What's Happening MoCo?

What's Happening with Resources for Federal Workers and Snap Recipients

• Derrick Kenny • Season 12 • Episode 107

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Paychecks paused, budgets stretched, stress rising—when a shutdown hits home, the first question is simple: where can I get help today? We invited Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Earl Stoddard to walk us through the fastest, most reliable ways Montgomery County residents can find support for food, rent, mental health, and work options, all without getting lost in red tape. The theme is practical and human: one call to 311 connects you to real people who assess your situation and build a plan around your needs.

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SPEAKER_01:

Good day and welcome to What's Happening Moco, an authentic, unscripted podcast from your Montgomery County government. Now, here's your host, Derek Kenney.

SPEAKER_02:

Good day, and welcome to What's Happening Moco. Today's episode, we have resources from the county government for those affected by the government shutdown. Whether you're being affected by the complications of SNAP benefits or the ongoing furlough of government workers, please watch this episode. We have a special guest, Earl Stoddard. He's an assistant chief administrative officer in charge of resources and public safety for the Montgomery County government. Good day. Welcome to the show, Earl. Is it okay if I call you Earl? Absolutely. Thanks, Derek. All right. And I want to say thank you on behalf of the residents and others in the county for all the good work that you've done during COVID, which seems like it was what a thousand years ago, but just what two or three years ago, we were in the midst of COVID and we've had all those protocols and safety measures in place. And you had uh quite a role in that. Uh tell us a little bit about what you do now uh as assistant chief administrative officer, and then a little bit about what you did then. And then let's get deep into the resources available to families and individuals in the county uh when it comes to um the impact of the furloughs and the complications with SNAP benefits.

SPEAKER_00:

Sure. So I uh moved to the county executive's office as an assistant CAO in September of 21. So I've been, it's about four years, a little over four years now that I've been working with the county executive's office. I'm one of three assistant CAOs at this point. Um and we have a deputy CAO and then obviously the chief administrative officer, Rich Matolino. Um we as a team basically divide up all the functions of the executive branch of government and have different portfolios that we all focus on. For me, obviously, given my history as the county's emergency manager from 2016 to 2021, uh, I took the public safety portfolio amongst several other things, including uh parts of health and human services that focus on uh homelessness and homelessness prevention, behavioral health and mental health services, uh, Office of Food Systems Resilience. And I also happen to have our Vision Zero portfolio portfolio as well. So it's a pretty broad portfolio.

SPEAKER_02:

That's pretty big here. You have Vision Zero, which is the county's initiative to improve uh pedestrian safety. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. How's that going? It's a you know, it's one of those things where it feels like it's one step forward, one step back sometimes. We uh we make progress and then you know we have we have an unexpected fatality. Um it's uh Vision Zero is one of those challenges where it's a multi-billion dollar, multi-year challenge because we've got to remake some of the designs of our roadways. And obviously, with technology like uh cell phones, distracted driving has increased a lot. And so it's uh it feels like we make progress uh and then you know something happens and we feel like we need to make more progress. So it's gonna be one of those things where it's gonna take a generation of investment for us to address. Awesome, awesome.

SPEAKER_02:

And before we get to the subject, uh the the core subject, what's what's one of two things that residents could do to help you um achieve the goals of Vision Zero?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so I think it's we all have a role to play in um roadway safety. Obviously, our pedestrians and our bicyclists are at the greatest risk. You know, those of us driving operate multi-ton vehicles uh with the uh, you know, many of us, many of us at this point drive SUVs, which have a little bit higher, sit higher, and all make it very difficult for people to be see. I think one of the things we tell people is be observant of the roadways. Do not be distracted by a conversation on your phone with someone in the car with the text that just came in with an email that you're waiting for from work. Um people don't take take take for granted that things are just gonna operate as they should on the roadways and they often will not. And that, you know, that applies to our drivers principally, but it also applies to our pedestrians and bicyclists. You know, I I I we were discussing before the show, I've been doing a lot of walking. So, you know, I know as a pedestrian all the time, but I need to be very cautious. I don't assume that someone's gonna stop at the stop sign. I think that's important too. It shouldn't be that way. People should follow the rules of the road, but the reality is people are distracted and we need to take that into account. And so drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists just all have to play a role in this and play a role, you know, make sure we contribute.

SPEAKER_02:

Fantastic. And speaking of contribute, the county has been stepping up, as has the state of Maryland's been stepping up to help support families and individuals affected by the furloughs and the complications involving SNAP. Uh, what let's let's cover some of the things and some of the key resources um that are available um to those that qualify within the county. Uh and let's start with um food insecurity. Uh, what are some of the resources available for people that are facing food insecurity? And by that, people that might be um short on funds for groceries or for um lunches or breakfast for their kids.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so let me start off by saying um sort of this this government shutdown is really tragic. It's really affecting a lot of our residents. My wife actually is a furlough furrow employee uh herself. So uh it's affecting my family and in not, you know, obviously not to the extent that it's affecting some families where you've got two how two two breadwinners or the primary breadwinner of the house that's affected by this. And obviously we're we're trying to think about all the different angles of support that people will need as we address this. So let's start by let me let me preface this by saying I'm gonna talk a lot about different services today. The easiest way to access any of these services is actually to contact the county's 311 service. Okay. Uh they'll connect you and and a lot of these services are eligibility-based, meaning they'll do an assessment and they'll be able to tell you through our Department of Health Union Services and the partners that work with them, you're eligible for A, B, and C or D E and F. And depending on your circumstances, they'll be able to give you a lot of information.

SPEAKER_02:

So for the starting point, for those not um familiar with 311, they can simply dial 311 if they live in the county, if they're in the county, and it will route them to county information services.

SPEAKER_00:

Or if you're outside the county, but you uh you know have an access to Montgomery County, you can dial 240-777-0311 as well. All right, thank you. Uh and so that'll that'll get you in and you'll you'll talk you'll talk to someone. It's you know, you'll you'll get a call taker and they'll, depending on what you're asking for, they'll direct you to the right service from there.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, I'm sorry, a real human being? Oh, a real human being.

SPEAKER_00:

I know it's I know it's sort of quaint nowadays to think about, but yeah, we we we do that too. That's powerful. Okay. Yeah. Yep. And so um, for food resources, obviously, this is something the county has invested a ton in. Actually, we we talked about COVID before this, and this really comes out of our work in COVID, where food, food availability and food security were such a prevalent issue given the the closures, the impacts on restaurants and businesses. We had a lot of people who were unemployed. Employment unemployment at that point was through the roof, and we knew we had to provide food support. So we actually stood up at the time our food security task force, which grew into our Office of Food Systems Resilience, uh, led by uh Director Heather Bruskin, who came from us, came from the Montgomery County Food Council. So the county invests about uh$23.5 million in food services. Well just part of the normal budget for this year. Okay. Uh 13 million of that goes through our Office of Food Systems Resilience that are typically given out via grants that go to our nonprofit providers. A lot of the frontline work and food is done by nonprofits. It's been that way for as long as uh food support has existed. We just actually are supplementing and helping to coordinate some of those efforts. And so there are a plethora of nonprofits around the community that are offering food assistance. And many of them have actually stood up additional hours and services for furloughed federal workers.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

The easiest way to access them, as I said, besides 311, is our Office of Food Systems Resilience actually maintains an entire calendar and map of all the locations, the times, how they can be accessed. And depending on uh there are delivery services, there are drive-up services, there are by appointment food pantry where you can go in and pick the food you want. They have different hours and different availabilities. They're in every literally every Zipco to Montgomery County has a food provider or more, more than one potentially that's associated with them. And as I said, either through 311 you can get that schedule, or you can visit our Office of Food Systems Resilience website. There's a, as I said, you know, there's a link or at the top of the page that says, Do you need food? Click on that, it goes and lists out the schedule and the map and all the information to access food for across county.

SPEAKER_02:

So not only are there food resources, but there are different ways to access those resources, oftentimes convenient. Um, on the news, um, recently you've seen across the country lines of people that are impacted by the furloughs and by the complications with SNAP benefits. And I say uh complications because things are changing day by day. Even as we record this podcast, um, there's been a requirement from the courts for the federal government to pay some measure of SNAP benefits. So we'll uh we'll we'll see if that will happen. Correct. But even if that does not happen, the county stands ready and the the organizations you mentioned stand ready with food resources.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and and uh obviously Governor Moore has been a big assist in this. Um so the there's contingency funds that the federal government had that the court ordered them to utilize for SNAP benefits. Snap benefits across the country cost about eight billion to eight to nine billion dollars a month. Uh they had about five to six billion in the contingency funds. So essentially the federal government initially committed to say we'll cover half of the November distribution using those contingency funds. And the gut and Governor Moore came and stepped right in and said, if you're if they're gonna cover half, state of Maryland's gonna cover the other half. Oh, wow. For the state of Maryland, it's about$62 million to cover half. It's about$123 a month across the state of Maryland. It's about$12.5 million per month in Montgomery County. We have about$67,000, I think, people who are SNAP recipients in Montgomery County, and 37,000 of those are children. So I think it's it gives you a sense of the need within our community. And um, they are um they are in addition to the SNAP benefits, the governor also put$10 million into local food banks last week that allows them those to immediately get distributed to area food providers like the Capillary Food Bank, Mana Food Center, and all the smaller nonprofits that utilize their resources to distribute. And so there are a ton of available resources that are being brought to bear, in addition to the fact that, you know, what we've really seen in Montgomery County is we have a very generous population. We have a lot of residents who are willing to donate their time and their money. We have federal workers who are furloughed, who are donating their free time to work at food pantries to serve their fellow food, furloughed uh federal workers or others who are impacted by the shutdown. So it goes to show what Montgomery County has. And what that means is we have not yet seen those long, the longest lines, because as I said, we have some, we have some you know drive-up situations, but we also have by appointment, we have food pantries uh that where you can walk in and essentially do a it's a lot like a uh trip to the sh uh to the supermarket for people where you can go to a list of shelves and you can pick what you want to take with you. And so you know, those um, you know, select pantries are available as well. So I, you know, I think we've got a number of different options. We had invested in this before the fur the federal shutdown had started. There's additional resources after the shutdown has begun. Actually, the we've been working with the county council. They they're actually in the process of passing a supplemental appropriation to add an additional three and a half million dollars of food resources. So, you know, I would say this is an area where um our county executive has been really committed to making sure that there are a plethora of food resources in Montgomery County. I know that that's not gonna, you know, it doesn't always meet the full need, but we are in a much better position to with a system that can augment to support our federal workers than a lot of other places.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, that's that's we we're gonna take a opportunity here in the program to insert some applause. Uh, and you'll hear it uh in this recording for all the people that are volunteering, the organizations that have stepped up their capacity and their services, and also, of course, the county government for filling in the void, and of course the governor and the county executive for providing their leadership, but also resources that will directly benefit uh the residents of Montgomery County, Maryland. Um, so when people go or they call F11, what can they expect uh the experience to be like? What is uh when you go to pick up things, do you need to have your ID? Do you need to have paperwork?

SPEAKER_00:

So tip so they'll do for most services, they'll do an assessment of what's available to you. So for most food resources, there's nothing you need to provide. You show up, we're gonna serve you. Okay. Uh that's in that's by design. We're we're not trying, those are meant to be really open opportunities where if you need food, we're gonna get you food. In fact, that we often allow people, and uh most of the locations will allow you to pick up for multiple people as well. But you should obviously once you go to 311, they'll give you the best option. You can review exactly what the what that site does to operate. But many of the sites allow for people to pick up for multiple families at once, things of that nature. It's meant to be an open and accessible process. And so by design, and we've been working with our partners for a long time to make sure that we increase those options. And so you're not gonna need to be able to demonstrate that you have a need in most cases, or maybe I can't think of any cases where you'd have to demonstrate that you have a need, really. If it's one of those things where if you show up and we may collect some some basic non-identified non-identifiable information like your zip code or something like that, because what we're trying to do is really get a good assessment of where the need is so we can continue to direct more resources to the places that have the most need. So if if you get any questions at all, it's questions that are not going to be specific to you as an individual. They're gonna be specific more to um the kinds of services that you need so that we can better um dedicate our resources in the places that have the most need and and are the that are the most receptive.

SPEAKER_02:

So fantastic, fantastic. So it's a fairly easy and respectful process um that people should feel comfortable uh coming out and getting help. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, that's that's why they exist. That's why, you know, it's why we have a strong local government that partners with our strong nonprofit um partners. We wanna we we we know people are struggling. We want to make sure that we have the resources available to help them.

SPEAKER_02:

Fantastic. Now, for those workers, uh furlough workers, that may be, I think the saying is that most people and families are too with repaychecks away um from being homeless. Um that's anecdotal, but there's some truth to that. Um so there may be some uh furlough workers that may be facing um trouble with rent, trouble with mortgages, um, trouble with things of uh financial nature that the furlough has really put them and their families in a bit of financial distress. What resources are available when it comes to housing um for furloughed workers or other workers that uh may need assistance?

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. And I'll just reiterate that all these can be available through our 301 system. You'll you'll get you'll get them. So our service standard prevent homelessness has a number of uh rental assistance programs that depending on and you you there are there are there are things that will increase your qualifications. So for example, if you're over the age of 55, if you're disabled in any way, there that we have obviously programs that are niche that will help and expand the the resources available. But again, it depends in part. This is where this is one category where there's going to be an eligibility determination because um, you know, we have a lot of residents in need who are not furlough federal workers that we're trying to make sure that we have uh equitable resources available to. But this is one of those things where they'll do an assessment for you, your individual circumstances, and they'll provide um, you know, basically guidance on what you're eligible for in this space. But uh, as I said, there's millions of dollars available every year for rental assistance in Montgomery County. We regularly do work on eviction prevention, for example, to make sure that we are we are prioritizing the resources that are going to keep people housed and make sure that they're they're comfortable. Um and obviously I think that the, you know, within the federal workforce, obviously there are contractors for whom the expectation is that you will not necessarily get your paycheck back once the federal government goes back. If you're a federal worker who's just on furlough, obviously the presumption at this point is until we, you know, by law, they're required to give you back pay. And so obviously in those situations, we're really trying to just buy someone the time that they need to be able to get to the next paycheck. Whereas if you're a contractor or someone who's not going to be getting back pay, those are the those we're going to prioritize some of our resources towards those individuals to make sure because their situation is not going to be improved when the when the federal government does get back to work. And so this is this is one area where there are absolutely resources available to people. Uh, they are a lot of resources available depending on the nature of the, you know, the circumstances of the individual person, their age, their their health status, et cetera. Um, but really, this is where our Department of Health and Human Services will do that intake assessment and be able to tell people what they're eligible for.

SPEAKER_02:

Incredible. Great. And so the the level of resources and the type of resources available are depending on the situation of the individual. So that's fantastic. That's whether you had existing needs before, or if you are temporarily need have needs as a fellow federal worker, or if you're a contractor, all those things have been considered. Um what a thoughtful, it must have been a very thoughtful process to um develop the approach to providing resources in this uh, I will say, unique situation where we are at a record-setting length uh furlough for federal government workers.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, I I hate to go back to COVID, but I think a lot, you know, there's a lot of parallels to the federal shutdown with COVID in the sense that you have economic interruption, you have people not being gonna go to the workplace, you're having, you know, when you have economic uh interruption, we know what that leads to. People have to make hard choices about am I gonna feed my family today or am I gonna pay my rent? Right. And so we know that we want to try and make every one of those avenues easier. And oh, by the way, we're also trying to provide people resources where, hey, if you don't want to, how can you retrain, you know, get you re, you know, prepare your resume so that if you don't want to keep dealing with the the this federal shutdown of you and try and find other employment, we're gonna help you try and find that too. So we're trying to tackle this from every angle. You know, make sure that you have um because we know that if if you have rent pressures, it affects your ability to pay for your health care, it affects your ability to feed your family, it affects your ability to make your car payment. And so obviously, we're trying to address tackle every one of those angles because we know that they're so interconnected that you're going to, it's gonna have cascading effects. Wonderful.

SPEAKER_02:

Do you also provide uh in terms of not just physical, uh fiscal resources, do you also provide uh advice for how to manage uh a temporary setback situation like the for our workers? Yes, how to contact your your creditors or that are yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So we definitely offer this through um, this is one of those things where we when we when we do uh we get a case, people are assigned a case manager when they start working with us. And so the case manager is going to have a number of different resources that are gonna be available to them that will include guidance on how to best manage resources like that. That's what you know, it's we have we we have sort of a detailed social um you know, social service process that includes because like our our our goal in Montgomery County is to make our resources go as far as possible. And so what we do is we say, hey, can we can we it maybe money that makes makes makes things better, but it may also be a conversation with your landlord. It may be like there are there are different avenues where we're not gonna automatically just write a check to someone if we think that we can help them with another process that's gonna not have us write that check because we know that we need those resources for someone else too. And so that's all part of the work that our case managers and social workers do in our Department of Health and Human Services once people reach out to them for services and they'll, you know, we we we take great pride in the fact that we do a lot of wraparound service for providing in Montgomery County. And we have we we have a very unique uh Department of Health and Human Services in the state of Maryland. We're actually the only county in the state of Maryland that has a joint Department of Health and Human Services. This is something we've actually uniquely taken on in Montgomery County as a responsibility locally that traditionally mo much of the human services to work across the state is a state function. We're we're the only county that has has essentially we're we're uh effectively grandfathered in to be able to provide social services at a direct level. And so we take great pride in that and uh have developed a real system that allows us to do that.

SPEAKER_02:

Right. Now, other than the food insecurity and of course things like rent um and advice on managing uh rent and mortgage payments and how to deal with creditors, what are some of the other resources that have uh come to the forefront as needs and that the county might be able to assist with?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so we stood up uh um uh the American Job Center, which is uh focused on federal workers, obviously because this year began with a bunch of federal worker firings. Yeah. You know, the federal government did a lot of that. And so, you know, we stood up a a uh a center actually in Wheaton that allows for people to walk in who are federal workers. It helps them with resume building, interviewing, um, you know, it connects them. You can get connect directly connected there to food services and other other uh through mana actually is operating the the food supports through our American Job Center. And you can actually get additional resources in a one-stop shop there for federal workers. The other thing we also do is um we know how stressful this period is. And so there's a lot of mental health resources available to our federal workers and furlough federal workers. Um, because, you know, as I said, my wife is, you know, I just know there's a lot of there's a perception that I think the furlough federal workers are like, oh, this is a group, this is a vacation for them. It's not. There, these people are um by and large, dedicated so civil servants. They want to be going in and doing the work of the people. Um, and you know, my wife has cancer research, so yeah, she she got into that because my mother-in-law is a multiple-time cancer survivor, so she's invested in the work. And so I can see how federal workers would be struggling because you know, they have their life's work has been essentially denied to them for what, 35, 36 days at this point, and with no end in sight, unfortunately. And so we know that the mental stresses of um, you know, of that are um are will wear on people. And so we we've expanded our mental health services. Those can be access accessed if it's an emergency need. Obviously, 988 is available to anyone across the county uh for for those services or our crisis center, or you can just contact 311 if you just want, if you think you need just more uh guidance on accessing other sort of non-emergent needs for mental health. And so that's another area that we've we've focused a lot on. Um I think I think I mean I think those are I think the breadth of resources that we I don't want to I don't want to say that in all cases there aren't other things that uh you know, depending on the if someone had a unique circumstance where like utilities assistance, for example, that's another area where we have resources. Um you know, depending on the unique circumstances of individuals, our social service team has a really good job of like basically offering someone a whole plethora of different services that they might be eligible for, doing the assessment, saying, Oh, you qualify for A, D, and F, and someone else maybe A, C, and D, as opposed to, you know, for what they qualify for. And so there are other services. So I think the best thing I would tell people is get connected with through 311 with our Department of Health Human Services. They'll do, they'll begin to do an intensive case management process with the individual, and they're really good at maximizing the benefits someone can receive.

SPEAKER_02:

Fantastic. And the county providing benefits and resources to the residents as a county should, as a great county of Montgomery County should. Uh, and that's what's happening, Moco. Earl Stoddard, thank you so much for being here today. Um, thank you so much to the uh Chief Administrative's office and officer, uh Rich Mandalino, um, for allowing you to be here today, and then also for all the great things that you guys do, not only for the employees of Montgomery County, Maryland, but also directly for the residents of the county as well. Thank you. Uh, and for those of you out there, please take this episode, uh, like, subscribe, please share these resources with others that may need them. This is a critical time, and we should take this information. We should use it, we should share it, and we should make sure that our fellow residents are doing as good as possible in this the beginning of the most wonderful time of year as we celebrate Thanksgiving and the holidays.

SPEAKER_01:

Thanks for listening to What's Happening Now Code. Please subscribe via your favorite podcast, and follow us on Facebook. This podcast is brought to you by County Cable Montgomery, your source for news and information from the Montgomery County government. Connect with us via cable, Facebook, Instagram, or YouTube by searching for County Cable Moco.