NEW YORK (AP) — New York Metropolis has practically resolved the backlogs in authorities applications offering meals and money help that prompted native teams to take authorized motion final 12 months, Mayor Eric Adams mentioned Monday.
The Democrat mentioned the backlogs that compelled low-income metropolis residents to attend weeks and even moths for federal assist generally known as welfare and meals stamps have been diminished by 97% and 90%, respectively.
Round 400 functions for Supplemental Diet Help Program and roughly 1,150 functions for money help had been nonetheless pending as of the tip of February, Adam’s workplace mentioned. The backlog peaked late final summer time with greater than 50,000 pending functions.
The delays prompted the Authorized Help Society and different teams to file a contempt of courtroom movement in December asking a Manhattan federal decide to order town to adjust to federal and state legal guidelines requiring the functions to be processed inside 30 days.
The Authorized Help Society, in an announcement Monday, mentioned it’s happy town met the courtroom’s March deadline, but it surely needs extra particulars on how the backlog was diminished, to make sure that “any eligible family acquired the advantages entitled to them by the legislation.”
Adams cited the hiring of practically 1,000 new staff within the metropolis Division of Social Providers since January and different steps, together with know-how investments and course of enhancements, in serving to resolve the backlog.
As of January, greater than 1.7 million New Yorkers had been receiving SNAP advantages and greater than 510,000 had been receiving money help advantages, in line with the mayor’s workplace.
