Increasing Food Stamp Benefits Could Decrease Family Homelessness in New York

NEW YORK, April 10, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- With increased need, new report recommends tying city SNAP benefits to real cost of food.

Thirty percent of New York City families with children received food-stamp benefits in 2010, but the assistance covered only half the cost of the average food bill. If the benefits were raised to take into account the higher cost of food in New York City, families would have more income to spend on rent. This could decrease homelessness, according to "The Impact of Food Stamp Benefits on Family Homelessness in New York City," a report released today by the Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness.

Many low-income New Yorkers are unable to afford both food and rent. Despite access to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly the Food Stamp Program), 33% of low-income families in New York City reported having to choose rent payments over food in 2011.

"Because of the high cost of food in New York, food stamps offer less relief to New Yorkers than to families in most other big cities," says Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness President and CEO Ralph da Costa Nunez. "Without a change in policy, we are not only feeding families less, but are in fact feeding them into the homeless shelter system."

The more SNAP benefits a family receives, the less likely they are to become homeless, because using SNAP benefits frees up other income sources for necessities such as housing. But because SNAP benefits are not high enough to offset the cost of food in New York City, some homeless families may experience greater difficulty exiting shelter. The report shows that in New York City and other cities with high food costs, such as San Francisco, city residents do not receive the same degree of relief as residents of large cities where food costs are lower.

In New York City in 2010, the average SNAP family had an average monthly income of $1,419. They received $287 a month in benefits, and had an average monthly food bill of $619. Because of this $332 shortfall, almost 25% of the average monthly incomes of families receiving SNAP benefits were devoted to food costs.

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