The city is closing a Bronx public benefits office and relocating some services five miles away, even as processing times for food stamp and cash assistance applications continue to face unprecedented delays .
The Human Resources Administration center in Mount Eden operates an office to process benefits and applications for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program , which helps residents afford groceries. The office will shutter on Friday, while another department within the HRA office that processes cash assistance and other benefits will move its operations to another center in Hunts Point in the eastern Bronx, according to a listing on the administration’s website and an email sent to providers.
Social service nonprofits that help residents apply for the benefits say the move is part of a pattern of closures and relocations that started in 2019 under the de Blasio administration and has continued under Mayor Eric Adams. The relocation will leave the Bronx, which has the state’s highest rate of unemployment , with seven SNAP or other benefit locations, according to the city.