After a lawsuit brought by Alaskans who need food assistance In response to a lawsuit, the Alaska Department of Health is accepted to reduce the wait list to the State’s Supplemental Nutrition Aid Program to half within six months.
The decision was among the terms of an agreement that was announced Tuesday by the state and ten plaintiffs who had filed a class action suit against the state over the long-running delays that are commonly known as the food stamp system.
As part of the deal the plaintiffs signed a contract to remain -or hold off any legal action until October. 31. If the state doesn’t respect the terms of the agreement, then the lawsuit will be continued.
“I’m satisfied with the outcome immediately,” said Nick Feronti an attorney from the Fairbanks-based Northern Justice Project who is representing the plaintiffs.
“It’s likely to be the most efficient route we can take to fix things across the entire system,” he said.
If asked if he believes the state will be able to meet its commitment, he replied I believe.
“We believe that with a little confidence, they will achieve the requirements. We hope they will be able to beat the goal,” he said.
In a statement that was prepared and that was sent out via an email message, Department of Health Commissioner Heidi Hedberg and Attorney General Treg Taylor stated that the department is doing all it can to end the waiting list that stood at 10,598 on April 20.
“Alaska is determined to take the necessary steps to eliminate this issue and to provide benefits for Alaskans who require these benefits. We will continue to recruit additional employees and add additional assistance,” Hedberg said.
The agreement states that there is a signed contract to employ 75 contracted workers in order to ease the backlog. it anticipates them all to begin work by July 1.
“The government is doing all it can to address the problem,” Taylor said in the statement.
The backlog in Alaska grew in the year before, when the state escaped the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes authorized by Congress on the SNAP program came to an end.
Feronti claimed that the problem was made worse by certain optional options offered from the state. One example, which was addressed in the agreement this week: a lot of recipients of the food stamp were required to renew their applications at least every 6 months. This is which is more often than the federal law demands.
In certain areas of Alaska the accumulated backlog resulted in massive hunger and several cases of malnutrition that needed hospitalization as according to the Anchorage Daily News reported.
The backlog is less than at its peak, according official figures, but the states’ food banks still registering high demand.
Alaska isn’t the only one dealing this issue.
“Overall the delays are causing accessibility issues in several regions of the nation at present,” said Saima Akhtar who is a senior attorney at the National Center for Law and Economic Justice.
Akhtar has been a counsel along with Feronti in the case and her group is also a co-counsel in a suit in Missouri. The issues in Alaska are much worse than those of Missouri according to her.
“The magnitude of the issue is quite extensive,” Akhtar said.
A more active government in a different location and in a different period, could have dealt with the issue in a proactive manner, Feronti said, but “we do not have a state-wide government that is proactive currently.”
“The state has known for a long time, by its own records that this was an increasing problem” he added. “Maybe we can figure out how ways to take a more active role.”
