Access.arkansas.gov

I have lived in many states in my adult life. I am 53. Fortunately, I have only had to be on "public assistance" a couple of times in my life. Once when I became a mother at the ages of 15 and 17. And then when I became permanently, chronically, and terminally ill after a lucrative 25 year career.

The state of Arkansas is at or near the bottom of every list imaginable when comparing states, except for one. It ranks number four for the highest concentration of wealth, presumably due to who I call the Walmartians, or in other terms the Uber-rich vendors that pander to Walmart to build and maintain their 10k sf mansionettes located in Pinnacle hills--a place that could be taken from a scene right out of the twilight zone. BTW, the highest concentration of wealth is defined by ITEP.com "households with net worth over $30 million." Yet, ironically, Arkansas is listed as number seven of the most impoverished states in the union, surprisingly up from the third poorest state from last year. Hmmm...sounds like someone's calculator is broken in Arkansas. However, according to Wisevoter.com, the number of food stamp recipients this year in the state of Arkansas, which is listed at number 34 in the union is only 161,000 people. The numbers are wrong and I will tell you why I believe they are wrong and get to the point of this review. The overall number of homeless people in the USA is emphatically incorrect based on the inadequate methods of counting the homeless. The government and local jurisdictions can only guess at the number based on the count of people that homeless shelters have to turn away each night because of being at full capacity and they also rely in part on a "list" a homeless person must register in order to be legally considered homeless. In Arkansas alone in 2023, the government tries to claim that there were only 2,609 homeless people or 6% of the population!?! Having been in the streets as a homeless and unsheltered person I can attest to the unequivocal opinion, if not a fact, that this low of an amount applies to the place with the fourth highest concentration of wealth alone--Northwest Arkansas. How is it that they report that just 16.08% of the entire population of the state of Arkansas is at or below poverty level with 6% being homeless, yet only 5% of the state is on food stamps? Doesn't add up does it? No. Now here is the reason for this review.

If you have never tried to apply for food stamps in Arkansas, I suggest you first seek advise from your PCP or rather a script for Valium to calm your nerves at the irritating labyrinth of BS you will have to go through to get the food you need in order to SURVIVE on and your family if you have one. It was bad enough before the latest inept holier-than-thou Governor Sarah Huckabee who is far worse in comparison to her dad, the former inept Governor Mike Huckabee.

Let's start with the "changes" she has made to the DHS system alone. Because I don't want to get started on the other stupid financially burdensome changes she is making in the state.

You can either go up to a once over-crowded DHS office that is barely attended by those in need as well as staff. The answer I received by a very sweet, compassionate and just as annoyed employee was that as over-worked and frustrated employees left voluntarily or were fired, those empty positions were not being filled. Therefore the DHS throughout the state was short staffed. When we used to get a case worker assigned, now we get our names thrown into a hat, metaphorically speaking. When an over-worked, underpaid and underappreciated social worker gets off the phone or finishes up the cumbersome and needlessly long paperwork for one needy person or family, they pull the next needy persons name from the hat to work on. They do this day in and day out all day long. But that doesn't just apply to those who have transportation or time to go sit in an office only to be told to go to an inoperable computer kiosk to fill out the paperwork or go home and log onto access.arkansas.gov to either apply or re-apply for your QUARTERLY BENEFITS reporting. Reporting used to be every six months, now it is quarterly. That wouldn't be so bad, however, if the system worked properly, and by system, I mean either the website or the automated phone system. Rarely do either work properly and if nothing else neither are very user-friendly.

Passwords are constantly a problem. Then once you reset your password, you have to log in to complete information that the DHS already has in many cases. It's as if whoever designed the website had never been on one to see how they should actually work. There are far too many buttons to click. You have to click so many buttons for each section of the page and then when you are finished with the page. Then onto the next one you go. Then if you are lucky, the system so expensively designed might just save all of your information. But wait there is more.

It isn't enough to complete the application, you have to select whether or not you want to set up an appointment at that very moment of completing the application. Of course you do, but inevitably the system produces a messages that there are NO APPOINTMENT TIMES AVAILABLE. And that a case worker will call to make an appointment. Only they don't. They just call you and if you happen to accidentally think that the number on your phone isn't a scammer or spam call or telemarketer, you might just answer the call. But if you don't? You don't get your interview and unless you know that, days or even weeks could go by with you tapping your fingers waiting for a call that you have already missed because communication is NOT their forte.

However, even though the system said there were no available appointments, if you call the 800 number buried somewhere in the sitemap, you will get a live person after about an hour and a half on hold, provided the phone system doesn't arbitrarily hang up on you or you on it because of a screaming kid, boss or bladder. But when you get that live person on the phone, you get to hear the answers come out of your mouth to the questions that you have already painstakingly typed in for over an hour once already on their computer system.

Wow. And the numbers? They are so low because Ms. Huckabee has decided that those who are under the age of 55 with no children should be working even though they are most likely in limbo between having just become disabled and waiting for the glacial pace of the SSA to speed up so you can actually get money to buy food. And if you make any amount of money, which is going to be well below poverty level by there own numbers? Well, then you as a single person don't get your $9.00 per day to eat on. But if you are lucky enough to have transportation to get to a food bank for food you can't adequately refrigerate or cook if you are unsheltered, then you are living it up. But then if you had transportation, you wouldn't be unsheltered, now would you?

The moral to this story is one other statistic I would like to add to the misery called Arkansas and that it is is the third worst state in which to be homeless because not only have the snobby uber rich who could afford to resolve a community problem have unilaterally decided that homelessness is a personal problem instead and to be homeless in this state means you won't be for long, nor will you be too hungry because the sociopaths with absolute power will slap cuffs on you and haul you to your new cot and three lukewarm, inedible meals because you aren't worthy of any dignity. Then they come mow your home down, people pilfer through your stuff, stealing what they got stolen from their own mowed down camp when they were arrested, then political troglodytes without a clue take the last shred of dignity a homeless person has and pays them a meager wage to go pick up the mess they just created for your neighbor who have been displaced and disgraced yet again. Everyone, and I mean everyone, beginning with the President down to the the water meter reader needs to spend one week as a homeless, unsheltered person trying to not only survive hunger, thirst and the weather, but also trying to survive the stupid infrastructure of the DHS and it is poorly designed (no doubt on purpose) access.arkansas.gov website and phone system. Good luck to you all!