Half of Brooklyn Receiving Food-stamps

Fort Greene resident and clothing designer Kathlene Williams never believed that one day she would have to apply for food stamps.

But two weeks ago, Williams lost her job designing clothes – and the single mother of two found herself in the same boat as 167,503 other Brooklynites who have been approved for the federal subsidy since January 2008.

“The only thing I won’t do is go to my neighborhood supermarket now,” said Williams, 49, who worked at a Manhattan Garment District firm for 17 years until her company merged with another. “It’s a little embarrassing.”

In total, more than half a million Brooklyn residents now receive food stamps, an increase of 34% in the last 22 months, according to statistics from the Human Resource Administration (HRA).

New food-stamp users are popping up by the thousands in almost every Brooklyn neighborhood – including many in stable, middle-class communities.

In Carroll Gardens, new food-stamp users went up 24% since January 2008, while in Park Slope they went up 44% and by as much as 57% in Dyker Heights.

“People are having a hard time finding and keeping work,” said Fort Greene food-stamp center director Andrew Monroe. “I’ve seen a lot more young people applying; the elderly and singles, too…people need the assistance.”

While Brooklyn’s growing number of first-time food stamp users includes an increasing number of white-collar and middle-class professionals, experts said the majority of new enrollees are still of modest means.

“The majority of our clients are working class,” said Monroe. “Their salaries are basically just not meeting their needs.”

Bay Ridge manicurist Tu Nguyen, 33, used to have a salary that supported him and his family. But in the last year, his hours working in a friend’s nail salon were cut nearly in half because business was so slow.

“You can’t live on $267 a week,” said Nguyen, who pays $750 a month for the two-bedroom apartment he lives in with his wife and two infant children. “When you’re desperate, you have no choice.”

Nguyen, who has an associate’s degree in business from Baruch College, held back tears as he left a food stamp center after applying for assistance for the first time in his life two weeks ago. “I feel like I’m begging for something … but I know I have to give up my pride.”

In Brooklyn, poorer neighborhoods that have always had a large number of food-stamp recipients have seen dramatic jumps in the rolls since last January. East Williamsburg/Bushwick is at the top of the list, gaining almost 9,000 new enrollees over the past 22 months.

The biggest increase since January 2008 was in East Flatbush, where new enrollees grew by 68%.

But in neighborhoods like Bay Ridge, Bergen Beach and downtown Brooklyn – neighborhoods that before last year had only a few thousand food stamp recipients – first-time enrollees over the past two years have grown by as much as 59%.

“In Brooklyn, a lot of companies have moved out, downsized or phased out departments,” said HRA Brooklyn food stamp interviewer Kathleen Desire.

“I have a lady who was making $65,000, and her bank just eliminated her department altogether. She has a family, a mortgage and now collects unemployment and food stamps.”