Minnesota targets food stamp fraud, By Maya Rao, June 1, 2012, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: “It’s simple to scam the food stamp program in Minnesota: Sell a benefit card for cash, walk into a county social services office, report the card lost or stolen, and get a new one on the spot. The state issues so many replacements — ranking fourth in the nation for the number of food benefit recipients requesting at least four new cards in a year — that the federal government sent a letter to the Minnesota Department of Human Services this spring highlighting the high numbers as a sign of possible illegal behavior. Minnesota is moving to address the problem. By September, the state will ship food benefit cards by mail — rather than providing them over the counter — and those cards will include the recipient’s name. The state also supports the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s proposal to allow states to more closely monitor recipients who ask for an excessive number of replacement cards, known as EBT cards…”
Day: June 5, 2012
Low-income Housing – Wyoming, North Dakota
- Low-income, elderly residents decry federal housing cuts, By Josh Mitchell, June 3, 2012, Wyoming Tribune Eagle: “Lillian Allen, a resident of government housing in Cheyenne, is upset about federal funding cuts that could hurt her livelihood. ‘I think it’s wrong,’ the 86-year-old Cheyenne resident said. ‘I think we should help our people here in America.’ Funding to keep the Cheyenne Housing Authority’s 266 local units in good shape has been slashed by the federal government. Those units help low-income, elderly and disabled residents…”
- Low-income families facing difficulty finding housing, By Jessica Holdman, June 2, 2012, Bismarck Tribune: “With a 1 percent rental vacancy rate in Bismarck-Mandan, affordable housing is hard for everyone to find, but that’s especially true for those on low and fixed incomes. ‘It (demand) is driving the cost of housing up such that there’s less and less affordable housing today,’ said Mike Anderson, executive director of the North Dakota Housing Finance Agency. Even with housing assistance, North Dakota’s low-income residents can’t afford rent. ‘You can have a voucher and still not find place to live,’ Anderson said. North Dakota housing vouchers offer subsidies based on income. Those in the program contribute up to 30 percent of their personal income to rent and the state covers the rest. Renters have 60 days to find an apartment that fits their voucher. If they can’t find a place in that time, they can apply for a 60-day extension…”
Young Men and the Recession
Growing pains: Rate of young men struggling in careers alarmingly higher than for young women, By Elizabeth Stuart, June 2, 2012, Deseret News: “Every morning, they’re outside his bedroom door, marching their little action figures across the carpet and jabbering in cartoon voices, a reminder of everything he can’t control. He asked them to play elsewhere. He asked them to use quiet voices. But the three boys aren’t his children and this isn’t his house. Twenty-six years old and done with college, Austin Dent is back under his parent’s roof. In addition to his three nephews, he shares the space with his mom, dad, a sister, a brother-in-law and a three-legged dog. When he first lugged his things up the stairs after finishing his coursework at the University of Utah a year ago, he’d been gone so long his parents had redecorated his boyhood room with a vanity, girly trinkets and flowers. He didn’t rush to settle in. He was just in limbo, he told himself. Dozens of applications and six temporary jobs later, though, Dent has replaced the vanity with a video game console he bought in the classifieds. Now he half-jokingly, half-seriously describes that state of limbo as ‘perpetual…'”