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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 7, 2009
Contact: Sarah Krauss
(212) 669-4193; (917) 541-0936
Release #:006-2009
PA Gotbaum Urges Governor Paterson to Force Mayor Bloomberg to Accept New Provision for Food Stamp Benefits
Elected officials, advocates join in call that could bring up to $155 million in federal funding to city
Read Full Letter to Paterson here
MANHATTAN – Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum today stood with elected officials and advocates to call on Governor Paterson to accept a statewide provision in the federal recovery bill that would extend Food Stamp benefits for able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs) through September 30, 2010.
The provision, part of President Obama’s economic stimulus package, would allow ABAWDs who live in New York State to continue to receive Food Stamp benefits as they actively seek work. New York City, as a locality with high unemployment, had previously been eligible for a waiver to extend the time limits, and despite the urging of the Public Advocate and other elected officials and hunger advocates, Mayor Bloomberg has never accepted the ABAWD waiver. Therefore, the Public Advocate called on Governor Paterson to accept the ABAWD provision of the stimulus package to take the decision out of the mayor’s hands.
President Obama’s stimulus package includes a provision that temporarily suspends the time limit on how long ABAWDs can receive Food Stamps—now known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits—while they look for work. The Public Advocate’s office estimates, based on available information, that by refusing to accept the waiver without conditions, the city could lose the opportunity to bring roughly $155 million in federal funds into the local economy.
Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum said, "In these tough economic times, more New Yorkers are likely to need food assistance while they look for work. For seven years we’ve been fighting to get the Mayor to look out for New York’s hungry, and now the need is greater than ever. By accepting the ABAWD provision of the stimulus, the Governor could prevent the Mayor from putting up more barriers to accessing these important benefits and bring much needed funding to our local economy.”
Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. said, “New Yorkers from all backgrounds and all boroughs are struggling, and extending food stamps would help to ease the heavy burden that weighs on them. This is plain old common sense. Yet Mayor Bloomberg has refused to extend these benefits while, on the other hand, proposing to use $45 million in Federal and City money to support traders and investments bankers, many of whom come from the firms that got all of us into this mess.”
Councilmember Bill de Blasio said, “Food aid isn't a perk, it's a foundation for New Yorkers in need. The unemployment rate is now the highest its been in over twenty five years yet Mayor is making it harder for hungry New Yorkers to get the food stamps they need. It is time for Governor Paterson to stand up and end this wrongheaded policy.”
Councilmember Eric Gioia said, “"It's time that we put away the stale old arguments that penalize the poor and place bureaucratic hurdles in the way of federal dollars intended to feed the hungry," said Councilman Eric Gioia. " New York needs to do everything it can to expand the food stamp program, and the federal government helping us to do just that. We should not let this opportunity pass."
Joel Berg, Executive Director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger said, “Considering the state of our economy and the rising tide of hunger in our city, it is both morally and economically wrong not to fully utilize this new provision which would allow hungry individuals who are looking for work to receive the food they need. Individuals – with or without children – still need to eat. By not accepting the waiver, New York City is refusing a life line paid for by the federal government. As anyone trying to find work in this economy could understand, it’s even more difficult to find a job when you’re hungry. Wasting city dollars to create make work jobs instead of actively accepting federal benefits that promote true work and self-sufficiency is the ultimate lose-lose.”
Doreen Wohl, Executive Director of the West Side Campaign Against Hunger, said, “The City’s refusal to extend SNAP (food stamps) to able-bodied unemployed adults without dependents while they look for work is based on old prejudice that the poor are lazy and need to be forced to work. At West Side Campaign Against Hunger, the largest emergency food pantry in New York, our experience is different. Many people coming for emergency food also assist in the operation of our pantry where customers select their food supermarket-style. In these extraordinary times, when the job market is shrinking, let’s accept all possible help from the federal government toward relieving distress.”
The economic recovery bill, signed by President Obama, will allow ABAWDs to continue to receive Food Stamps as they search for employment, suspending the three-month limit for applicants through September 2010. Governor Paterson has the authority to accept this ABAWD provision of the stimulus bill on behalf of the entire state.
Public Advocate Gotbaum, Comptroller Thompson, Councilmember de Blasio, Councilmember Gioia, and Joel Berg, Executive Director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger sent a letter to Governor Paterson on Thursday, March 5, urging him to accept the ABAWD provision of the stimulus package.
The stimulus bill would extend benefits to 47,000 ABAWDs currently receiving Food Stamps in New York City. In addition, according to published reports, city officials estimated that, in 2006, another 13,900 ABAWDs in New York City would have access to Food Stamps if the three-month limit were waived. The Public Advocate has been calling on the Bloomberg administration to accept the ABAWD waiver since taking office in 2002.
In 2002, Public Advocate Gotbaum recommended that New York City accept the ABAWD waiver in her report Stamping Out Hunger, and has been advocating for this change ever since. Since that time, she has fought successfully to reduce the Food Stamp application from 16 to 4 pages, increase evening and weekend Food Stamp office hours for working New Yorkers, and install a community-based outreach program that enrolled 77,000 New Yorkers in the Food Stamp program.
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