Hunger Among Low Income Seniors and the Disabled

Here’s a simple question with a complicated answer: Why are there so many seniors and people with disabilities who eat at the St. Anthony’s Free Dining Room?

In order to answer that question, you have to talk about SSI/SSP (Supplemental Security Income / State Supplemental Program) benefits and how they relate to hunger and poverty for low-income seniors and people with disabilities.

Here in San Francisco, there are about 45,000 low-income seniors, blind people,  and people with disabilities who receive SSI/SSP benefits.  SSI/SSP provides a very basic standard of living for people who are unable to work because of age, blindness, or disability.  Single SSI/SSP recipients receive $845 per month (93% of the federal poverty level), and couples receive $1,407 per month (115% of the federal poverty level).

SSI/SSP recipients in California are ineligible for the Food Stamp program (which has recently been renamed “Cal Fresh”).  As a result of recent budget cuts, SSI/SSP recipients have seen their benefit levels cut three times over the past two years, have lost their yearly “renters rebate” of $347.50, have had the cost of living adjustment to the state-funded portion of their grant eliminated, and have received no cost of living adjustment to the federally-funded portion of their grant in either 2010 or 2011.

Seniors and people with disabilities who receive SSI/SSP have also seen their out-of-pocket contributions to Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program increase and have lost access to dental benefits altogether.

Here at St. Anthony’s, we see many seniors who are able to afford rent in the small rooms in the single room occupancy hotels of the Tenderloin, but being able to afford food is a struggle. This struggle is explained in more detail in a recent report from San Francisco’s Food Security Task Force.

Unfortunately, Governor Brown has proposed a further reduction ($15 per month) to SSI/SSP benefit levels. If you’d like to speak out against this cut, visit our advocacy alert page.