Counties are changing the way they administer aid to people who need food assistance because the demand has doubled and even tripled in some communities over the past three years.
Arapahoe County informed its staff last week that it will be shifting manpower and adding temporary workers to deal with the high demand.
Douglas County has streamlined its application process to enroll people in the food-assistance program quicker. It also has added temporary staffers.
In Denver, the human resources department instituted training for all managers and supervisors in 2011, improved its partnership with the state and brought in some short-term workers.
“Arapahoe County, like all counties across the state, is seeing exponential increases in public-assistance case-loads,” said Haley McKean, spokeswoman for Arapahoe County Human Services. “We are making changes to be more responsive.”
According to the state, about 480,000 people were on food assistance through October. The state health department did not return phone calls for comment.
Arapahoe County’s numbers for food assistance have increased by 40 percent over the past several years, McKean said. In November, the county had 20,100 cases for food assistance. In the seven weeks since then, the county has seen 1,856 new applications, she said.
To deal with the increase, Arapahoe is taking 10 trained employees from its call center and shifting them to processing applications. The county also plans to hire 20 temporary employees to answer calls, giving information on basic questions people may have.
“Our caseloads have gone up and up and up,” McKean said. “We are seeing a tremendous call volume.”
Douglas County is in much the same situation regarding the uptick in assistance requests, although its total numbers aren’t nearly as high as Arapahoe County’s.
Vikki O’Neil, division manager for family eligibility and support programs for Douglas County, started her job three years ago, and the demand “has almost tripled from when I walked in the door. And we’re just talking food assistance.”
Douglas County has about 2,600 cases of food assistance, with between 6,000 to 7,000 people receiving help.
“The increase is significant,” O’Neil said. “We are seeing a lot of first-time folks who have never been on public assistance before.”
By streamlining the application process, Douglas County has been able to assist more people faster, O’Neil said.
“Our application process was very cumbersome, very detailed,” she said. “We had to cut the fat and dig down to find out what information we must have to process the application and provide the benefits.”
Denver’s changes last year netted much-improved results, said Revekka Balancier, spokeswoman for the Denver Human Services Department. Before the changes, about 40 percent of the applications for food stamps were processed on time. Now that number is 85 percent, she said.
“It’s been an incredibly intensive effort,” Balancier said. “We’ve seen great results. We’re not where we’d like to be, but we are getting there.”
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com
