Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Welfare division urged to get out the word on food stamps

CARSON CITY -- There are 122,000 people in Nevada drawing food stamps but the state's participation rate in the program is the second lowest in the nation, a legislative budget committee was told today.

State Welfare Administrator Nancy Ford said that Nevada ranks 50th in the nation because "for whatever reason poor people (who are eligible for food stamps in Nevada) don't apply."

Legislators suggested the welfare division do more to reach people to tell them they are eligible for these stamps. Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said the parents of children in school who are eligible for free or reduced-cost lunches, probably qualify for food stamps, for example.

Ford said the federal government is going to start an advertising program to encourage those eligible to apply. But Giunchigliani said those usually don't work.

Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, suggested that instead of spending the money on advertisement, those funds should go to the people who need it.

"I don't know of anybody who doesn't know about welfare programs," she said.

Spending money on advertisements is "going overboard," Cegavske said.

The state and the federal government share the cost of administering the food stamp program. But the federal government covers the cost of the food.

Ford also reported that Nevada was 32nd in the nation in the amount of the average grant to a welfare mother. For instance, she said, a single mother with two children receives $273 a month.

The budget committee had previously asked Ford to look at increasing that average amount.

Committee members also questioned Ford about moving two offices in Clark County. She said the lease on the office on Charleston Boulevard expires Dec. 31 and the division will be locating to a former Albertson market in North Las Vegas. The rent will be $1.50 per square foot per month, which she said was below the average in Las Vegas.

The Charleston office now has 23,000 square feet and the new location will have 43,000 square feet.

The welfare office in Henderson is located in a shopping center. The landlord wants the division to move out and he will build the agency a new building in the same shopping center.

Ford said there have been problems with heating and air conditioning in the current location. And the floor had to be torn up three times to fix sewer problems.

But Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, chairwoman of the committee, said the division will be getting less space -- 20,000 square feet -- but will be paying the same as it does now for 25,000 square feet. "You're spending more to get less," Leslie said.

Ford said the current lease is up in 2006 and it won't be renewed.

The division also wants to close its branch office in Hawthorne but that ran into opposition from committee members. Leslie said this was a "depressed area" and "it is not a good thing" to shut down the office where there are three staff members.

Ford said there would be welfare specialists visiting Hawthorne from Fallon to handle the business.

archive