Carmen Quiñones arrived at the Lorain branch of Cleveland’s library at 10:30 a.m. Three hours later, she was still there — waiting to be called to meet with Cuyahoga County’s Job and Family Services staff.
The department’s computer system went down earlier that day. Quiñones stuck around to get some answers on why she received a letter telling her that she needed to re-apply for her SNAP benefits.
It’s still better than driving down to the county’s social service office on Payne Avenue, which is farther from her home in the city’s southwest corner, she said. And despite the wait, it’s also more pleasant.
“There’s things to look at here,” Quiñones said, gesturing to the rows of books and movies and even a kids’ play corner.
Addie Griffin, who sat a few feet away, also waiting to be called, agreed. Parking is simpler here than downtown. It’s less crowded. And meeting a county caseworker face-to-face is certainly better than trying to navigate the “subpar” website where residents can sign up for benefits online, she said.
Libraries have long helped residents navigate the social safety net, offering free computers, internet access and help submitting documents. That role is becoming more important as federal changes to SNAP and Medicaid add work requirements for thousands of Cuyahoga County residents and end eligibility for some legal immigrants. The changes create heaps of paperwork and confusion — and more demand for help.
That rising demand comes as wait times to get help from the county’s Job and Family Services are growing, said Director Kevin Gowan. Librarians cannot answer questions about individual cases or complete applications. The few county caseworkers who hold weekly office hours at Cleveland’s Lorain Branch are already drawing lines before the doors open, raising concerns that the long waits burdening the county system will follow residents into libraries.
What librarians can do, though, is help residents search for jobs, send required documents to the county and navigate technology challenges. Residents can often get that help face-to-face in minutes.
“When there is going to be more paperwork or bureaucracy or administrative requirements, it means more confusion,” said Annette Iwamoto, the board president of the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Library and director of the Cuyahoga Human Services Chamber, a coalition of health and human service nonprofits. “And when people don’t necessarily know where to turn, sometimes they turn to their library.”
Wait times at Cuyahoga Job and Family Service growing
Questions about SNAP and Medicaid typically run through Cuyahoga County’s Job and Family Service department. This department operates the eligibility contact center, where people can call to get answers about their benefits and case.
But the county hasn’t hired any new caseworkers at the department since last October, in preparation for impending budget cuts. Starting this fall, the federal government will slash how much it pays states to administer SNAP. Ohio isn’t picking up the entire bill of what Cuyahoga County needs to cover its costs.
As a result, staffing within the county’s Job and Family Service department fell 13% since last October, Gowan said. That means longer wait times, which have grown on average from 20 minutes to over 30 minutes, he added.
The county doesn’t have time to sit next to each resident as they apply for SNAP or Medicaid, Gowan said. Instead, staff have to focus on reviewing applications to determine whether residents are eligible. So the department seeks community partners — like libraries, the food bank and other agencies — who can work more closely with residents on the ground.
“If (libraries) weren’t out there, would they come to us?” Gowan said. Though it’s hard to know for sure, he said, he suspects “the simple answer is, ‘Yes.’”
Printing and faxing SNAP and Medicaid forms
Applying for SNAP and Medicaid benefits requires extensive paperwork: Social Security cards, pay stubs, utility bills and more. Then there’s the application itself. The one Ohio gives to residents seeking SNAP, Medicaid and other social service programs is 26 pages long.
Cleveland librarians say faxing documents like this to the county’s Job and Family Service department — which is free — is one of the most sought-after services they offer. Andrea Csia, the children’s librarian at the Lorain branch, said they have the county’s fax number “pretty much memorized.” The Eastman branch, about a mile and a half down the road from Lorain, tapes the county’s number next to the fax machine, since so many residents using the machine need it.
Jeannie Gielty, the manager at Eastman, said the need is growing. She believes her library is faxing to the county’s Job and Family Services “more than we ever have,” which she attributes at least partially to recent changes in the SNAP program.
Residents applying for services also typically need documents printed, which the library can do for free. That included Jason and his partner Vickie, who didn’t share their last names. The couple visited Eastman library in early August. Both were struggling with addiction and receiving treatment at a methadone clinic. But neither had health insurance: Vickie hadn’t had it for a while, and Jason lost his Medicaid benefits earlier this year. He had a few theories about why. For one, he’d heard that he didn’t meet the new work requirements, even though they aren’t supposed to be put in place until next January. For another, he thought he may not have reapplied in time.
People with Medicaid are supposed to renew their benefits every year, requiring another round of sharing documents. That will soon increase to every six months for some residents because of federal changes.
Jason had already re-applied for Medicaid over the phone. (“That was the one you went three days trying to get ahold of,” Vickie told him.) But Vickie still needed to apply, and a staffer at the treatment center told her to try the library.
Gielty spoke with them and realized they meant to go to the Lorain branch to meet with county caseworkers in person. Since they ended up at the wrong branch, Gielty printed off SNAP and Medicaid applications for them. Vickie sat down in a quiet corner to take a stab at it. The couple planned to fax it to the county from the library but ultimately went home out of frustration with the lengthy paperwork.
They weren’t the only ones who needed help with benefits at Eastman Branch that day. By about 4 p.m., a line had formed behind the fax machine and the printer. The two machines were nearly more popular than the computers. One man told Signal Cleveland he was using the machines to fax the county his rent receipts in order to get his SNAP benefits.
Some patrons looking for ‘a person’ to help with SNAP, Medicaid
Often, residents are seeking more than a fax machine or a printed copy of an application. They want a person to walk them through the complex bureaucratic processes.
Librarians have to walk a fine line when helping residents navigate public benefits. Neither Cleveland Public Library, Shaker Heights Public Library nor Cuyahoga County Public Library allow staff to fill in applications for residents or indicate how they should answer. But what many can do instead — if staffing allows — is sit next to residents and help them seek answers. Many people appreciate just having a human to accompany them on the search, Gielty said.
“Anecdotally, I get that all the time: ‘I called. I was online. I waited. There’s no way to talk to a person,’” Gielty said. … “So sometimes, sitting next to them, I’ll say, ‘Well, what is your question? Let’s go on Google and see if we can find it.’”
As part of the county’s public benefits community navigator program, staff at the Cuyahoga County Public Library are trained on how to use the Ohio Benefits Self-Service Portal, said Megan Barrett, a branch services director there. That’s the website where residents can sign up for Medicaid and SNAP. Library staff can help residents apply online or over the phone and answer basic questions about SNAP and Medicaid.
People do not have to schedule an appointment to get help, Barrett added. They just need to ask for assistance from information desks.
The county also lists Cleveland Public Library and Shaker Heights Public Library as part of its public benefits community navigator program. But spokespeople for both the Cleveland and Shaker Heights libraries said that their staff had not received recent benefit navigator training from the county. Gowan and Aida Idiaquez, the county’s manager of community engagement for Job and Family Services, said that the county offers the training to libraries and other human service agencies, and library staff can choose to participate. Not every library staffer has been through the training, they said.
Residents are still likely to find help in both cities’ libraries. At Shaker Heights Public Library, customers can book an appointment with a tech specialist, who can walk them through how to set up the Ohio Self-Service benefit portal, wrote Lyndsey Brennan, a spokesperson for the library. And in Cleveland, librarians consistently help patrons with one of the constant battles to get residents signed up for benefits — email access. Librarians can help patrons reset their passwords if they’re locked out of their email, a common challenge for those without much tech experience, said Fatima Pearson, the manager of the Lorain branch.
Email access is vital because it’s one way residents can send documents to the county’s Job and Family Services department. Patrons also may need email access to get into their online benefits portal. The portal requires multi-factor authentication, a way to minimize security risks by sending a code to a person’s email or phone number before allowing them to log in. But if residents don’t have access to their email, they can’t get in.
“I could write a thesis about this,” Gielty said, describing the challenges of two-factor authentication. The process requires residents to have a reliable phone number and an email address they can access. But many people frequently change or lose access to email addresses or phone numbers, Gielty said.
Gielty said staff, if they have time, can also read benefit applications aloud to people with low literacy levels. And they can help residents facing new work requirements search for job, volunteer and educational opportunities.
“I can think of two ladies off the top of my head that have been looking for jobs because they don’t want to lose their benefits,” Gielty said.
