Thread: L.A. County Supervisors Want to Expand Food Stamp Recipients by 50%

L.A. County Supervisors Want to Expand Food Stamp Recipients by 50%Tim Boyle/Getty Images

by CHRISS W. STREET2
6 May 2017
Newport Beach, CA

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has started a marketing team to increase the number of food stamp recipients by 50 percent to make sure the Trump administration’s spending cuts do not slow the flood of federal dollars.

President Trump’s “America First: budget request for the 2017-2018 fiscal year that begins on October 1 features a $19.1 billion annual cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) food stamp program. As the biggest beneficiary out of America’s 3,142 counties, Los Angeles County, with 1,183,107 food stamp (CalFresh) recipients, stands to lose $1.8 billion a year in federal funding if Congress passes Trump’s proposed budget.

To keep the federal spigot as wide open as possible, County Supervisors Hilda Solis, Janice Hahn and Sheila Kuehl on May 23 voted to make senior staff at the L.A. County Department of Public Social Services directly accountable to the Board of Supervisors to increase food stamp enrollment and retention.

California’s 71 percent participation rate ranks 48th out of 50 states for enrolling eligible residents into the food stamp program. That compares to a national enrollment average of 83 percent. Los Angeles Supervisors are trying to raise the percentage of eligible county residents participating in CalFresh by 50 percent, from 66.3 percent to 100 percent.

The main reason for even lower CalFresh participation in Los Angeles County is the concern among Hispanics, who already account for a staggering 59 percent of L.A. County food stamp participants, that applying for the program may cause them to be deemed a “public charge” by the U.S. Immigration Service. Individuals deemed a public charge are disqualified from becoming citizens and usually deported over time.

Under President Barack Obama, between 2010 and 2015, food stamp participation increased by 59 percent, to 43 million, and immigration deportations fell by 40 percent, to 255,000. Obama grew the food stamps program by limiting deportations and redefining food stamps as a non-cash benefit that is not a factor in determining “public charge” status.

California and Los Angeles County in particular are notorious for failing to verify immigration status for individuals on CalFresh food stamps. According to the “California Immigrant Welfare Collaborative,” persons fraudulently applying for CalFresh food stamps are not reported to the federal immigration authorities — unless there is proof, such as a final order of deportation, that they are in the country unlawfully.

On February 28, President Donald Trump issued his “Immigration Enforcement for the American People” initiative that aims to eliminate Obama’s lax welfare scheme and renew the broad use of public benefits as a determining factor for a “public charge.”

Breitbart News recently noted that California unemployment has fallen to its lowest rate in 16 years, but most of the gains are in low paid service jobs, while the state continues to export its middle class. Of the 930,000 residents that migrated from California to other states between 2004 and 2015, 85 percent were in the state’s middle 20 percent income bracket and the next lower quintile, according to the Census Bureau.

Middle class families that left Los Angeles County were generally replaced by foreign immigrants, as California’s population grew from 9 percent foreign-born in 1970, to over 30 percent in 2015, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

Most foreign-born Los Angeles County residents currently have some form of legal status, due to the Obama administration’s immigration policies. But immigrants earn less and pay less taxes, since about 92 percent of California-born residents ages 25 and older have a high school diploma, while only 66 percent of the foreign-born have a diploma.

By exporting middle-class families and importing foreign-born immigrants, the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim area is now rated by the Census Bureau as having the highest poverty rate in the nation, at 20.5 percent.

http://www.breitbart.com/california/...ngeles-county/

Disgusting.

How L.A. County is trying to sign more people up for food stamps — and why it's not easy

Nina Agrawal Contact Reporter


Vickie Williams’ favorite meal is baked chicken, string beans and corn on the cob. She often makes it for Sunday dinner for her 81-year-old mother, five grown children and four grandchildren.

Williams, a 58-year-old Gardena resident and former school cafeteria worker, estimates she spends at least $30 of the $194 in food stamps she receives each month on the meal. She doesn’t know how she’d get by without the help.

“It’s not just a privilege,” she said. “It’s needed. It really helps to put food on the table, hot food, especially when you have children.”

L.A. County officials are expanding their efforts to get more people like Williams signed up for food assistance.


For years, the county, like much of the state, has struggled to enroll all those eligible for California’s food stamp program, known as CalFresh. For a time, it was because of strict eligibility and application requirements, including fingerprinting applicants, requiring them to verify their eligibility every month and limiting the maximum gross income allowed.

California has eliminated those rules, yet it still ranks fourth from last in the nation when it comes to enrolling people in the food stamp program, according to federal data. Only 66% of those who were potentially eligible participated in the program in 2014, compared with 100% in Oregon and 99% in Tennessee.

Among California counties, Los Angeles ranks just below the middle, with 66.3% of those who are potentially eligible, or 1.1 million people, receiving benefits in 2015, according to state data. An additional 600,000 could qualify. San Bernardino County ranks first in the state, with 92.7% of its eligible residents receiving benefits.

How is it we could have two counties side by side, and one has 92% participation and one has 66%?— Michael Flood, chief executive of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, comparing San Bernardino County's high rate of food stamp enrollment to L.A. County's


“San Bernardino has a lot of need, a lot of diversity, just like Los Angeles,” said Michael Flood, chief executive of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. “How is it we could have two counties side by side, and one has 92% participation and one has 66%?”

Flood, a member of the county’s Public Social Services Commission, has been pushing the county since October to overhaul how it processes applications for CalFresh. Last week the Board of Supervisors directed the Department of Public Social Services to do just that.

The board approved a motion by Supervisor Sheila Kuehl ordering the department to review how it receives and processes applications and to identify ways to improve enrollment, retention and reporting. The goal is to increase participation in CalFresh by at least 20 percentage points in two years.

In addition to helping more people put nutritious food on the table, increased CalFresh enrollment also allows the county to take advantage of essentially free money from the federal government. CalFresh benefits are fully funded through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP; states and counties pay only administrative costs.

California Food Policy Advocates estimates that if CalFresh reached 100% of eligible individuals, L.A. County would receive an additional $1.2 billion in federal funding.

But President Trump’s proposed budget, released last week, would dramatically cut food aid and other assistance for the poor. Republicans have suggested making fixed block grants to states to cover the cost of such programs, rather than funding them per individual. Those grants are often based on current utilization of the program, so increasing the county’s rolls could help make the case for more federal funding.

L.A. County has tried to increase participation before. In 2001, the Department of Agriculture awarded two L.A.-based organizations funds to reach the elderly, immigrants and others who may not have been aware of the program. In 2010 L.A., along with the rest of the state, stopped using the term food stamps, shifting to CalFresh to remove some of the stigma associated with welfare. In 2011 it launched an online application.

“We’ve been working on this issue for 15, 16 years,” Flood said. “Has there been some improvement? Yeah, but we’d like to see more focus on it.”

Food policy experts and advocates who help clients enroll say there are a number of barriers to higher participation. In addition to the stigma, there remains a good deal of confusion about who is eligible, said Jessica Bartholow, a policy advocate with the Western Center on Law and Poverty.

People who receive Supplemental Security Income are not eligible, but people in their homes may be, and people who receive Medi-Cal, Social Security or Social Security disability might be. Many working people qualify, but for those who are self-employed or perform day labor, it can be hard to predict income or to know what constitutes an income change that must be reported.

In addition, many immigrants who are in the country legally are eligible to receive benefits, but those who are here illegally are not. Still, some who are eligible choose not to apply out of fear it will affect their ability to become a citizen or it will endanger their families.

That fear has only grown worse since Trump took office, officials and outreach workers say. Bartholow said her organization has received reports from across the state of people calling in to cancel their benefits.

Applying can also prove difficult for many low-income people. Long wait times at social services offices and on customer service telephone lines, a lack of transportation, the inability to take a day off work and limited Internet access among the poor pose significant barriers, Bartholow said.

Williams, who has been enrolled in CalFresh since 2010, has never tried to apply online, but she said that twice she sent in her paperwork by certified mail, only to arrive at the Public Social Services office and be told that it was never received. She goes in to renew her benefits every October, expecting the whole trip to take the better part of a day.

“It’s stressful,” she said.

Still, Williams is grateful for the program. No longer able to work, she said she collects $796 a month in Social Security disability, puts $675 of that toward rent and spends the remainder on food, bills and personal expenses. Occasionally she runs out of money at the end of the month.

“That’s a bad feeling,” she said. “Sometimes I do ask my children, but I try not to. They like to be independent, and so do I.”

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/l...529-story.html

California Food Policy Advocates estimates that if CalFresh reached 100% of eligible individuals, L.A. County would receive an additional $1.2 billion in federal funding.

Time to end the Food Stamp Program altogether for anyone under the age of 62 and preserve for only those who are US Citizens 62 and older and on Social Security. We have 501 C 3 "charities" that rake in $1.4 trillion a year to provide "charity". "Charity" is feeding the poor, healing the sick and providing shelter to the homeless. Any 501 C 3 who isn't spending all their money on these three forms of "charity", needs to lose their 501 C 3 status and start paying income tax. Same with "free school lunch". No more federal money should be used to "feed the poor" or to pay salaries to review who should or should not receive it. For those citizens 62 and older who are retired, the SS payroll tax should be increased slightly to raise the lower level retirement benefits by $60 a month for the next two years to ensure they have enough money to buy food and feed themselves. Everyone else can turn to relatives for money, go to a charity for food assistance or get a job.