Food stamp use soars
Elizabeth Steele drops in at the Living Room in Santa Rosa in the morning and looks for work in the afternoon. Steele, 57, says she applied for food stamps this year and has had to stay in shelters after she fell on hard times and suffered health problems.
KENT PORTER / The Press DemocratPublished: Sunday, December 13, 2009 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, December 13, 2009 at 9:31 p.m.
A record number of Sonoma County residents are using food stamps as the economic recession lingers and people struggle to meet basic needs.
More than 22,000 people in Sonoma County were using food stamps in September, a 57 percent increase over the same month in 2007. More than half of those on the rolls were children, according to county data.
The numbers are a stark reversal for a program that seemed on the verge of irrelevancy. From 1995 to 2004, food stamp enrollment in the county was down 44 percent, thanks in large part to a robust economy.
But with unemployment in Sonoma County at 10 percent and a housing market still in tatters, food stamps increasingly are a sought after lifeline.
Elizabeth Steele, 57, of Santa Rosa said she applied for food stamps this year after she exhausted an annuity funded by the sale of her late parents' home and suffered health problems.
A 1970 Montgomery High School grad, Steele said she also has had to stay in shelters as she struggles to regain her financial footing.
“It was a little humiliating for me,” she said of having to seek help. “I was so grateful that these resources were out there, but at my age, I should be in retirement.”
Marion Deeds, director of the county's Economic Assistance Division, said the spike in food stamp use is unprecedented in her 30 years with the county.
Lines at the Paulin Drive office in Santa Rosa where applications are obtained are often long, and on a recent Wednesday included families, single mothers and people who appeared to be homeless.
The county has increased outreach efforts in recent years to try and get eligible people to take advantage of food stamps. But while that may explain some of the spike, Deeds said she believes the poor economy to be the “huge driver” behind the record number of people signing up for the program.
She said case workers are taking more applications from people who say they never thought they'd have to resort to food stamps to get by.
“We're seeing people who were doing well and then suddenly lost a job or had their hours reduced and now they can't make it,” she said. “We're also seeing the working poor who may have used the program in the past but were stable and are now coming back because they've lost their job.”
Food stamp use is soaring across the nation, where more than 36 million people now rely on government assistance to supplement their food needs.
A recent analysis by the New York Times said the program helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children. About 20,000 people are being added to the rolls every day, the paper found.
In Sonoma County, the vast majority of people who use food stamps — nearly 17,000 out of the total 22,000 — do not receive CalWORKS benefits, which are typically thought of as welfare.
The average monthly food stamp benefit in October was $285 for families who are not receiving other cash assistance. For CalWORKS families, whose incomes are typically lower, that amount was $340.
A family of three generally cannot earn more than $1,984 a month, or $23,808 a year, in order to qualify for food stamps.
One 66-year-old Forestville woman was planning to apply for food stamps for the first time Friday because her income from selling paintings has dwindled and she can't afford to buy groceries and pay bills — including the monthly mortgage on her home — on Social Security benefits alone.
“I've survived by my wits for many, many years. I've just always had cash flow,” she said. “It never occurred to me that it would stop, and then it did. It's unbelievable. I never dreamed I would be without money.”
The woman asked that she not be identified because she doesn't want her family and friends to know that she is seeking the help.
“It was all I could do to make the appointment,” she said. “I felt bad about it, but that's the reality of my situation. I need to be able to eat.”
Her concerns underscore the stigma that still surrounds food stamps, which, despite their phenomenal growth in use, are viewed by some as a government handout for the undeserving or lazy.
The federal government last year changed the name of the program to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in part to try and alter past perceptions. “Food stamps” is a misnomer anyway as recipients use debit-like cards, and not actual stamps, to purchase groceries.
Despite those efforts, thousands of Sonoma County residents who are eligible for food stamps forgo using the program every year.
In December 2008, for instance, the 17,909 county residents who were receiving food stamps represented only 39 percent of those who met federal poverty guidelines.
California as a whole ranks near the bottom for food stamp participation, resulting in millions of dollars in unclaimed benefits. It's also a blow to the economy, as every dollar issued for food stamps translates into an estimated $1.37 spent on groceries, according to one study.
If every eligible individual participated in the food stamp program, the state would receive an estimated $3.7 billion in additional federal benefits and an additional $6.9 billion in economic activity, according to a 2009 report issued by California Food Policy Advocates.
Critics of California's food stamp program say the requirements are a deterrent to many otherwise eligible recipients. Applicants, with few exceptions, are interviewed in person, have to give a fingerprint and must prove essentially that they are as poor as they say they are.
“The system is designed to make a person feel like a criminal for being hungry and poor,” said Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa.
Evans said politics also play a role. In 2006, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill Evans authored that would have automatically qualified Medi-Cal recipients for food stamps, as opposed to making them apply separately for that assistance, as is the case now.
“It's an example of punishing everybody for a few bad apples,” she said. “It would be much better and more efficient to go after people who are committing the fraud rather than applying punitive measures across the board that prevent people from applying for benefits they are eligible for.”
David Goodman, executive director of the Redwood Empire Food Bank, said food stamps have the potential to be the most effective method of getting assistance to those who need it. But he said the program is “severely underutilized.”
In his opinion, money spent on outreach efforts would be better spent on distributing food to those who need it.
“We could spend $100 to try and do a great job with no guarantees, or spend $100 on hunger relief programs and for sure distribute $400 worth of food,” he said.
“In the end, when you measure success, did you actually help people? We are torn with what is of greater value — participating in a food stamp program or feeding people now. We're not talking about tomorrow, maybe. We're talking about today, definitely.”
Deeds said the county has made improvements designed to streamline the application process, including allowing people to apply over the phone if they have a documented hardship going to the Santa Rosa office.
She said starting in January, the county and an as-yet-undetermined community-based agency will partner on a new outreach program in which people can complete an application for food stamps, scan it and send it in electronically. A county worker would complete the process over the phone.
“I think what's happened is the program has been simplified and the word hasn't gotten out,” Deeds said. “Very often when we conduct surveys, people are acting on information that is several years old.”
She said food stamps remain one of the county's “most effective programs.”
“You take your EBT card and buy food. It's that pure,” she said. “At the end of the day, if people are not going hungry .
You can reach Staff Writer Derek J. Moore at 521-5336 or derek.moore@
pressdemocrat.com.
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.
Comments are currently unavailable on this article