By Sean McDonnell and Zachary Smith
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Many calls to the Cuyahoga County call center for help navigating programs like SNAP and Medicaid are still going unanswered, despite the county implementing changes and adding staff in response to the poor service.
Over the last three months, public records show that just 53% of calls were answered, records show.
Meanwhile, more and more people need help.
The Greater Cleveland Food Bank, for example, has been serving a record number of people in 2023, surpassing the need seen when the COVID-19 pandemic started early in 2020.
For every meal a food bank provides, SNAP provides nine, said Kristin Warzocha, CEO of the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. She said it is crucial to link eligible people to the SNAP program, formerly known as food stamps. But getting through to the call center is often a roadblock.
“It didn’t matter if we called in the morning or the afternoon,” said Penni Meredith, whose application took three months to process. “There was no one who could answer the phone.”
When cleveland.com first reviewed the issue in March, it found only one of every three calls was being answered by the end of last year in Cuyahoga County. Officials made changes in March to make getting calls answered easier, but public records show only incremental improvements.
Getting through is important because a phone interview is required for new SNAP applications and used to be required for renewals each year.
That was the experience of Meredith, 59, who applied for SNAP benefits in November but could never get through to someone who could help her at the call center for an interview. She said she’d wait at least 90 minutes for someone to answer. And if someone did, they’d put her back on hold.
She said her application wasn’t approved until February, only with the help of the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland.
“I’m glad I had somebody to fight for me,” Meredith said, “because I know if I was doing it by myself, I would have given up.”
Brittany Robinson, a 31-year-old single mom, said she had the same issues when calling and had other problems with paperwork.
She said the county sends letters to old addresses and calls old phone numbers, though she had updated them. Robinson said getting that information fixed means calling the call center and waiting on hold.
She said she tried to use online options to avoid the call center, but that system has issues and a lack of tech support when things go wrong.
Call centers across Ohio answered just two-thirds of the calls they received in 2022, and Cuyahoga County’s call center answered just half.
What’s being done to improve things?
Both state and local officials have been experimenting with ways to give callers some relief.
In Cuyahoga County, that meant letting people renew their benefits online or through the mail instead of the previously required phone calls. This started in March, and so far, the county is receiving 71% fewer calls about renewals.
Kevin Gowan, director of Job and Family Services for the county, said the call center has also made some structural changes around how and when it answers calls. And it’s bringing on staff.
In December, the call center had 386 caseworkers, with 200 assigned to the SNAP program. Another 20 caseworkers joined the workforce in late May, and another 26 should complete their training by the end of June.
Gowan said federal rules bar the county from outsourcing the work or bringing in a private company to answer calls. Adding and training the caseworkers takes time, and the county still has difficulty finding people. He said there are still about 50 vacancies to fill.
Along with adding more people, the center’s call-back feature has also been improved, Gowan said. Callers can opt to have a caseworker call them later instead of waiting on hold. This option used to only be offered once the call began. Now it’s offered every five minutes.
Gowan said the call center has also started to schedule phone interviews before 1 p.m. The same caseworkers who answer the phones also process paperwork. So, he closed some phone lines in the afternoon to ensure the county had time to process applications.
Rachel Cahill, a SNAP expert working with the Center for Community Solutions, watches this issue closely in Cuyahoga County and statewide. She said while the county is making changes, whether they help remains to be seen.
While some changes, like scheduling more calls before 1 p.m., may improve the answer rate — it doesn’t necessarily improve access or make it easier for people to apply for SNAP, Cahill said.
She said the county is making what could be good, functional changes, the results aren’t getting better.
The call center answered just 36% of calls in January, but that number jumped to 43% in February and hovered at 50% in March and April.
In May, when more staff came online, the answer rate went up to 61%. It was also the month with the fewest calls so far this year.
However, the answer rate usually improves each spring. And the county is answering a smaller percentage of calls than it did this time last year.
In 2022, the county answered 55% of calls in January, 57% in February, 65% in March, 81% in April and 76% in May. SNAP applications are cyclical, and call volume usually decreases during these spring months.
A program that started during the COVID-19 pandemic, which gave SNAP recipients an extra $95 or more each month, also ended in March. Officials were expecting, and did receive, a higher number of calls in the spring.
Another wrinkle in the data is that the same call center takes calls on Medicaid. People were allowed to stay on Medicaid during the pandemic health emergency. Since that ended, people have started getting notices telling them they’d be taken out of the program.
Food bank says county needs effective SNAP program
Warzocha, of the food bank, said having an effective SNAP program is important, so much so that the food bank has had its own SNAP outreach program for about 10 years, where they help people apply for benefits.
“We realized at the time that tens of thousands of people were eligible for SNAP and were not receiving the benefits,” Warzocha said.
She added that the food bank submitted about 20% of Cuyahoga County’s SNAP applications, giving them a front-row seat to the program. They also receive many complaints when people can’t get through.
“There simply are not enough county caseworkers to answer all the calls that come in,” Warzocha said.
Warzocha said the food bank has tried for years to have the county send SNAP caseworkers to work out of the food bank. She said the food bank and county have been working on a pilot program to try the idea.
Meanwhile, a new survey shows that people are struggling amid increasing food costs.
Since the end of pandemic-era SNAP benefits, more than three in four food bank clients say their monthly benefits only last for two weeks or less. Just 5% say their benefits lasted a whole month.
And nearly 2-in-3 say they are cutting their meals’ size or skipping meals. More than half had to choose between paying for food or paying for housing. And the majority of people interviewed had to choose between food or expenses like transportation, utilities or health care.
“No Ohioan should have to choose between a meal and medicine they need, but that’s the reality many of our neighbors are dealing with too often right now,” said Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, executive director.
Source: cleveland.com - Despite changes, nearly half of calls to Cuyahoga County about SNAP, Medicaid still go unanswered