Backlog in SNAP applications leaves Alaskans without food stamps

A backlog of applications in the state’s Division of Public Assistance has left thousands of Alaskans without food stamps or Medicaid benefits for months. Amid the crisis, local residents are searching for other options to meet their household needs.

Since November, Kawerak has seen a rise in applications for its general assistance program, said Sara Lizak, the tribal nonprofit’s vocational rehabilitation and welfare services director.

The program is meant to help tribal residents in the Bering Strait region with necessities like food, clothing and shelter when no other resources—such as public assistance benefits—are available.

“Usually we only serve adults who have little to no income that have no dependents,” Lizak said. “Recently we’ve had a big increase in parents with children needing assistance. So it’s a serious situation over on the state side. I really hope that something is done soon, because so many families are in need and suffering right now.”

Lizak said the increase also puts a strain on her department and workers. Her conversations with employees within the Division of Public Assistance, or DPA for short, have led her to believe they are facing a staffing shortage.

“I really hope that the state does hire more eligibility technicians soon, and that they can deal with the backlog because there are only three tribal entities providing general assistance in the region,” Lizak said.

Lizak encouraged tribal members who are still waiting on their public benefits to apply for general assistance through the welfare assistance program page on Kawerak’s website. The Unalakleet Tribal Office also has a general assistance program for members residing in Unalakleet, and the Nome Eskimo Community offers assistance for members residing in Nome.

The public radio station KTOO in Juneau broke the news of the crisis in December. DPA Director Shawnda O’Brien told the station that her department received an overwhelming volume of SNAP applications and recertifications after the state’s public health emergency order was lifted over the summer. During the previous two years of the pandemic, the state had suspended its requirement for families to recertify their SNAP benefits every six months. However, employees within the DPA also told KTOO that they blamed the backlog on chronic mismanagement and short staffing that’s been going on for years.

KTOO on Tuesday reported that DPA director O’Brien is no longer in her post. A voicemail message on O’Brien’s state cell phone on Monday said she was no longer serving as the division’s director. The radio station reports that Deb Etheridge will replace O’Brien, starting January 17.

The DPA has not yet responded to a request for comment from the Nugget. A spokesperson for Gov. Mike Dunleavy said the governor has been briefed on the situation but declined to comment further.

A DPA report shows that staff have not been meeting their internal performance targets, and application processing rates have declined compared to past years. From July through November 2022, only 30.5 percent of SNAP recertification applications were processed in a timely manner, the report found, far below a target of 99.7 percent.

The Nome office of the Alaska Legal Services Corporation, or ALSC, is also helping SNAP recipients who are waiting on their benefits.

“Most people don’t know that they have the right to appeal a SNAP delay and not just denial of benefits,” said staff attorney Peter Travers. “Anyone who has applied for benefits or applied for recertification who has not heard anything back from DPA is welcome to reach out to ALSC. We can help them file that appeal of that delay, and that should speed up the process of getting it looked at.”

Travers said that the DPA has made it very hard even to find out why an application is getting so delayed.

The Nome DPA office’s local phone line goes to a busy signal. The office is open for walk-ins between 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and then 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. But those who cannot drop into the office in person to ask for help on their case are being referred to a non-local call line at 1-800-4787778.

Both Travers and Lizak said they heard from assistance-seekers that wait times were prohibitively long to get through to a person at the other end of the call center.