I have been listening to all sorts of Republican congressmen and women pontificating about waste, fraud and abuse as justification for their attempt to pass a bill that will cut back food stamps  40 billion dollars over the next ten years is in the proposed bill.  The cuts amount to 5% per year.  So far, I haven’t exactly heard what this waste, fraud and abuse really is.  Before September 5th I was curious.  After September 5, I think I need to demand to know the answer.

On September 5, we got a phone call informing us that my husband’s son Chris who had been a missing person for many years was dead in the Bronx, New York.  He was 46 years old.   He had lived in the San Francisco area for many years with his mother and his adopted father and despite some learning disabilities he had graduated from college.  Somewhere along the line college loans and the associated bill collectors hassled Chris until he vanished.  Despite the fact the California parents were no longer married the California dad looked all over for him and posted flyers over half of San Francisco. He contacted us and we had not seen him.  His brother had no idea where he was.  I think we all assumed he was still in California, maybe off living as Grizzly Adams in the Sierra Nevadas.

How does a person go from middle class and college to being found dead in section 8 housing, cause of death starvation?  We are trying to still figure that all out.  I tracked down neighbors through the medical examiner’s office and found out  that he had been placed in that apartment project  by some agency (still to be determined) and was on food stamps and had a benefits card.

He had some psychiatric disorders that apparently caused him to not want to leave his apartment.  Neighbors told me that when he had food stamps he would go buy food very early in the morning.  To my horror, they told me that his food stamps got cut off or non-renewed.  We are still trying to find out the reason.  The neighbors gave him small amounts of food when they could.  Sometimes he wouldn’t take it because he knew they were poor also.

How can anyone in America starve to death?  It makes no sense.  The poor, the elderly, the disabled rely on food stamps for their very sustenance.  People who are out of work or who cannot find jobs have to rely also.  In 78% of the homes receiving food stamps, children are the primary recipients.  We aren’t talking huge amounts of money.  The neighbor who was so helpful to our family about Chris lives on less than $200 a month in food stamps.  She has an adult disabled daughter to feed also.

Are we so freaking middle class that we cannot understand real hunger?  Food is so basic.  I am haunted by what happened to that red-headed little boy who grew up and had some problems.  Had we known where he was, there were at least 5 relatives in his life who could have helped him.  But life is funny.  It doesn’t always work out in middle class June Cleaver ways.  Sometimes there is mental illness.  Sometimes there is divorce.  Sometimes life gets unmanageable.  Whatever happened to poor Chris, he could have gotten help but he didn’t reach out to any of us.  Regardless.  He shouldn’t have died of starvation in the middle of a metropolitan city because he couldn’t get more food stamps.

His death is a badge of shame on America.

 

 

 

37 Thoughts to “Waste, Fraud and Abuse? No one should starve to death in America”

  1. Elena

    As these republicans argue pennies over feeding people, wall street turds just keep cruisin’ on, having suffered no real consequences.

    Chris died like he was a prisoner in a concentration camp. STARVED TO DEATH. The safety nets that are suppose to be in place failed him. And republicans want to put more road blocks in to feed people?

    Disgusting.

    1. I tried to call Rep. Andy Harris, Nancy Pelosi and Eric Cantor. No one was in and no aids came on to talk to me. I did get a message block for Pelosi.

      I don’t even know who to bitch to. I think the bill passed the house while I was out. There will be a lot more Chrises.

  2. Pat.Herve

    RIP Chris. What a tragic story.

    What gauls me is that they act like their friends and family have never been affected by any tragedy. Is there waste fraud and abuse – sure there is but what is being proposed will not get rid of it. Waste Fraud and Abuse was the 2008 election mantra and Congress has done nothing on it since.

    1. Very good point, Pat. We felt it was tragic also. So totally avoidable. I am certainly not blaming Republicans for his death. I blame institutional failure in his particular case until I find out which agency dropped the ball. I realize I might not ever find out also.

      However, I do blame the Republicans for taking more money away from food stamps. There will always be abuses. Even if a church is cooking for people, there will be abuses. I would crack down on those stores who are cooking the books rather than the people who are using the food stamps. Cutting back resources just makes the problem worse.

      The neighbor I talked to really made me sad. She had tried to help. Apparently the poor have a code of silence where they don’t want to poke their noses into other people’s business or hurt their pride. She gave the building super food to give to Chris so he wouldn’t know. I sent her a check. She didn’t ask me for anything. She just said sue NY’s ass. They dropped the ball on that man. She hasn’t cashed the check either. Here she is trying to feed herself and her daughter on around $150 a month. I don’t see how people do it. I guess that is the waste, fraud and abuse.

  3. Pat.Herve

    A related issue is the fact that many people are taking on jobs full time such as fast food which are not livable wages, yet the people are trying to make them into real jobs. They get food stamps because the pay is so low. How much would the dollar menu have to increase to give those people a living wage? I will pay it. But in this climate of the lowest is better it will not happen. Just today I heard a pundit talking about how people wages were competing with robots and how the people should just work for less or get there job replaced. Sheesh.

    1. This is sure not a good time to be poor or disabled.

      Now we have to worry about the debt ceiling and the govt. shutting down. God what will that do to the economy by the Know-Nothings?

  4. Starryflights

    The republicans want to turn America into a third world country. People ought not to starve to death in America.

  5. Wolverine

    Moon — You might want to look at the New York Times, N.Y./Region, of 17 Sept 2013, for a good overview of the problems of poverty and homelessness in New York City. “In New York, Having a Job, or 2, Doesn’t Mean Having a Home” by Mireya Navarro.

    Huge numbers of New Yorkers are in government shelters, including many with jobs which cannot cover expenses. According to the article, even a one-bedroom apartment in the South Bronx can cost $1000 per month. Also, beyond food stamps, there are about 550 government “soup kitchens” where the hungry can get emergency meals.

    Very surprisingly, California is one of the places where it is hardest to get on food stamps. It is not the will to serve but, rather, some very crazy application procedures and demands which cause people to give up, get refused, or just get lost in the system. I am wondering if this is what may have happened to Chris in NYC, especially since he seems to have been psychologically adverse to going out in public. Some of those programs require personal effort to enroll and re-enroll and to prove need. I’m not sure of the SNAP program, but those NYC shelters, for instance, require some visible effort to find a job and eventually to find one’s own home. Might have been something similar for SNAP.

  6. Thanks, Wolverine.

    I will try to find that article. Piecing together what happened has been difficult. The real kick was that Chris could have had a home and food with his adoptive father in California. His door was always open. I expect he was mentally ill then but no one shared that with us or his brother. His CA father might not have known. None of us has any idea how he ended up in the Bronx, It was a revelation to us all. I have been able to track the paper trail for the section 8 housing back to 2008. He may have been there much longer. We just don’t know.

    I think one does have to reapply for food stamps or someone has to do it for you. It sounded like some agency had placed him in that housing. He had been identified as disabled but no descriptors. You would think if someone were disabled the agency would have handled the reapplication.

    The neighbor told me her food stamps had been cut back also which of course sounds like a NYC decision. Who knows. I can’t imagine stretching food costs for a month across $150. That sure doesn’t allow for much in the way of meat or vegetables. Cheese is no bargain either.

    I know there is no way we will ever know what really happened. I would like to at least figure some of it out and at least hold the appropriate agency accountable for dropping the ball. Then maybe it wouldn’t happen to someone else.

    I basically find the entire story horrifying on so many levels. I didn’t say anything publically when it first happened because it was impossible to even know where to begin. I guess we have only known for 2 weeks but it sure seems like a lot longer.

    I am awaiting the next installment of information. Mental illness was the root of the problem though, from what I can tell.

  7. @Wolverine

    Now I am more depressed than ever. What on earth do people do?

    Why do lawmakers think that people are involved with waste, fraud, and abuse?

    There is a real disconnect here and unfortunately those living marginally are the ones who pay.

    I found the list of jobs that some of them are doing jaw-dropping. Security guards shouldn’t be below the poverty level.

  8. Pat.Herve

    There is certainly a percentage of Waste Fraud and Abuse – just not the entire program. I know of several DoD contracts that are rife with Waste at very high salaries – but there is no interest in trying to reign in those contracts.

    Wasn’t it just a few weeks ago that there were some saying that people on food stamps were living the high life with steak and lobster?

    Nevada seems to have found a way to cut taxes and reduce the mental health burden – http://www.sacbee.com/2013/03/05/5236303/federal-probe-sought-of-alleged.html – they just buy bus tickets to other states and give it to the patients – problem solved (sarcasm).

    1. I believe it was the crab legs that did the poor in on this blog. I only remember because I had to locate pictures for the post. It certainly wasn’t my contention that people living on food stamps were living the high life.

      Excellent point about some government contracts being rife with waste, abuse and fraud.

      Poor people are low hanging fruit–sort of the reason people drown kittens rather than mountain lions. Politicians count on the poor being unempowered and often they are correct.

  9. Lyssa

    The kindness of the neighbors is touching. They have so little for themselves. The virtue of kindness is more than what you do or say, it’s within.

    1. @Lyssa

      It really was touching. Those who have so little. The super probably also wasn’t rolling in extra bux either.

      I sent the woman a small check because I knew she had had her benefits sliced and diced. (for the record, she never asked me for anything) She still has not cashed the check. The thought occurred to me that she might have a hard time getting it cashed or that I might have hurt her pride. I hope not in either case.

  10. Elena

    Wow Moon, never heard that, “drown kittens instead of mountain lions”. I guess the Mountain Lions are the 1% that are earning 23% of the wealth in this country.

    1. I was thinking that its easy to drown kittens. Put them in a bag. No fuss, no muss. A mountain lion is going to tear your arms off and make hamburger out of your legs.

  11. Censored bybvbl

    It’s probably time to have another discussion of mental health in this country – how to fund treatments which are as effective as possible, whether to force treatment or institutionalization, the dilemma of individual’s rights vs. society’s, how well our “safety net” works. Even our gun laws depend on evaluation of individual’s mental health. It’s time we suck it up and get over this “American exceptionalism” crapola and see what other countries do better than we do and learn from them. And , of course, much will come down to the inevitable argument over funding and health care.

    1. We are also going to have to distinguish between people who see a counselor over minor issues, slight depression, grieve therapy, and those people who have critical debilitating emotional problems. One problem has been lumping everything from grief therapy to full blown psychoses under one big umbrella.

      Medically speaking, its like comparing needing a few stitches to treatment for terminal cancer.

  12. Steve Thomas

    Moon,

    Sorry for your loss. As you know, I have had my own personal experiences dealing with a how a broken mental health system in Massachusetts treated one of my immediate family. By God’s grace she survived, and is doing well, mostly because we took control of the situation and refused to be stonewalled or beaten down with HIPAA statements.

    I am not going to turn this into a partisan issue as some on this thread have chosen to do. This isn’t a partisan issue. Mental illness impacts Republicans and Democrats, Rich and Poor, Saved and Sinner. I will pray for peace and strength for you and your family.

    1. Thank you, Steve. It took a few days before I could share this story. It has a lot of complex components.

      I suppose it becomes partisan for me when I see Congress passing a bill to cut back $39 Billion dollars in food stamps. I just think that is wrong on so many levels. I also think it is disingenuous. Too many people have no clue how the food stamp program works and how desperate some people really are.

      I think the bill that passed in Congress yesterday was also partisan. There are other ways to curb waste than to reduce food benefits to those who need it most.

      I am glad your brush with the broken mental health system had a happy ending.

      Our personal experience has been very humbling. It has also taught me that you can never be too middle class to have something like this spring up and bite you on the butt.

  13. Not Bernie Madoff

    @Moon-howler

    Condolences on this tragic situation. No family should have to suffer anything like this.

    There’s more fraud, waste and abuse at Goldman Sachs alone than in the entire food stamp program. Remember GS selling worthless mortgage-backed bonds to clients that the rating agencies had fraudulently and/or incompetently stamped “AAA,” and then betting against the same bonds they had just sold their clients so that they won on both sides? That’s just one example and it’s not limited to GS. To date, not one single corporate crook involved in the financial meltdown has been tried, much less gone to prison.

    Nothing is done because these firms heavily fund BOTH parties. GS was Obama’s second largest contributor in 2008. This is not a partisan problem. It’s a systematic problem with campaign finance and money running the government all the way from GS at the national level to developers and Corey Stewart on the Board of Supervisors. Poor people with mental illnesses don’t have $1 million to cough up to donate to a political campaign. That means people at firms like GS laugh all the way to their yachts while Chris’ food stamps get cut off.

    1. Not Bernie’s post sort of says it all.

  14. Elena

    not only has no one suffered any consequences in the banking industry, we financially bailed their a$$es out!

  15. Not Bernie Madoff

    @Elena

    I’m not trying to change the subject of Moon’s post, but we’re still at risk. Dodd-Frank had a lot of potential but in the end because of lobbying by the big banks, insurance companies, etc. ended up just being a nuisance for them rather than substantive reform. The “too big to fail” banks are even larger now and even more “too big to fail” and concentrated. Where’s Teddy Roosevelt when we need him so badly to bust up these concentrations of corporate power?

  16. Steve Randolph

    Moon, I also am sorry for your family’s terrible loss.
    So very sad.

    Note that SNAP program (food stamps) funding
    quickly flows into local grocery stores and the
    economy of areas that often need it the most.
    Besides helping to provide basic food security
    for thousands of American citizens, it has
    a large positive economic impact on the entire food
    chain – from farmers to retailers.

    1. Thank you, Steve, Thanks for that important reminder also. Food stamps do help local economies for sure. So does unemployment insurance to hard hit areas.

  17. Steve Thomas

    While I couldn’t begin to explain why his SNAP was “cut off” or expired, perhaps in error or for lack of action on the part of the recipient, here’s and analysis of the programs size in relation to the economy by the WSJ:

    http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/09/06/why-is-one-sixth-of-u-s-on-food-stamps/?mod=WSJ_article_outbrain&obref=obinsite

  18. Pat.Herve

    So nice of the House to pass the CR. The big cheerleaders of cutting Waste Fraud and Abuse, of cutting unnecessary spending, Obamacare, Food Stamps, Deficits, Debt Ceiling etc. Also found in their hearts to give $174,000 to the Widow of Frank Lautenberg. Mind you, Frank was only the 8th wealthiest person in Congress with a net worth of $56 Million.

    SEC. 134. Notwithstanding any other provision of this joint resolution, there is appropriated for payment to Bonnie Englebardt Lautenberg, widow of Frank R. Lautenberg, late a Senator from New Jersey, $174,000.

    So, the next time one of these dudes tell you they are about cutting dollars – look at the real deal – they will cut the dollars from those that need it and give dollars to those that they know. Pathetic. I do wonder what her pension status is in regards to Frank’s pension.

  19. Kelly_3406

    I am very sorry to hear about Chris. Food stamps are a worthy program that represents a basic safety net. While I do want fraudulent people turned down for food stamps, the government’s heavy-handed method of verification is oppressive, ineffective, and in this case, deadly.

    1. Thank you, Kelly. We were very shocked especially because we had no idea he was even on the east coast.

      I want fraudulent people turned down and I want stores that are playing funny business with food stamps prosecuted.

  20. Wolverine

    Moon, if you want to experience more depression, just go to Google Images and type in Skid Row, Los Angeles. Yep, skid row for real in 2013, not just a memory of the 1930’s. We should remember those photos whenever we see stories about the glitzy showbiz people living not too far northwest of that street of misery.

    1. I don’t think there is an answer to poor people. If there is, no society has really been able to discover it.

      You are right though, it is depressing to think about Skid Row and the Bowery. I guess we will always need soup kitchens and homeless shelters. That’s the importance of making sure those people don’t have vital services cut off.

      And yes, there will always be a few scumbags to try to bilk the system. Those are the folks we need to declare war on, not the poor.

  21. George S. Harris

    When you told me about this I was shocked beyond belief and I send my deepest sympathy to you and Mr. Moon. I am sure you have looked at New York’s SNAP program and from what I can see it, like many such programs, requires periodic recertification. New york has apparently tried to make it easy by allowing folks to recertify by telephone but my guess would be Chris didn’t have a phone. If he didn’t recertify, the it might be easy and natural for DSS folks to presume he didn’t need food help any more–BAM–strike one. It sounds like Chris suffered from agoraphobia and that coupled with what other mental issues he may have had–BAM–strike two. I would expect that NYC’s poor problem is absolutely overwhelming and someone who fails, for whatever reason, to stay in touch falls through the ever present crack–BAM–strike three. This shouldn’t happen to anyone but it does and will continue to happen. I suspect I couldn’t think of a much worse place to be in such a situation than in NYC where people don’t have the time or inclination to worry about the down and out except the down and out.
    Rest in peace Chris and know that there are those who love you.

    1. Thank you for those words George. I will share them with Mr. Howler.

      I think you are right on all three counts. Just a case of falling through the cracks. I would think those who placed him in the section 8 should have known or checked back, but like you said, the system has to be overwhelming. I

      I feel overwhelmed just trying to figure out what happened. I guess I felt badly for the woman who had her food stamps cut back to about half.

      Whatever the reason, it shouldn’t have happened. Its just not something one expects to happen to someone you know. Back to being too middle class…..

  22. Wolverine

    I think George may have nailed it right there.

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