EDITORIAL: Change the fickle formula for food and shelter aid

It's tough enough for community agencies to cope with the sharply rising need for food, without having to deal with the sudden disappearance of $1 million in federal funds. But, thanks to a too-rigid federal formula, that's exactly what's happening in Suffolk County.

The federal Emergency Food and Shelter Program grants are based, logically enough, on unemployment and poverty statistics. Last year, between the grants and related stimulus funds, Suffolk got nearly $1.4 million; Nassau got $1.1 million. This year: Nassau almost $700,000; Suffolk $0.

This is not the first time Suffolk has been zilched, but it's the first time in the current economic crisis. It sharply hurts the ability of agencies to give out food, heating assistance, and one-time rent and mortgage payments to families in crisis.

Why the disparity between the counties? Suffolk's unemployment rate, at 7.4 percent, fell just below the cutoff level in the formula. Nassau's rate of 6.9 percent fell even further below, but it got funding anyway, because it has an incorporated village, Hempstead, with a 9.8 percent unemployment rate. (Nassau's grants can be used countywide, not just in the village.)

Suffolk has pockets of high unemployment, too, but since they aren't in incorporated villages, the formula doesn't take them into account. This is loony. The formula needs to be changed. To paraphrase Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy, hunger and desperation know no municipal borders. hN