[New York] Weiner, Looking to 2009, Takes Aim at City Poverty

From The New York Times

By PATRICK D. HEALY

Representative Anthony D. Weiner, wasting no time now that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is officially a lame duck, demanded action yesterday on two issues that he will champion if he runs for mayor as expected in 2009: hunger and poverty.

Mr. Weiner, at a news conference downtown, cited city data to charge that more New Yorkers are seeking meals from food pantries and soup kitchens as they struggle under federal, state and city rules to qualify for food stamps.

A Brooklyn Democrat who took second place by surprise in the mayoral primary last year, Mr. Weiner was widely seen as a champion of the middle class in comparison with his successful rival, Fernando Ferrer, who spoke passionately about poverty issues.

But yesterday it was Mr. Weiner taking up the Ferrer mantle, arguing that the city "turned down" $739 million in federal funds for food stamps for an estimated 609,844 New Yorkers. He based his calculations on the number of city residents who were eligible for food stamps but, for some reason, did not apply or quality for them.

Meals served in soup kitchens and food pantries grew to 971,925 in October from 785,041 in July, according to city data described by Mr. Weiner. The overall number for that four- month period represented an 8 percent increase over the same period in 2004.

Yet Mr. Weiner, who appeared with City Councilman Eric Gioia of Queens, Assemblyman Felix W. Ortiz of Brooklyn and several advocates on hunger issues, said that the city and state could be doing more. The three elected officials said they would be introducing anti-hunger legislation that proposed various solutions, like repealing a state requirement that food-stamp applicants have images of their fingers taken, easing the application process by having forms available online and allowing application interviews to take place by telephone.

Bob McHugh, a spokesman for the city's Human Resources Administration, said he could not confirm Mr. Weiner's calculation yesterday, but added that more people were indeed seeking meals at city-financed pantries and kitchens. At the same time, under the Bloomberg administration, tens of thousands more people were qualifying for food stamps, and more than one million city residents now receive them, he said.

Mr. McHugh accused Mr. Weiner, Mr. Gioia and others of "grandstanding" while the administration was taking concrete actions, like cutting food-stamp applications from eight pages to four and keeping some food stamp centers open later on weeknights and Saturdays. Mr. Gioia said he would like to see those hours and locations expanded further.

"Yes, it's true that more people have been fed this past year in pantries and kitchens, but we view that as a good thing," Mr. McHugh said. "We think the numbers show that we're doing better. The critics like Mr. Weiner and Mr. Gioia like to view the glass as half-empty, and we like to view the glass as more than half-full."

Mr. McHugh said that many of the food stamp requirements came from federal and state agencies, though he acknowledged that the city could apply for waivers, like one from the finger-imaging rule.

"We don't see finger-imaging as really keeping food stamps away from anyone," Mr. McHugh said.

Yet it was the fingerprinting or imaging requirement, which exists in a handful of states, that was particularly criticized by Mr. Weiner and the other speakers outside the New York City Rescue Mission downtown.

"We are one of the last remaining states in the country that still fingerprints applicants for food stamps, virtually criminalizing a process," Mr. Weiner said. "I can tell you, the top brass at Halliburton doesn't get fingerprinted when they get a contract," referring to the Texas company that Democrats often invoke as a symbol of corporate gluttony.

There were undeniable political layers to Mr. Weiner's news conference, which some city officials tweaked as, unofficially, the first campaign event of Weiner '09.

Mr. Bloomberg began his second, and final, term last weekend, and talk of 2009 is already in the air. Mr. Gioia, too, would like to run for citywide office in 2009, though for which office is not clear.