At the monthly meeting of the Faith and Advocacy Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness on Wednesday, July 19, 2023, Dale Ownby, the Director of the Division of Eligibility Services at Utah's Department of Workforce Services, informed us that there are 49,577 households with children in Utah that are participating in Medicaid and appear to also be eligible for SNAP but are not participating in that program. SNAP is a nutrition assistance program that gives people money on an EBT card that can be used to purchase food at a grocery store but cannot be used for any non-food items or services. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that the average SNAP benefit for a family with children in Utah is $394 per month.
How many of the 1,558 children who have spent a night in a homeless shelter in Utah this year might have avoided homelessness if their family had been getting $394 a month to help them purchase food?
This year is a particularly crucial one for conducting outreach for SNAP and Medicaid because households are being required to rectify their Medicaid eligibility for the first time since those kinds of reviews were halted to ensure people maintained healthcare coverage during the COVID 19 pandemic. Over 150,000 people have been removed from Utah's Medicaid rolls since eligibility reviews resumed and so healthcare advocates worry that eligible people are losing healthcare coverage due to paperwork issues.
A conversation about how we can help eligible families and other households to receive Medicaid, SNAP and other important benefits will be an important part of our Poverty Summit on the morning of August 26 at the Cathedral Church of St. Mark. You can learn more about the Poverty Summit here.
How many of the 1,558 children who have spent a night in a homeless shelter in Utah this year might have avoided homelessness if their family had been getting $394 a month to help them purchase food?
This year is a particularly crucial one for conducting outreach for SNAP and Medicaid because households are being required to rectify their Medicaid eligibility for the first time since those kinds of reviews were halted to ensure people maintained healthcare coverage during the COVID 19 pandemic. Over 150,000 people have been removed from Utah's Medicaid rolls since eligibility reviews resumed and so healthcare advocates worry that eligible people are losing healthcare coverage due to paperwork issues.
A conversation about how we can help eligible families and other households to receive Medicaid, SNAP and other important benefits will be an important part of our Poverty Summit on the morning of August 26 at the Cathedral Church of St. Mark. You can learn more about the Poverty Summit here.
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