Ruth Hoffman Op-Ed: Human Services Department Could do Better Job

On June 9, the Albuquerque Journal published an opinion piece from Ruth Hoffman, director of the Lutheran Advocacy Ministry-New Mexico, about the state Human Services Department (HSD). The opinion piece was a response to recent and past coverage about how the HSD has not only failed to support low-income residents of New Mexico, but in many cases, prevented assistance from reaching those who deserve and need it. (A former HSD secretary once said "there was no hunger" in New Mexico).

Ruth Hoffman

"Here in New Mexico, we have long struggled with taking care of our most vulnerable families. Recent reports that state workers at the Human Services Department were being pressured into denying emergency SNAP (food stamps) to hungry people and families are very disturbing. For over two decades, a federal court has found HSD’s track record for basic processing of medical and food assistance benefits to be in violation of federal law.

Government is one of the ways that we can work together to address the needs of our communities, and it can make a positive difference in people’s lives. But when government doesn’t work or fails to do its job, it can cause a lot of pain. Just ask a family of four in Hobbs. State workers left them without Medicaid coverage for seven months because HSD had failed to send a renewal notice or to check information the family had already given them.

Or an elderly man from Alamogordo with no income who had his SNAP assistance terminated last August because state workers forgot to send him a legally required notice. After going three weeks without food assistance, his benefits were reinstated, but only after the man went to an Income Support Division office to submit a new application for food assistance.

Whether it involves Medicaid or SNAP, these stories and others point to an unacceptable problem at HSD of improperly denying families needed services and failing to notify recipients about delays. Seniors and low-income families are on their own to figure out how to resolve these issues. Indeed, according to a study by the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, HSD failed to send Medicaid clients the required renewal forms 50 percent of the time. Over 65 percent of the time, they failed to alert families about delays in their SNAP applications or about ways to resolve the delays."

Read the full Op-Ed in the Albuquerque Journal