The Department of Social and Health Services has shelved a plan that calls for mailing food stamp cards to the homeless ("DSHS to homeless: Your food stamps are in the mail," RC, April 27).
The agency had planned to pay the bank that makes the debit-like cards and manages the accounts,
JPMorgan Chase, to mail them directly to recipients' home addresses starting July 1.
The plan was created to cut costs, but DSHS backed away from it after criticism by the Seattle-King County Coalition on Homelessness (SKCCH) and others.
Most homeless people don't have reliable addresses and stood to lose their benefits, said Alison Eisinger, executive director of SKCCH. At a July meeting with advocates for the poor, DSHS administrators said state employees will continue to issue the cards at local DSHS offices.