Court rules Adams admin must fix delays in NYC residents getting food stamps, cash assistance

Mayor Adams’ administration must by early next year figure out a way to process all applications for food stamps and cash assistance in a timely manner after failing to do so for months, in violation of federal and state laws, a Manhattan judge has ruled.

The July 18 ruling from Manhattan Federal Court Judge Jennifer Rearden came in response to a class-action lawsuit filed early this year by a group of low-income New Yorkers receiving food stamps, commonly known as SNAP benefits, and cash assistance.

The lawsuit, which was first reported by the Daily News, alleged the plaintiffs had waited months to get their SNAP and cash assistance applications cleared by the city’s Human Resources Administration — even though state and federal laws require the agency to process such claims within 30 days.

In seeking class action status, the lawsuit cited data showing that at the time more than 28,000 SNAP and cash assistance applications were overdue — about half of the total number of claims — putting immense strain on New Yorkers who rely on the benefits to afford food and other basic necessities.

Mayor Eric Adams (Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News)

In her seven-page ruling, Rearden sided with the welfare recipients’ argument that the Adams administration has violated laws by delaying benefits processing — and ordered that it must get to work on speeding up processing right away so that all applications are cleared within the 30-day timeframe by March 31, 2024.

In addition, Rearden outlined a series of benchmarks the Adams administration must comply with before then.

Under the first benchmark, there should be at most 800 SNAP applications sitting overdue at the Human Resources Administration as of Monday, according to the judge’s ruling.

She also ruled that the administration and the Legal Aid Society, which represents the plaintiffs, must come up with specific backlog reduction targets for SNAP and cash assistance claims effective Sept. 30, Nov. 30 and Feb. 28, 2024.

A supermarket where EBT and SNAP is accepted. (Shutterstock/Shutterstock)

It was not immediately clear Monday if the administration had met the first benchmark ordered by Rearden. Neha Sharma, a spokeswoman for the Human Resources Administration, declined to say.

As of May 31, the Human Resources Administration still had some 35,000 overdue applications for SNAP and cash assistance — meaning the backlog grew after the lawsuit was first filed in January, according to data disclosed in a recent court filing. That figure includes newly filed claims and requests for benefit renewals.

Kathleen Kelleher, an attorney with Legal Aid’s civil law reform unit who represents the plaintiffs, welcomed Rearden’s ruling and expressed hope it will prompt the Adams administration to address the backlogs.

“Our clients and all low-income families in New York City have suffered for far too long, and this court order will help bring the city’s long history of delaying access to vital, life-altering services to an end,” Kelleher said.

Asked for comment on the Rearden’s ruling, Sharma disputed the characterization that the judge ordered the city to abide by the processing timelines.

Rather, she said in a statement that the order was the product of “an agreement with the plaintiffs under which the city will reach substantial compliance with timeliness for cash assistance and SNAP benefits by March 2024.”

Food Stamps and EBT sign (Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News)

The reasons for the delays in benefits processing at the Human Resources Administration are manifold.

The agency is reeling from steep staff shortages that have inhibited its ability to process welfare benefits in a timely fashion. Those difficulties have been compounded by an uptick in New Yorkers applying for cash assistance and food stamps that started during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Against that backdrop, Adams enacted spending cuts at the Human Resources Administration as part of this year’s municipal government budget — a move that drew outrage from progressive Democrats and activists.

Pushing back against the criticism, the mayor has argued there are still hundreds of posts sitting empty at the agency that aren’t impacted by the cuts and that the administration’s actively hiring for those jobs.

Sharma’s statement echoed the mayor’s sentiment: “[The Human Resources Administration] continues to aggressively hire, train and redeploy staff, implement process improvements, and streamline our highly effective remote processes to bolster cash assistance and SNAP processing and ultimately get these benefits to New Yorkers in a timely manner.”

Mayor Eric Adams (Luiz C. Ribeiro/for New York Daily News)

The processing delays are having severe impacts on some of the city’s most vulnerable residents.

Glennice Simon, one of the named plaintiffs behind the lawsuit that prompted Rearden’s ruling, wrote in an affidavit submitted in court earlier this year that her SNAP benefits were abruptly cut off in November 2022.

Due to disability, Simon, 55, said she’s not able to work. Being left without her roughly $500 in monthly SNAP benefits made it challenging for Simon to afford rent, food and other necessities for her and her son, who live together in a NYCHA complex in Brooklyn, according to her affidavit.

She wrote that she tried repeatedly to get the issue resolved on her own by calling an HRA hotline, but she couldn’t get through to anyone.

”I had nobody to call for help,” she wrote. “I had to spend hundreds of dollars to have regular food in the house. Food is expensive now and is going up. I do not have the money to keep buying food. I have had to guide my son on what he can eat for a week and ask him to be careful and please stretch food for the week. It has been rough.”