Haugen solicits federal help for service members who lost assistance

OLYMPIA – Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, is asking U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen to help the families of service members who have been disqualified for public assistance because of an administrative change.

Haugen wants to correct a hardship created when the privatization of military housing triggered a change in the administration of the base housing allowance, a long-standing subsidy for service members. In the past, the housing allowance was processed by the Department of Defense and was automatically deducted before paychecks were issued. Now the allowance is administered differently and appears on financial statements, showing a higher rate of pay that disqualifies many members from public assistance even though they make no more money than before. As a result, these families are being denied food stamps and maternity support services.

Haugen sponsored Senate Bill 6336 earlier this year directing DSHS to seek a federal waiver so that housing allowance is not factored into service members’ financial statements. Although the bill died in the state House Appropriations Committee, DSHS officials have agreed to seek the waiver anyway but are skeptical it will be approved because it would contradict specific provisions of the federal Food Stamp Act. Now, Haugen is asking Murray, Cantwell and Larsen to draft a federal bill that would exclude the military’s basic housing allowance as an income source in determining eligibility for food stamps and maternity support.

“We need to do everything possible to give our military personnel and families access to every service available,” Haugen said. “The loss of assistance is especially hard on service members living on Whidbey Island and in similar communities where the cost of living has risen dramatically over the years.”

Karen Parnell, deputy director of the Skagit Community Action Agency at the Fleet & Family Support Center at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, said the change in eligibility is hurting women in the most vulnerable time of their lives. “These young, young military wives that are so isolated from their families are losing out on support that could be so beneficial to their pregnancies and their lives at this moment,” she said.

From January through October of this year, Parnell said, 127 young mothers were declared ineligible for assistance due purely to the administrative change, including two women in domestic violence situations.

“There are some very, very high-need young women who are, unfortunately, falling into this category,” Parnell said. “There is just a real lack of support. They are isolated from any family members many miles across the country, and the isolation leads to other issues with domestic violence and a whole array of high needs.”

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