This story originally appeared in the Feb. 24 edition of the weekly LINK Reader. To get these stories first, subscribe here.
On the Edge is a regular feature that explores the challenges of the rising cost of living in Northern Kentucky.
For Northern Kentucky University student Elena Song, even buying the basics from bargain stores like Walmart is too pricey for her college budget.
So she shops at the campus food pantry, where students can go for free supplies twice a week.
“I shop here for tissues, toilet paper, ramen, even laundry detergent,” Song said. “If I buy toilet paper or detergent from a place like Kroger or Walmart it’s so much money. But here, it’s free and it’s so good. I just swipe my student ID and they scan the barcode of the things I’m buying.”
Tara Assad, also an NKU student, has trouble finding affordable food because of her gluten intolerance. Those specialty items tend to be more expensive than others on the shelf, eating up more of her limited budget.
“For me, this place is very beneficial especially with inflation,” Assad said. “These items are like four, five, maybe six dollars at a regular grocery store. Places on campus unfortunately don’t have places for me to eat. They have a salad bar, but every time I eat there I get sick because of touch, cross contamination. But people can come here, grab some snacks or food to cook at home at no cost at all.”
Song and Assad are what the Brighton Center calls “opportunity youth” – the population of 16 to 24-year-olds in Northern Kentucky who struggle to make ends meet, usually while in school and working part- or full-time. Brighton Center, a local nonprofit with nearly 50 programs that assist those in need with navigating federal programs like SNAP and creating a path from homelessness to self-sufficiency, estimates more than 7,000 Northern Kentucky residents are opportunity youth.
Making things more complicated, these students – who would otherwise be eligible to receive benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as SNAP – can be claimed on their parents’ or guardians’ tax returns, preventing them from individually receiving SNAP benefits that they may need.
The program provides nutritional benefits to supplement the food budget of low-income individuals or families. Find out if you are eligible for SNAP at fns.usda.gov/snap.
Students who need assistance from NKU’s food pantry, Fuel, can go to the Albright Health Center on campus Monday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities explains that the federal government pays the full cost of SNAP, and splits the cost of administering the program with states. Requirements are set at the federal level, so by and large, every state has the same setup, though there are aspects of SNAP that states can tailor. For example, many states, Ohio and Kentucky included, exclude the value of household cars when calculating a family’s income level and net assets.
SNAP eligibility rules are based on monthly gross income, which must be at or below 130% of the poverty line. For a family of three in Kentucky, that’s $2,490 a month or up to $29,939 a year before taxes. Those who are 60 and older or have a disability don’t have to meet this limit, the Center explains.
SNAP is also based on net monthly income after deductions are applied, like the cost of housing and child care. After deductions, if the amount is less than or equal to $1,830 a month or $21,960 annually for a three-person household, they may qualify for SNAP.
There are limitations, though. While someone might qualify for SNAP, it’s not clear how much assistance one may receive. And those convicted of a drug-related felony are barred from SNAP in some states. In Kentucky, felons are allowed to use SNAP but may have to join a treatment program to do so.
As earners see more income, SNAP is the first resource benefits cliff. As earners climb back to earn more income, they face similar cliffs in child care assistance and health care assistance.
A benefits cliff refers to those who, for example, work part-time and can’t afford to take on more hours, or sometimes can’t take a raise at their full-time job because it would disqualify them from benefits.
As it stands, the program reduces the assistance it offers by more than one’s increase of income, meaning individuals and families who take a raise can ultimately end up with less money than when they started.
For a single parent earning $14 an hour to support two children, that comes out to $29,120 earned in a year – under the $29,939 threshold for a family of three in Kentucky to qualify. But at just 50 cents more, that parent is earning $30,160 a year, which is above the maximum threshold to qualify. That bump in pay may increase a paycheck by $40 before taxes are removed, but it can result in a loss of thousands of dollars in benefits granted by SNAP.
“It’s a financial shock. People wonder, ‘How did this happen? What do I do now?’” said Melissa Hall Sommer, the senior vice president of the Brighton Center.
SNAP is also based on net monthly income after deductions are applied, like the cost of housing and child care. After deductions, if the amount is less than or equal to $1,830 a month or $21,960 annually for a three-person household, they may qualify for SNAP.
There are limitations, though. While someone might qualify for SNAP, it’s not clear how much assistance one may receive. And those convicted of a drug-related felony are barred from SNAP in some states. In Kentucky, felons are allowed to use SNAP but may have to join a treatment program to do so.
As earners see more income, SNAP is the first resource cliff. As earners climb back to earn more income, they face similar cliffs in child care assistance and health care assistance.
KentuckianaWorks is a Louisville-based organization that seeks to place workers in high-paying, sustainable jobs, and work with employers to ensure they are providing them and that they are filled with reliable employees.
The organization addressed benefits cliffs and the living wage gap in a January 2021 article.
“Within the Louisville region, a single mother with two children would need to earn more than $60,000 per year to cover the costs of basic needs for her family,” and the organization suggests a living wage that breaks even without public assistance is $27 an hour, or about $55,000 a year.
Sommer pointed out that employers benefit from SNAP, particularly when they aren’t paying a livable wage.
“You know, sometimes it’s a conversation about the cliff and how people navigate the cliff. But what folks don’t realize is that employers benefit from SNAP benefits, because they sometimes are subsidizing lower wages,” Sommer said.
She added that many people jump to the conclusion that those on SNAP or other benefits simply aren’t working or don’t want to work.
“I think we are in a place now where employers are doing a lot to look at their job quality, so I give a lot of employers credit, but there are a lot of folks who don’t even realize that the people working for them have to rely on those SNAP benefits,” Sommer said. “They think it’s only for people who don’t have jobs but these are truly acting as work supports for folks who are trying really hard that don’t have the income yet to bridge to the next point. It’s those smooth bridges that we need.”
Data provided by Northern Kentucky Tri-ED in the Northern Kentucky Atlas shows as many as 17% of Covington’s population is signed up for SNAP benefits. That number is as high as 20% in Newport, and in Florence up to 9% of the population receives SNAP benefits.
The Atlas also shows that between 65% and 73% of individuals in poverty across Northern Kentucky’s three counties qualify for SNAP but aren’t signed up.
When this data was presented to experts at the Brighton Center who are familiar with SNAP and those it serves, they said the circumstances of these individuals could vary.
One could be an elderly resident receiving social security income and unaware that they also qualify for SNAP. Perhaps some of those the Atlas data points to qualify for SNAP, but they missed their recertification date or the quantity of monthly assistance given isn’t worth navigating the system to get it, in their eyes.
NKU’s Song and Assad are two of about 1,600 students that the university said uses Fuel to supplement their pantries. That’s about 10% of the student population, and about 95% of the students who use the food pantry once return.
At Gateway, 1,396 students utilize their pantry, making up one-third of the student enrollment there, and their pantry is by appointment only.
“Recently we’ve seen an increase in students using the pantry,” said Sarah Young, Gateway’s Community Resource Success coach. “That is definitely via word of mouth between students that this is an added support that they can tap into.”
Though the Atlas data doesn’t clearly show what population is being most impacted by this benefits cliff, legislators in Frankfort are trying to remedy the program’s pitfalls.
In 2022, legislators formed the Benefits Cliff Task Force. Chaired by Sen. Jason Howell and Rep. Jason Dixon, the task force spent the break between annual sessions evaluating cliffs and formulating recommendations to smooth transitions off of benefits.
Kentucky has several programs that address the benefits cliff, such as the transitional benefits policies that exist in Kentucky’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) and K-TAP program, which allow recipients who are no longer eligible for benefits to continue receiving them at a reduced level for several months in order to have time to adjust their family budgets. The Family Resource Simulator, operated by the Kentucky Center for Statistics, also allows families to evaluate the impact a wage increase would have on their benefits.
In December 2022, the task force released its report and recommendations. To mitigate the cliff’s effects, they suggested reviewing the income-based tiers of the program; conducting a study on the cost of maintaining pandemic-era changes to the Child Care Assistance Program; integrating a user-friendly benefits calculator into outreach programs and benefits websites; and creating new partnerships to help reduce the impact of the cliff.
On Feb. 16, the House Committee on Families and Children met and passed a joint resolution directing the governor’s cabinet to further the work of the task force by continuing to research benefits cliffs in Kentucky, and establishing some of the recommendations from the task force like an integrated benefits cliff calculator.
“There was a substantial amount of money, federal money, that came down during the pandemic and that money is being used. So, with this resolution we’re asking them to take a good hard look at that and see what that future looks like when that money is no longer there,” Dixon said.
Jennifer Wiley, who has served in various roles at the Brighton Center across 10 years, said KYConnect, the state’s benefits enrollment site, has seen improvements during Gov. Andy Beshear’s administration but still has room to grow.
“There are two sides to it, a benefits side and a resources side,” Wiley explained. “On one end, you can upload your documents and apply for SNAP, and then on the other you can look up resources and make referrals. So, say I signed up for SNAP but I need food now while I’m waiting for my benefits to come through, so I could look up pantries nearby and get help that way. That’s still being rolled out, but I think when it’s finished it’s going to be great.”
At the local level, food pantries like those at NKU, Gateway and beyond, offer a means to fill in the gap until public programs catch up.
“When someone comes in and they are in need every month … they are having trouble getting a job or, more often than not, are in a low-wage job and need to get on a career pathway, then we need to offer something more than a bag of food,” Sommer said. “Sometimes, that’s all people need and they can be on their way, but we believe that we need to offer more on top of that bag of food.”
Sommer said her teams see clients walking through the door as an opportunity to ask about their hopes, dreams, and forge a path to sustainability.