SNAP ABAWD Update: DTA issues guidance to exempt homeless from 3-month SNAP time limit; WBUR report on MA homeless shelters way over capacity

WBUR issued a powerful story this AM about the surge in demand on homeless shelters in the state, With Homeless Shelters Already Full, Boston And State Collaborate On Winter Plan  noting: "... across the state, men and women are staying longer in shelters, becoming what’s known as chronically homeless. A survey from the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance found that 85 percent of these people have a persistent mental health problem. MHSA director Joe Finn says the longer-term guests are using shelters are permanent housing. “Because of the inability to move people out of the existing shelter system, now we’re starting to see the crush in demand.€"

 

These are indeed the very individuals likely to lose their SNAP, as if they had anything else to lose! While most are suffering from physical and/or mental impairments, their ability to schedule a medical appointment, get a DTA Medical Report form filled out, and then get it delivered to DTA to protect SNAP benefits is likely more than they can handle. 

 

Thankfully Massachusetts has taken steps to protect the chronically homeless from loss of SNAP food benefits.  DTA Central - with input from the ABAWD Working Group and key homeless and health care providers - developed both field worker guidance and a special one-page ABAWD* homeless exemption form for individuals who lack a stable nighttime residence. DTA drafted this guidance in late December after getting clarification from USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) granting status authority to further define as exempt individuals who are "obviously" unfit for work but may have difficulty securing medial or other documentation, including chronically homeless individuals.  

 

Attached are two documents:

• A PDF of the DTA guidance from the DTA Online Guide (the pdf includes MLRI highlighting). Clients can call DTA to be screened and do not need to send in a written statement.  
• A new DTA ABAWD Homeless Exemption Supplement form, distributed at a recent DTA training for food banks. (Note - DTA is in the process of translating and uploading this form to their website). This form can be filled out and mailed or faxed to DTA, or the client can also call the DTA Assistance Line to be screened. 

Please try to identify and screen homeless clients ages 18-49 to protect their SNAP benefits (this is NOT necessary for homeless who receive SSI, RSDI, Veterans or EAEDC benefits, nor individuals with children). 

 

BIG thanks to both USDA FNS for issuing the recent ABAWD guidance and to DTA Central, including SNAP Director Lauren Arms Ledwith and her team, for developing a meaningful ABAWD homeless exemption screening process.  As the WBUR article states:  "At Pine Street Inn," director Lyndia Downie says "winter demand is up more than 20 percent in two years, and her guests are getting older and sicker. We've left the people with the fewest resources and the least ability to deal with it, we've left them to their own devices on the streets and in some cases in shelter," Downie says. "We've got it backwards. We should be giving those people maximum support and trying to get them stable." Indeed, depriving homeless individuals of their access to food is also getting it backwards!

 

*ABAWD = Able-bodied without dependents (e.g. non-disabled individuals without kids, age 18-49)