Kilili: Hundreds being turned away

Households seeking assistance from Department of Community and Cultural Affairs’ Nutritional Assistance Program have increased to over 5,000 last weekend.

As per data released Friday, NAP director Walter Macaranas said they were able to issue benefits to 454 households last Thursday in the amount of $148,152 under the disaster program.

NAP’s disaster program is for non-NAP recipients who are qualified following the eligibility test.

Macaranas said they are exceeding their 250 goal of applicants per day for the Disaster Program as they also have a separate line for individuals with special needs.

“Households are declaring their disaster expenses. Because of the significant devastation of most homes on Saipan, many were being determined qualified for assistance due to the significant disaster expenses their households incurred and expected to be incurred between Aug. 1 to 31, 2015,” Macaranas said.

Under the supplemental program, NAP issued benefits to 338 ongoing NAP households in the amount of $46,872 last Thursday. An additional 252 households were assisted last Friday.

“The NAP is meeting the needs of the community based on the current income guidelines used to determine eligibility for residents of the CNMI affected by Typhoon Soudelor,” Macaranas said.

NAP added that as of Thursday, only three households were denied eligibility.

‘Hundreds being denied’

However, citing eligibility guidelines, Delegate Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (Ind-MP) said in a letter to Gov. Eloy S. Inos that “hundreds of people who desperately need food assistance—and who should be qualified for such aid in this state of disaster—are being denied by the Nutritional Assistance Program.”

According to Sablan, the Food and Nutrition Service has authorized the government to open up eligibility for food stamps to any household in the Northern Marianas with an income up to four times the normal income required to receive food stamps.

He said that this increased eligibility means that, for instance, a household of four with a monthly income less than $3,732 should be eligible for assistance.

In contrast, under the current income guidelines that NAP uses for the disaster program, a family of four has to have a monthly income less than $933 to qualify.

“The Food and Nutrition Service has informed me, however, that the Commonwealth government has decided not to increase income eligibility and that only those households that meet the normal NAP income guidelines are being given emergency food stamps. As a result, people in need are being turned away,” Sablan added.

Sablan also pointed out that the Food and Nutrition Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has authorized government to spend all of the $3.5 million in surplus food stamp funds that they were granted for fiscal 2015.

“You have the money. You have the authority. And here we are over two weeks after the typhoon struck and so many of our people are hungry,” Sablan said.

In an interview, Lt. Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said they have been addressing this issue almost three weeks ago even before Sablan’s letter came out.

“There’s continued talks between local government and FNS. The critical part of that is, if we go over what is allotted, then the current recipients of NAP will suffer, will be either denied or suffer in 2016,” Torres said.

Torres said they will be releasing documents to the public today showing their talks with FNS. He said they initially got approval of $3.5 million but then received succeeding letters saying that they can only disburse $1 million and another one saying that they have to make sure that their funding is enough otherwise current NAP households might be affected.

“We would like to give to everybody, don’t get me wrong, but again there are federal guidelines that we have to abide,” Torres said. “It doesn’t make sense for us to jeopardize those who are already in need.”