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Crowd Bonds, Camps Out For Irene Bucks

by Paul Bass | Sep 27, 2011 12:44 pm

(13) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Social Services, Newhallville

Paul Bass Photo A possum gave the crowd a middle-of-the-night scare. Otherwise some shared coffee and a bootleg copy of “Transformers” helped over 100 hearty help-seekers make it through as they camped out overnight in hopes of obtaining $200 to $1,000 in emergency post-Irene help.

The crowd has filled Bassett Street outside the state social services office since Monday, as word spread that low-income people not already on food stamps could pick up one-time federal disaster money to cover financial losses in last month’s tropical storm Irene.

If they could get to the head of the line.

By the deadline: Tuesday at 3:30 p.m.

Hundreds tried on Monday. Some got through. Many others went home with slips of paper (aka rain checks) enabling them to return Tuesday morning to a separate express line.

That’s what happened to Muata Langley (pictured with son Dakari, 2). Langley, a 23-year-old dancer, claimed he lost $200 worth of meat after Irene knocked out his electricity. He showed up outside the agency at 194 Bassett St. Monday and waited three hours. He got the slip of paper, returned Tuesday morning to the priority line to the right side of the front door, and got inside after 10 a.m.

Brittany Dash waited eight hours Monday to get that slip. The certified nurse, a mother of three, slept at home, returned at 7:15 a.m., and emerged from the office by 10:15 a.m. with $668 courtesy of the federal Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). “I’m going shopping and putting food in the freezer,” she proclaimed.

The crowd that remained outside Tuesday morning wasn’t as lucky. Most of them hadn’t shown up Monday during the day. They didn’t know if they’d get in. Many said they’d arrived around midnight. Some brought chairs to sleep in; at least one woman, who said she had to cancel a Labor Day cookout after hundreds of dollars of fish and steak spoiled in her freezer, reported that she indeed was able to catch some zzzs on the line.

She was one of some 100 to 150 people who braved the overnight and had reasonably good chances of making it inside the doors to pick up checks before the disbursements end at 3:30 p.m. The program had officially begun in the middle of last week; DSS processed 5,580 applications statewide including 1,708 from New haven from last Wednesday through Monday. But many folks heard about it only around Monday, creating a last-minute rush at district offices like the one on Bassett. (DSS spokesman David Dearborn said Tuesday that people who don’t get in by closing Tuesday will receive “rain check” vouchers for future processing. “No one who comes to the office during the announced application period will be turned away without being able to file an application for federal Disaster SNAP benefits,” Dearborn stated.)

The campers Tuesday morning spoke of having to hold their bladders overnight. “You don’t want to lose your place in line,” said Miriam, an unemployed woman from Middletown Avenue who declined to give her last name. (She’s at the center of the photo at the top of the story.) When the DSS office opened in the morning, security guards began ushering small groups of people inside to use the bathroom.

A few people cut in line overnight, but otherwise those assembled pulled together, said an unemployed man from East Haven (lat left in top photo) who claimed he lost $400 in spoiled meat.

Another man at that section of the line displayed the Compaq computer he’d charged up in advance of his midnight vigil. “Somebody saw the bootleg man before they came down here,” he said. That somebody had a copy of “Transformers” and the third “Planet of the Apes.” The movies went into the Compaq, and people gathered around to watch.

Some time around 1 a.m. a possum crossed Bassett as if to join the crowd. That spooked some of the people on line. Apparently the possum got spooked, too, and crossed back to the other side.

Some doughnuts and coffee were passed around at another point. One woman claimed the assembled actually sang “Kumbaya.”

The Independent could not confirm that last claim. Officer Bob Jones (pictured) did confirm that people on line kept cool overnight. Police spokesman David Hartman said officers had encountered some unruliness on Monday, but did not make any arrests.

Officer Jones was stationed on Bassett starting at 4 a.m. He had another officer with him. When DSS opened the doors, the police beefed up patrols to five cops outside and two inside the building.

By mid-morning the crowd had grown back to some 300 to 400 hopefuls stretching more than a block east toward the corner of Shelton Avenue. Unlike the people closer to the door, these people came arrived after sunrise. And they didn’t know if they’d make it inside by closing time. Jamaican-born First Student school bus driver Stanford (pictured; he declined to give his last name), who’s 55, said he had to work the morning shift before he could wait in line. He arrived at 9 a.m.; he would have to leave again by 1 p.m. to drive more kids. He said Irene cost him three to four days of wages.

Jacqueline Jones, a Yale Law School midnight-shift dining hall chef, had lasted only two hours Monday. “I lost my patience,” she said. She returned at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Here at the back end of the line people remained cheerful, summoning optimism. “Everyone’s conducting themselves very well,” reported Elizabeth Washington (center left in photo), a certified nurse’s assistant from New Haven. “Keep hope alive!”

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Comments

posted by: Anon on September 27, 2011  1:10pm

I think this is a damn shame. I bet 95% of these people do not need the help. They are just there for a hand-out like always. this is why the government has no damn money. They are giving out hand-outs to people who “claim to have lost $200 worth of meat”. Did they give proof? Who the hell cares if they lost food. Too damn bad. that happens. What about the people that actually lost houses or cars or more valuable items? What a freakin waste of tax payers money. Some people have no shame.

posted by: eli on September 27, 2011  3:59pm

There don’t appear to be any white people in line.  Can anyone give a reasonable, educated explaination of this?

[Note: The woman at the center of the top photo is white. There were other white people in line too.]

posted by: Threefifths on September 27, 2011  5:12pm

posted by: Anon on September 27, 2011 1:10pm
I think this is a damn shame. I bet 95% of these people do not need the help. They are just there for a hand-out like always

How about these crooks who kept geting handouts.

Failing banks line up for gov’t handouts
By Milt Neidenberg

http://www.workers.org/2008/us/banks_0724/

posted by: robn on September 27, 2011  5:18pm

What….?

Doesn’t everyone keep 40-50 lbs of Grade A Delmonico steaks in their freezer at all times?

posted by: Funky Chicken on September 27, 2011  7:10pm

I lost around $200 from spoiled food in my freezer. My insurance agent said that I could put in a claim (with no deductible) up to $500. I didn’t because I knew that my insurance would go up by $1000 next year if I did.

posted by: all4one on September 27, 2011  7:40pm

would it be better if we sent the relief to another country? What is the problem with people, that happen to be black, getting help? To say that they don’t need the help is to say that none of them suffered thru the hurricane. What a bunch of crap!!! Help should be given to the ones least able to return to normal, and since these people fall into that category then help them. I’m sure that $100 isn’t going to get them very far. A waste of taxpayers money? Is this to imply that none of those people pay taxes?! Are they not receiving their money back (taxes)and helping those in that same state, city, and municipality when they do. Quite frankly, they are entitled to it, and I for one am glad that they are in line and getting it. Why cant I have steak in my fridge, or is this just a “privileged” mind set.Get the money and take care of your business!!!

posted by: joey on September 27, 2011  7:54pm

Anything for a handout

posted by: scammin sid skidliac on September 27, 2011  8:06pm

the ironic thing is the ‘white’ side of new haven, east shore, got the brunt of the power outages, not the inner city.

and the lines were even worse on north main st in hartford, where the effects from the storm were minimal.

we have gone from the land of opportunity to chasing every opportune handout.

posted by: V on September 27, 2011  8:17pm

Who keeps $400 of meat in their freezer, but has an income low enough to qualify for this program?

This is why I’m sick of paying taxes.

posted by: bjfair on September 27, 2011  8:19pm

If we can bail out banks and insurance companies and accept tax breaks for the rich the people in line who help pay for it all shouldn’t be ashamed to get a “one time” handout.

posted by: NHresident on September 28, 2011  8:13am

to scammin sid you are very wrong ” the inner city you are referring to did not have it’s power restored until Wednesday or Thursday after the storm. But you wouldn’t know that because you probably never leave “your” section of town.

As one poster wrote why is it ok for our dollars to be spent overseas when disaster strikes and no one is up in arms? It’s about time the US is taking care of home. People that didn’t lose anything are surely in the line and will possibly be denied as many have. The others will receive scraps compared to the homeowners on the shore line that applied for FEMA funds, which sounds like a government handout to me. They bought their homes knowing the possibilities of storms, flooding etc. yet they are getting breaks from paying their deductibles and a govt handout. Sounds nice but wait until your homeowners insurance goes up because of it.

posted by: bull crap on September 28, 2011  11:49am

Can someone please help me understand how someone is unemployed and can afford to keep $400 of meat in their freezer, or how does a low income person keep $200 worth of meat in their freezer. Both my husband and I work full-time, have a family of 5 and we’re lucky if we ever have $200 worth of meat in our freezer. This system is frigged up.

posted by: Westville Mom on September 28, 2011  3:28pm

It’s time for taxpayers to demand a major overhaul of FEMA.

I have a very close friend who is a CPA (not in CT), who owns two small houses—one in VT and one in NC.  They were BOTH affected by this hurricane.

She told me that her A/C in NC was damaged by flooding in Hurricane Isabel and had to be replaced.  FEMA (by the way) IS the flood insurance! ... They operate it through local agencies.  The flood insurance—which she pays premiums for—would not approve moving the A/C into the attic, where it would be safer.  This was FEMA!  So what happened? It got damaged by flooding AGAIN in this hurricane and has to be replaced AGAIN.

With FEMA, we are getting for flood insurance the same thing we’ve gotten with Fannie and Freddie for home mortgages and the Postal Service for postal delivery ... a rip-off.
 
Besides that, their mandates are morphing into a hidden agenda of providing alternate forms of welfare without calling it that ... i.e. incorporating a socialist restructuring into every bureau and agency.  That’s why we now have handouts for unsubstantiated claims.  Am I the only person who sees this?
(Evidently me and Herman Cain.) 

The monstrous arms of an incompetent and overbearing government are increasingly encompassing and restricting every aspect of your lives and you people don’t even see it.
 
Wise up ... before they start piping the “official” radio station 24/7 into your homes.

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