Greetings all. We hope you are continuing to stay healthy and safe as Omicrom rips through the Commonwealth’s schools, work places, hospitals and more. Hang in there!
FRAC Webinar tomorrow, January 11th at 4 PM EST re SNAP’s Shelter Cap
We are thrilled to let you know about an exciting (free) webinar tomorrow, January 11th, that MLRI’s own Vicky Negus will be participating in with FRAC’s Andrew Cheyne to discuss: SNAP's Capped Shelter Deduction: How the cap hurts low-income families, deepens inequities, and what can be done about it.
We hope you can join. See info to register below.
DTA local offices status: How to check on closures due to COVID
Since the start of 2022, specific individual local DTA offices have closed for a day or a few days (we assume because of COVID cases). At this time we recommend checking if a local office is open before recommending a client go in person! Right now the DTA Local Offices website is not the easiest to navigate in terms of finding closure information (we have shared this concern with DTA). To check on whether a local office is open, we recommend checking DTA's twitter or googling the individual office to see if the local office page on Mass.gov includes closure information. For example, here is the individual page showing Hyannis is closed today (1/10). Here is DTA's twitter to check for updates as well.
Currently (today, Monday1/10), Hyannis, Malden and Fitchburg are closed.
Please let us know if any families you are working with face any barriers due to a local office closure. If a household needs an EBT card, they can get a card in person at any local DTA office or by requesting a card by mail (through DTAConnect or by calling 877 382 2363). In some circumstances DTA can overnight mail a card (which takes a couple of days to arrive) and in very extreme situations may be able to hand deliver an EBT card. Call the Ombuds (617-348-5354) / email Sara Craven (sara.craven@state.ma.us) if you work with a client in urgent need of an EBT card who can't get to a local office because the office is closed or because of other barriers.
Upcoming SNAP Coalition Meeting and Trainings:
NEXT SNAP Coalition is Tuesday, January 25th from 10 AM to 11:30 AM
SNAP 101 Training with Mass Continuing Legal Education, Thursday, January 27th from 9:30 to 12:30 PM. Register at: https://www.mcle.org/main/MLRI
And note MCLE Utility Rights Training on January 12th (from 1:00 to 3:30 PM) too! Same link: https://www.mcle.org/main/MLRI
