Image licensed under Creative Commons, courtesy of flickr user Paul Keleher.
But first, Alessandra Suuberg takes a look at a recent ACLU lawsuit that sheds some light on the state’s public benefits programs.
The Pulse airs weekly on 95.5 FM, taking a closer look at community news and the issues that affect Southern New England’s urban centers. Tune in on Sunday mornings at 10:00, or stream live at news.wbru.com.
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A CLOSER LOOK AT RI’s PUBLIC BENEFITS
Alessandra Suuberg
In a nearly 20% jump from this time last year, the number of Rhode Islanders using food stamps has passed 100,000 for the first time in the state’s history.
That means one in 10 Rhode Islanders now receive the benefit.
Three months after that statistic was released by the state’s Department of Human Services, the agency found itself subject to a lawsuit – one that sheds some light on Rhode Island’s public benefits programs.
On Monday, the Rhode Island chapter of the American civil liberties union filed a federal lawsuit against the DHS over food stamps. In the suit, the ACLU cited lengthy application processing times, which they said were leaving many qualified Rhode Islanders hungry.
Federal guidelines call for a 30-day deadline to process food stamp applications, and a 7-day deadline to provide food stamps to households that qualify.
“Our named client in the lawsuit was, in our view, entitled to expedited food stamps. And yet her appointment scheduled to have something dealt with was two months away from when she first filed her application.”
That’s ACLU Executive Director Steven Brown, speaking of Warwick resident Shalonda Spruill, who was named in the lawsuit.
And while Friday’s Providence Journal reported that the state agreed to give Spruill’s application immediate attention, the matter at the heart of the suit remains unresolved.
Linda Katz is Policy Director for The Poverty Institute, at Rhode Island College.
“Well, we’ve been concerned for a long time about the state’s inability to process not only food stamp applications, but other applications for public benefits in a timely fashion.
There are also, though, inefficiencies for working families to access the range of benefits that can help them make ends meet. So, for example, a family that might need health insurance or childcare assistance, as well as SNAP or food stamp benefits, has to file three separate applications. And that’s an inefficiency that really should be addressed. It’s not something that will be addressed by this lawsuit, but it’s an issue that the state should be looking at.”
And Katz doesn’t seem to find it shocking that one in 10 Rhode Islanders now receive food stamps.
“The reason that we’ve seen such an increase in participation in the food stamp program is not only because some of the procedures have been amended so that working families in particular and seniors who can participate in the program, but the economy has led many people who were able to make ends meet with what they earned, and may now be relying on unemployment benefits, now become eligible for the food stamp program.”
Katz says there have been positive changes, in terms of making food stamps more accessible to the Rhode Islanders who need them.
These include making food stamp applications available online, and allowing applicants to interview by phone, if they’re working during state agency hours.
But it appears that steps still need to be taken by the state – and the community – to make sure that qualified Rhode Islanders get the help they need, when they need it.
“Rhode Island has seen a significant decline in the number of staff at state agencies to administer these programs, and what we really need now is quality leadership from the state, along with members of the public, to figure out how we have the right number of people to deliver benefits that a large number of Rhode Islanders rely on – whether that’s for health care, for childcare assistance, or for food stamps. And I’m hopeful that this lawsuit can shed some light on that issue, and that there can be a community effort to help resolve this.”
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DR. ROBERT WALTER “WHIRLWIND” JOHNSON, TENNIS VISIONARY
Becs, WBRU Sports
“Dr. J came along at a time when a visionary was absolutely necessary in the sport. To be sure, he was a bit player in a much larger struggle to integrate the American society of the 1940s-and-50s.”
That’s Lange Johnson, grandson of the late Dr. Robert Walter “Whirlwind” Johnson, accepting for his grandfather the honor of induction to Newport’s International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Dr. Johnson himself passed away in 1971, but was posthumously inducted to the Tennis Hall of Fame yesterdat for decades of work, founding the American Tennis Association’s Junior Development Program in the 1950s, and serving as a mentor for hundreds of minority athletes.
Hall of Fame commentator, Bud Collins believes that Dr. Johnson may be the most important new member of the Hall – and one of the main forces in de-segregating tennis in the 1950s.
“He’s a very important man, in that he was one of those who would not settle for second class citizenship for tennis players of color. He worked hard to convince the US Tennis Association that it shouldn’t be a restricted organization.”
Dr. Johnson notably helped launch the careers of fellow Hall-of-Famers Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson. Ashe and Gibson would ultimately be credited with integrating men and women’s tennis, respectively.
Johnson had pinpointed Ashe and Gibson in the 1950s, as the players who could succeed in opening doors for minorities in the world of tennis. Johnson became a mentor to these young athletes – bringing them into his home, supporting them financially, and worked behind the scenes to give them opportunities to succeed.
“Once he set his mind on something, nothing would stop him. He was determined. And so he said, ‘Hey, we can integrate tennis with this young lady. She can do it.’ For years later, in 1950, they did it.”
That’s grandson Bobby, who joined his brother Lange in representing Dr. Johnson, and the entire Johnson family, at yesterday’s ceremony.
But as Lange explains, Johnson didn’t stop with developing just tennis skills.
“They created a tennis boot camp in Lynchburg, Virginia, and an academic and social finishing school in Wilmington, North Carolina. And in 1950, just four years after Dr. J asked the question, Althea would go on to play Forest Hills.”
Dr. Johnson’s mentorship of Althea Gibson would grow into the creation of the American Tennis Association’s Junior Development Program, a tennis camp for promising junior players at Johnson’s Virginia home.
And the legacy of Dr. Johnson’s work, and the ATA Junior Development Program, lives on even today. But as Lange explains, the true impact of Johnson’s legacy goes beyond tennis and sport.
“Tennis was one front in that struggle, where young Robert decided to see if he could move African Americans and tennis forward at the same time.”
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