Nikita Chase hasn’t got an ornament for Christmas this year. She says she’s more concerned about avoiding an electric shutoff notice rather instead of getting into the Christmas spirit. Food stamps, also known under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program benefits were almost two months behind.
“I have pretty much worn out until the Christmas season. This isn’t a good location to be in,” she said.
She racked up an outstanding credit card debt to pay for heating and electricity, after she used the entire amount of money to provide for her family. She incurred a significant price increase for her grocery shopping in her remote home in Tenakee Springs instead of taking the ferry to Juneau for a massive shopping spree while waiting for her state payment.
So Chase was in the same position she was at this point the year before waiting in line with the Alaska’s Division of Public Assistance to claim her owed benefits. At the time she received them, two months later, she was $2500 in credit.
“I was calling in tears telling her, ‘I have to go to town to get my groceries”” she said.
The state is now facing a food stamp backlog of unprecedented proportions which has left thousands of Alaskans struggling to eat or owe money when they try to buy food and pay expenses. State employees say they can’t cope with the demands of their jobs and the head of the unions of workers said the state hasn’t properly discussed how to recruit and keep enough employees to eliminate the backlog.
The federal government announced last winter that that 15,000 Alaskans are waiting for their turn in the queue. In August, the state cut the backlog down to 6,000 however, it has increased to over 12,000 people in the past few months.
For Chase it was a result of missing a ferry trip from Tenakee Springs to Juneau and having to pay more for food. “In the final analysis you’re spending three times the amount you would been if you’d received advantages,” she said. “That places you in a position that you’re trying get yourself out.”
“The result of decades of cuts’
Heidi Drygas, director of the union which is the representative of DPA employees, told Gov. Dunleavy’s administration has the potential to solve the issue and offer desperate Alaskans food assistance if it recruited and kept more DPA employees. She claimed that the state did not do enough to improve conditions in the DPA division.
“We requested the department to boost wages and benefits as well as improve the strategies to retain and recruit employees and, in general, trying to treat employees with consideration,” she said. “What both the division and division ultimately did appears to be the administration’s plan of action It was that they contracted out 75 positions that were not part from Alaska.”
The year before, eligibility workers claimed that their workloads were getting too heavy due to their bosses in the Dunleavy administration eliminated more than 100 positions of the Division of Public Assistance in 2021. This left offices without staff, despite warnings from an agency overseeing the state’s budget and the Food Bank of Alaska that the cut could cause an increase in backlog.
Drygas stated that the backlog was the result the “manufactured” budgetary crisis. Drygas did not win the lieutenant governor in the past as an independent candidate alongside former governor. Bill Walker. Drygas stated that the state hasn’t put in enough effort to pay employees fairly this is why they aren’t able to keep them in important positions like eligibility specialists.
“This results from years of cutbacks that have been and is Dunleavy administration’s preferred method to address their budget issues to help their policy goals This is the outcome,” she said. “You’re unlikely to be able to keep employees around when they’ll be able to find a better job in which they don’t have to work, errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr insane hours of overtime. They are feeling undervalued and unpaid.”
Jeff Turner, a spokesperson for the Dunleavy Administration, said in an email it was the “Dunleavy administration is committed to securing the clearing of SNAP applications and has taken strenuous steps to ensure those who qualify Alaskans get SNAP benefits as fast as they can,” and that changes to policy in the department will “build a stronger public assistance process that will reduce the likelihood of delays in the future.”
In a hole
Since September when the state reported it had reduced Food Stamp backlog to 66,000 applications, the amount of people awaiting crucial food assistance has increased by two. Director of the Division of Public Assistance Deb Etheridge has said that the division takes the “growing problem” extremely seriously.
“I realize this isn’t an ideal situation,” she said. “It’s an unfortunate circumstance however I want to assure you that we are trying our best to come up with solutions and invent new ideas.”
Etheridge stated that the backlog started to increase in the month of October, after the federal government ordered the state to start interviewing clients once more after a hiatus in response to the outbreak. Employees who are eligible within the division reported that the process was slowed substantially. There were other reasons as well: weather-related closures of offices in certain areas and a weekend when employees were unable to work overtime, while data in the state’s system for computer data was transferred to cloud -a part of $54 million worth of tech changes that the governor announced in February.
When she noticed the queues growing, Etheridge said she asked the federal government to grant employees another six months of respite from conducting interviews, but her request was denied. Etheridge immediately approached the Health Commissioner of the state Heidi Hedberg for permission to violate the rules. She granted just before Thanksgiving.
“We had to take those drastic steps for us to make sure that Alaskans can access nutritious food sources,” she said. Although the backlog continues increasing, Etheridge said she thinks it’s getting closer to stabilizing.
There are department workers processing food stamp applications, referred to as eligibility technicians. Etheridge stated that she’d need 200 at full-time on cases in order to get rid of the backlog this month – a approximately 60-person increase in staff. She has 30 eligibility technicians currently in training according to her, and an additional dozen or so positions advertised.
Etheridge became director for the DPA at the peak of backlog in which some applicants had been in wait for their benefits for as long as 10 months. Etheridge stated that this time the backlog was different Alaskans are waiting for up to six months for benefits and there are tech advancements in the works with an online application which Etheridge declared should be available by the end of this year. Other technological fixes will be made in the next two years added.
“We’re striving towards change and achievement. It just requires time. I believe that’s the only aspect that’s been really difficult,” she said. “But be assured that I am passionate about my job and am very dedicated.”
Etheridge stated that staff overtime is a crucial element in resolving the problem of backlog. Many former employees now working for other State agencies, have pledged to handle food stamp cases during their working hours. She has asked division employees who are in leadership positions to contribute also, despite the fact that their duties do not normally include cases that need to be worked on.
Staff say they aren’t able to keep up
One of the very first DPA personnel to come out about the delays and inefficiency within the division claimed they were irritated by the backlog that was created, however, they felt more confident in the leadership this time. They spoke to Alaska Beacon. Alaska Beacon on the condition of anonymity as they were worried that speaking out could compromise their position.
“I am just feeling like the job itself is so overwhelming, we’re unable to stay on top of it,” they said. They compared it to a scene from the Disney film Fantasia in which Mickey Mouse cannot keep up with the plethora of water in his buckets and is nearly drowned in a torrent of water.
The worker who is able to make eligibility claims admitted that it’s “crazy” to have to deal the same issue time and time again: “People are without food again. Now, the threats are beginning to appear in a new way, as they’re thinking”we’re just so tired of this, you’ve just have done this to us.'”
One man was not get his senior benefits the entire year. Another woman’s application was not properly completed, and she threatened to commit suicide in a divisional office.
“She claimed she was planning to commit suicide, as she had done everything she was supposed accomplish and was not receiving her benefit,” the worker said she added. She also said they were given permission to rectify a minor mistake that caused the delay. “I don’t want to see someone threat to murder themselves.”
“We’re becoming overwhelmed,” they said of the division. “And we’re putting people through training too quickly, which means that they’re unable to understand the concepts behind certain policies, and they’re messing in instances… People have no benefits as a result of this.”
Certain DPA staff have expressed their displeasure of the options offered by administration officials. In March, long-time DPA employee Fred Rapp said the state must figure out how to retain and recruit employees, rather than wasting millions on software Rapp compared to the equivalent of a Ferrari with the motor of a lawnmower.
In February, workers from unions protested at Juneau to demand higher compensation, and also in order for their divisions to become fully-staffed. Etheridge claimed that the division has not been completely staffed since she was appointed to her job, but they are actively seeking.
Food stamps, senior benefits, Medicaid
In Cordova Cordova, the head of community services for the hospital that is located in Cordova said clients can wait as long as five months to receive food stamps. Barbara Jewell works with people who go to Cordova Community Medical Center for services for seniors and behavioral health. She says those looking for food stamps or Medicaid can be “really at risk” and comprise at about 35percent of her clients.
“They’re scared. They contact our office and ask”I don’t have food, what can you do?’ often, we can provide one-time assistance and sometimes, there’s any thing we can do,” she explained. “It’s not the hospital’s responsibility to feed people, is it? This is not what hospitals are designed to do.”
Jewell says that Food banks in the area are getting depleted of food and she’s upset to see applications that are backed up after the state announced it was working to clear the backlog.
“The government acted as if they’ve taken charge of the issue. They released the most massive press releases claiming they have fixed the issue. But it’s not true.” she claimed. “I was angry.”
She noted that the delay in processing Food Stamps processing is the biggest issue, but the delays in the processing of Medicaid impacts communities too.
“Medical providers don’t receive paid, which can either force them out of business or raises the costs for us all,” she said. “When hospitals and providers must wait between three and six months before they can be paid due to the fact that it takes this long for application to be consideredthis is a huge problem for everyone.”
Legal recourse
In January Northern Justice Project Northern Justice Project filed what they hope is an action class action to sue Department of Health Commissioner Hedberg on behalf of 10 Alaskans who have not received food stamp benefits in a timely fashion.
According to federal law The federal law states that under federal law, the Department of Health must provide regular Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Benefits to applicants who are eligible within 30 days following the date of application however certain families have been waiting for several months. The complaint states that delays are because of delays and chaos at the ” immense delays and chaos in chaos at the Alaska Department of Health.”
The state and lawyers agreed to suspend the lawsuit for six months as they worked on the matter. The state in May requested for another six months, which brought the delay to one year. In the last month the state requested a six-month delay but Northern Justice Project lead attorney Saima Akhtar has said that they are against the request.
“Nobody is eating retroactively. You can’t get back the benefits of being hungry, and not having these benefits,” she said. “That is why we believed strongly that this case needed to be put back on the active docket for litigation and we must proceed.”
Akhtar has been involved in food stamp delays across the country and has said that this is one of the worst backlogs she’s seen since it affected a huge number of recipients.
The state is communicative, however, she is prepared to find a solution.
“The problems have become worse, aren’t they? The numbers today are similar, if perhaps worse than at the beginning of May” She said. In May, attorneys approved the state’s request to put an indefinite hold on the case on the condition that the state reduce the backlog by half.
“We are not in this point,” Akhtar said. “There continue to be issues that have not been resolved.”
Alaskans who are awaiting food stamps were previously in a position to get help from the ombudsman’s bureau, an agency that handles complaints about state government and departments. However, a lawsuit that is pending is now restricts the ombudsman’s agency from intervening in the state, according to the state Ombudsman Kate Burkhart.
“We are still receiving complaints regarding delays in benefits for SNAP,” she said in an email. “Since we are unable to assist the complainants, we will refer these individuals to Alaska Legal Services Corporation for assistance with the filing of an administrative fair hearing.”
Leigh Dickey, the advocacy director of Alaska Legal Services Center, stated that the amount of complaints is “crazy.” In the beginning of January until July the year in question, ALSC counsellors helped receive the food stamps for more than 22,000 Alaskans. Then, since then the amount of complaints has increased by two times. Dickey claimed that there were over 600 requests for assistance in November.
Etheridge said she isn’t sure when the staff will need to get through the backlog, but in the next two weeks she’ll be able to determine the timeline and whether she will require additional resources to finish the task.
The story was originally published in Alaska Beacon and is republished here with permission.
