Growing numbers of New Yorkers seeking food stamps have created an unwelcome spillover effect at some of New York City's job centers: overcrowding that in some cases has grown so severe, benefits were jeopardized.
The crush of people grew so large at one Brooklyn center in November that the Fire Department intervened and prevented anyone from entering the building.
That was an extreme example of the problem. But clients at many of the city's 29 job centers -- which manage public-assistance benefits, including food stamps -- regularly arrive long before the doors open to wait in line. Advocates said people miss mandatory appointments, leading to a bureaucratic battle to reopen their cases, or abandon the process after growing discouraged.
"It's outrageous," said Charles Leonard, a disabled 50-year-old who complained to 311 recently about a long wait and confusion at a center on Northern Boulevard in Queens. "It's like everybody is running around with their head cut off, and no one cares."
Officials at the city's Human Resources Administration, which runs the centers, acknowledged that serious overcrowding is a problem at five facilities. Advocates believe the problem is broader, affecting roughly 10 centers.
"At best it's benign neglect," said Steven Banks, attorney-in-chief at the Legal Aid Society, which provides legal services to low-income New Yorkers. "At worst, it's like the English poor laws, in which the aim was to make the seeking of assistance so miserable that people wouldn't seek it."
HRA spokeswoman Connie Ress blamed the overflow crowds on rising numbers of people seeking food stamps. The number of New Yorkers getting the benefit has increased by 200,000 in the past two years, jumping to 1.8 million from 1.6 million in late 2009. At the same time, the agency has consolidated some facilities, Ms. Ress said.
"We know that there are issues in a few of our centers throughout the city," Ms. Ress said. "We are actively addressing it."
Because Mondays and Tuesdays are the busiest days of the week, the city plans to stop scheduling mandatory appointments at centers on these days, the agency's general counsel, Ray Esnard, wrote in a Dec. 20 letter to the Legal Aid Society.
In Brooklyn and the Bronx, Ms. Ress said, the agency is "moving into new facilities with better space." In the past few years, she said, people can recertify for food stamps over the phone. "We've made things so much easier," she said.
Still, clients often need to visit the centers to submit documents and deal with complications. Ms. Ress said in-person appointments are necessary to avoid fraud and abuse.
The centers also handle additional benefits, including Medicaid. The number of times someone may have to visit a center can vary widely.
The city acknowledged in its Dec. 20 letter that at least seven clients' cases were violated when the Fire Department kept a crowd out of the Dekalb job center on Nov. 14. The city agreed to "reverse any negative case action taken against" those people, the letter said.
One day last week, more than 100 people lined up outside a job center at East 161st Street in the Bronx, many of them bundled up and moving from side to side to keep warm in the frosty morning air. At least one had brought a folding chair.
The first person in line had arrived at 6:30 a.m., two hours before the doors opened.
Michael Torres was a few spaces back in line after arriving at 7 a.m. from his Bronx apartment. The visit was Mr. Torres's second after being laid off from his job as a building superintendent two years ago. After 28 years of working, he had to move in with his sick mother, he said.
"You try to get here as early as you can," said Mr. Torres, 55. "The earlier the better. It's little by little. They don't let the whole crowd in, in one shot."
Jose Sevielle, a 27-year-old father of three who was waiting for food stamps, said he's hopeful the city will fix the problem.
"They have to put in another system," he said. "It's not running like it's supposed to."
Katie Kelleher, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society, said the city could help solve some of the problems by reducing the number of times recipients are required to visit a center. "I thought this was an administration that prides itself on management," she said. "They can manage this problem. They're choosing not to."
On Friday, during his weekly radio show, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said advocates for the homeless and low-income New Yorkers tend to focus on the negative: "'Oh, it's terrible. The economy is terrible,'" the mayor said, mimicking critics.
Mr. Bloomberg defended his administration. "New York, as a compassionate society, does a better job of taking care of the less fortunate than virtually any other city," he said.
Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, said he believes some people are choosing to forgo benefits rather than confront the long waits.
He pointed to new city numbers that show that there were 13,000 fewer people on the food-stamp rolls in November, compared with the previous month. It was the biggest month-to-month drop since December 2010, officials said.
New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn plans to call for hearings to examine the decrease because other indicators -- the unemployment rate and food-stamp enrollment statewide -- don't reflect an improvement in the economy. Ms. Quinn has also been fighting the administration's policy of fingerprinting food-stamp recipients.
The Council is set to pass a law this month that will allow people to apply for benefits by fax and give the city latitude to grant hardship waivers for face-to-face interviews.
Still, Mr. Leonard, who complained to 311, said the problems go beyond the crowds: The centers can be bureaucratic, chaotic and hard to navigate.
"If you're sent to a floor, you're not informed that you're in the right place -- there are instances where you're waiting and waiting and then discover you're in the wrong place," Mr. Leonard said. "It's unreal. It's just a big mess."
Credit: By Michael Howard Saul and Alison Fox
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