| Releases & Statements
Contact: Frank Sobrino
O: (212) 669-4193
For Immediate Release: Thursday, August
10, 2006
Gotbaum:
Hunger Hotline Fails New Yorkers in Need
Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum today
charged the City with continued mismanagement of what was once
an effective anti-hunger tool, the Hunger Hotline. Gotbaum conducted
a follow-up to her May 2004 investigation of the system—which
provides hungry New Yorkers with the information they need to
access emergency food at soup kitchens and pantries—and
determined that it still provides inaccurate and insufficient
information much of the time.
In 2004, an estimated 1.2 million
New York City residents, including 417,000 children, lived in
households facing hunger. According to a 2005 survey conducted
by the New York City Coalition against Hunger, 73% of emergency
food programs surveyed had experienced an increase in demand for
their services in the past year.
“The Human Resources Administration
is sending hungry New Yorkers on a wild goose chase,” Gotbaum
said. “The Human Resources Administration (HRA) has known
about these problems but hasn’t solved them.”
Representatives of the Office of the
Public Advocate placed 169 calls to the hotline from June 5 through
June 30, 2006. They found the following:
• Clients cannot depend on the
hotline to provide accurate hours of operation for emergency food
programs. In 39% of calls made, the hotline provided incorrect
hours of operation.
• The hotline does not provide necessary information. Forty-nine
percent of programs contacted require clients to bring specific
documents or make appointments. The hotline does not provide this
information, putting clients at risk of being turned away.
• The automated hotline does not indicate how to access
a live operator. The recording on the automated hotline states
that operator assistance is available Monday to Friday from 9:00am
to 5:00pm, but it does not instruct callers in how to reach an
operator.
• The hotline may not be effective during evening and weekend
hours. Of the 17 calls placed during evening and weekend hours,
5 (29%) failed to result in referrals to programs available in
the time and area selected.
• Clients who speak languages other than English and Spanish
cannot
depend on the hotline. The automated hotline only functions in
English and
Spanish. Clients with limited proficiency in these languages can
only obtain assistance if they are able to determine how to reach
an HRA operator. HRA operators, however, were unable to connect
4 out of the 5 “other language calls” to an appropriate
translator.
Gotbaum also noted that the hotline
fails to provide information about expedited food stamps, which
could lead callers to believe that emergency food assistance is
only available through soup kitchens and food pantries.
Investigators from the Office of the Public Advocate determined
that 311 is also an unreliable source of information about food
stamps. Of the 50 calls placed to 311 regarding food assistance,
operators failed to inform callers about food stamps in 20 cases
(40%). Neither the Hunger Hotline nor 311 provide callers with
information about other food assistance programs, such as the
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and
Children (WIC).
HRA took over the Hunger Hotline from
City Harvest in April 2003 and switched it from a live to automated
service. At the time, the city promised to update the information
on the system daily, operate the hotline in six languages, provide
access to a live operator during regular business hours, and collaborate
with private food providers to increase the number of participating
programs. These promises remain unfulfilled.
“The old service worked for
23 years,” Gotbaum said. “Live operators not only
gave you all the information you needed, they made appointments
for you at a pantry in your neighborhood. HRA claimed they could
make this system better by automating it. Instead, hungry New
Yorkers are still getting information that’s out of date,
incomplete, or just plain wrong. We’re still waiting for
the new and improved service we were promised.”
Gotbaum made the following recommendations
to improve the Hunger Hotline:
• Update information on food
programs regularly.
• Inform callers of any appointments and documents they
may need to gain access to specific food programs.
• Increase the number of automated languages to at least
six, as promised in 2003.
• Expand callers’ options by informing them of non-City-funded
programs, including programs that operate during evenings and
weekends.
“If
you can’t find food, you can’t eat,” said Joel
Berg, Executive Director of the New York City Coalition Against
Hunger. “The Hunger Hotline is still making it far too difficult
for people to access emergency food programs and still giving
them the false impression they can’t use food stamps in
an emergency. I urge the City to follow the Public Advocate’s
recommendations so struggling families have all the information
they need to get help.”
The Hunger Hotline: Help's Not Often on the Menu (July 2006)
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