before, Rapp said he talked with an older person who could not receive food stamps. The freezer in her home was becoming empty and she was without anyone to look for her. She said she was hoping that an animal, such as a grouse or squirrel would pass through her yard to cook the food the way he suggested.
The backlog can affect other benefits as well. He says he’s often talking to mothers who are stuck in the waiting game for Medicaid. They could lose postpartum health coverage if they do not have appointments for those first 2 months following birth. However, simple address changes could prevent those from accessing care and an update could take the time of the division.
Rapp describes it as the incident a “human tragedy,” which he says could have been prevented if the division had sufficient staff and had the ability to retain qualified personnel for eligibility.
Rapp stated that his experiences make him a quick worker. Since so many recent hires leave, long-term employees are on thin ground. He would like for the government to take it seriously and get focused on retention.
He, along with other eligibility workers who spoke to KTOO anonymously in previous reports — admitted that they’re shocked to see the state put millions into software that’s been found to be ineffective.
The system at issue is known as ARIES or the Alaskan Resource for Integrated Eligibility Services. People say that it isn’t working.
“The reason that this is so alarming to me is because everyone who utilizes ARIES is aware they’re using a garbage engine” Rapp said. “The best way I could describe it is that they were planning to build something similar to the design of a Ferrari however, when they lifted the hood to put in the engine it turned out to be an engine that resembles a lawnmower.”
When you asked about ARIES in the past, Department of Health spokesperson Sonya Senkowsky told reporters that “any issues that arise with the ARIES system can be easily solved and have not caused any significant disruption to processing the information that was backlogged.” After the purchase in the system, it will operate differently and certain Medicaid applications could be automated.
However, Rapp stated that frequent “hiccups” caused by ARIES result in delays in approving people for Medicaid. When the program fails and he’s forced to put the case aside, submit a trouble ticket , and wait for someone from IT to bring things back to normal. In the past nine decades, Rapp said he’s seen evidence of at least 70, 000 such trouble tickets.
ARIES was intended to serve as a tool to process all public assistance of the state, however, the state did not roll out the system in a small amount. Rapp and other eligibility specialists are concerned regarding putting all of the division’s programs onto a system that Rapp claimed “can’t even manage Medicaid.”
More work needs to be completed
“He’s not in any way wrong,” said Magen James Magen James, who works as an SNAP Outreach Manager at the Food Banks of Alaska. She is in close contact with state eligibility specialists such as Rapp to assist Alaskans receive SNAP benefits.
James does not directly work with ARIES, however she has said that ARIES was never fully implemented and delays workers.
“They began the process of migration but never finished the process. This meant that they unproductive and cost them money,” she said.
And she believes that the state should tackle the root of staffing shortages and make sure that they retain highly trained staff. She’s observed that the newly trained and inexperienced staff have a tendency to make mistakes.
“Many of the Division of Public Assistance] workers who work in their call centers, are not even being trained with the correct details,” she said. “We’re always needing to correct the incorrect information that’s being released by the frontline workers who are being placed in the middle of the heat.”
She also said she’d like to have the state fund various solutions that they haven’t attempted so far. Alaska is one of one of the states that don’t have the federal system that allows families that have the right to certain benefits automatically be eligible to receive food stamps. It reduces the time required by eligibility workers and can translate into savings for the state. It’s also proved to be beneficial to families with low incomes.
James said that applicants could apply online. Alaska is among only two states without an online application form for SNAP. The legislature adopted the bill in the year 2000 that was supposed to have online applications up and running by July, but this isn’t happening. The state hopes to have it up and running by the end of December.
And James stated that helping people navigate through such a broken system can be a burden on employees, too.
“My whole team having to deal with secondary trauma throughout the day as everyone we work in is hungry, and does not enjoy their advantages,” she said.
James spoke of hearing stories about people who must decide between food and medicine in order to sort their benefits out. She hopes that the state will change the situation — in both the case of hungry Alaskans and for people like Rapp who have heard these stories and try to get things back on track.
“These individuals are making decisions between two options for survival. It’s extremely difficult to understand and also to assist,” she said.
A rare federal reprimand
Jesus Mendoza Jr. runs the regional United States Department of Agriculture office, which oversees Food stamps programs. He says that Alaska’s backlog is among the highest in the western states.
“It can be serious and it’s very important,” he said. “There’s many Alaska citizens who aren’t receiving benefits.”
He wrote a letter earlier in the month of February the Alaskan Department of Health Commissioner, Heidi Hedberg, addressing the division’s failings. He urged for her to devise solutions to the backlog. Alaska isn’t the sole state that has a backlog but it is the sole state to be given this warning.
“We believe that the government will act as swiftly as they can to correct that situation.” Mendoza said. “Because If it’s a month long, if it’s two months long the length is insufficient for the recipients to not be eligible for benefits.”
The governor was swift to highlight the progress made by the state, however it was not as impressive as new contract hires as well as the $1.7 million Governor. Dunleavy allocated to food banks. He acknowledges, however, that the computer fix that the state has proposed will require time.
“Replacing the system of eligibility isn’t going to be simple. It’s going to take more than a yearto complete,” said the official. “We must work in conjunction with state officials to ensure that while we wait, while we work to get ahead of the backlog and get it cleared, we aren’t in the same spot just a few months in the future.”
However, some eligibility workers like Rapp believe that’s a probable future scenario without a clearer analysis of the current staffing situation.
“They’ve known about this for a long time’
Rapp stated that he doesn’t wish for the state to get involved, however he recognizes the need for intervention by means of teeth.
“I truly wish it was the government of the United States that would intervene,” he said. “If they need to begin with the state’s financial burden, in the event that’s what it takes that eventually makes the state take note and act in the right way and act accordingly it’s possible that they have to think about it.”
Rapp says he is an Dunleavy supporter , and has said that the majority of his opinions are favorable to Dunleavy’s policies however, he believes Dunleavy is not hitting the mark in his solutions.
“He could be the owner of this property If he wanted todo so,” Dunleavy said. “It’s not like anybody is going to make him accountable at the elections.” Dunleavy is serving his second term in a row which is the limit set by the state.
Rapp stated that he was trying to inform Dunleavy and legislators about the dysfunction in 2018and neither governors. Parnell and Walker nor the legislature demonstrated the determination to fix the issue, neither.
“There is no need for excuses. Excuses are no longer valid,” Rapp said. “They’ve been aware of this for all the time. They’ve just chosen not to take action.”
