The volume of cash assistance applications in New York City has increased dramatically in recent years. But as more households receive aid, the city is also issuing more procedural denials, in the hundreds of thousands.
Hundreds of recently-arrived immigrant families with children have been subject to 28-day limits on hotel shelter stays in recent months, as the city insists it’s run out of space to lodge them.
In a new state court filing, the Adams administration is requesting authority to suspend the bulk of a 1981 decree that ensures shelter access for single adults.
Timely processing rates plummeted to under 30 percent for cash assistance applications and under 40 percent for SNAP for the fiscal year ending in June, according to the latest Mayor’s Management Report.
“If you get cash assistance, you are caught up in really significant delays, in a way that you would not be if you were only receiving SNAP,” said Katie Kelleher of the Legal Aid Society.