RICHMOND, Va. -- Some Richmond Social Services employees described their working conditions as a "crisis" as they continue to grapple with extremely high caseloads and inadequate staffing.
In February 2023, CBS 6 spoke to two social services workers who made a plea to city leaders for more staff support and apologized to the public for long wait times in delivering critical benefits.
Ten months later, additional employees shared that conditions have not improved enough since then.
"Right now, we're in a crisis situation. It has been very overwhelming," one worker, who wished to remain anonymous due to fears of retaliation, told CBS 6. "Because of the volume of work, we are unable to assist the citizens the way they need to be assisted.”
According to data provided by the Richmond Department of Social Services, benefit specialists on average are working 2,400 - 2,900 cases at a time.
Benefit specialists are responsible for determining eligibility for people applying for benefits and processing their applications.
Meanwhile, some workers told CBS 6 they're handling more than 3,000 cases at a time and processing applications that were filed up to two-to-three months ago.
"Yes, there is a backlog," an employee said. "It's a very long turnaround for a citizen or client to get the answers that they need or the assistance that they need."
The most recent performance data showed Richmond Social Services remained noncompliant with state standards for the timely processing of applications.
Ninety-seven percent (97%) of applications are expected to be processed in a timely manner, but as of September 2023, the city is at:
- 83% for Medicaid
- 77% for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
- 56% for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
The latest data showed improvements in the timely processing of Medicaid and Snap but a decline in the timely processing of TANF.
In January 2023, the data showed:
- 79% for Medicaid
- 67% for SNAP
- 59% for TANF
Workers said not only is the quality of services suffering, but also their own well-being.
“A lot of my coworkers are dealing with mental health issues, dealing with depression, anxiety. Some have panic attacks," a worker said. "If they really knew at City Hall what was really going on, they would see that the workers are over here drowning."
In an interview with CBS 6 at City Hall, Richmond Councilwoman Stephanie Lynch and Chief Administrative Officer Lincoln Saunders acknowledged the employees' struggles.
“We see them. We see you, eligibility workers, and DSS workers. We see you," Lynch said.
"Everyone acknowledges that the caseload and the weight, particularly with the increase in volume, is putting a lot of pressure on the staff," Saunders said.
But Saunders also pointed to recent improvements, which he said were the result of efforts to ramp up the department's staffing.
“Our turnover rate and our vacancies within DSS are declining. They're going in the right direction, but we still have a ways to go," Saunders said.
Richmond DSS has seen 31 total resignations since the beginning of this year, along with at least two dozen hires for newly created positions.
According to data provided to CBS 6 as part of a Freedom of Information Act request, the department needs to fill 52 positions out of 400 total positions.
Twenty-eight of those positions are specific to benefits after the city opened 34 new part-time benefit specialist positions in response to the spike in caseload demand after the pandemic-- a trend seen across Virginia and the U.S.
Between 2020 and 2023, data from the Virginia Department of Social Services showed the number of statewide recipients of SNAP and Medicaid benefits grew by nearly 1 million people.
Saunders said the volume of cases locally in Richmond grew by about 30%.
During the last fiscal year, DSS employees spent a total of 18,615 hours working overtime, amounting to more than $716,000 in overtime pay.
“While some individuals have been able to work overtime or take other efforts to help us with any backlog in cases, the number one thing we need to do is continue to hire and recruit additional team members for DSS," Saunders said. "One of the ways we've done that is reclassifying positions to open them up to broader applicants, providing additional training to bring people on... to fill these roles rather than requiring past experience."
Lynch, who chairs the council's Education and Human Services committee and has a professional background in social work, said she collaborated with the city administration to introduce two additional solutions:
- Requesting an overhaul of the state's technology system for processing applications, the Virginia Case Management System, a request that would ultimately require approval at the state level
- Training the city's 311 call center to answer basic DSS inquiries, which would free up caseworkers and eligibility workers to focus on their core work — City spokesperson Petula Burks said 45-50% of all calls into 311 are dominated by social services concerns.
"The city is making decisions about where their priorities lie. I think there is a renewal and a renewed commitment to invest," Lynch said. “So we expect to see our funding to go to support the DSS workers in a very real way.”
Lynch said the needs of social services will be prioritized as the council and mayor enter the budget season. While she's optimistic the ongoing changes will impact working conditions and the customer experience, she admitted the pace has not moved as quickly as she'd like.
"The wheels of government turn slow, but the crisis and the very, very real-world challenges that people are dealing with happen every single day, and every minute counts," Lynch said. "So, we do not take that lightly at all, and we know that these changes are long overdue."
Meanwhile, SEIU Virginia 512, a union that represents more than 900 city employees including social services workers, wanted caseload management and staffing levels addressed in workers' contracts.
"Our members are saying, 'Enough is enough.' The time is now to make sure that we have the resources and the people that are necessary to do the job and do it well," LaNoral Thomas, the president of the union, said.
Thomas sent a letter to Mayor Levar Stoney demanding that he accept the union's contract proposal that would set parameters on caseloads for its members. Thomas said members want the challenges of their working conditions to be a part of the bargaining discussions.
"They are coming to the table with solutions to a problem, and they're asking the city to show up and help them be a part of the solution," Thomas said.
Her letter to the mayor read in part, "City residents are not getting the services that they need because city workers are severely overworked, understaffed, buried in caseloads and treated like factory workers, prioritizing quantity over quality."
In response to Thomas' letters, Saunders, who reports directly to Mayor Stoney, said, "I understand that's a tactic they chose to do, but we are actually in mediation. As we speak with SEIU to get to an agreement, we are working very hard to get to agreements that are great for our employees and great for the city."
Thomas said the union has been negotiating since September and wanted to come to an agreement by December 1, but she claimed the city's response time has delayed progress.
Lynch said she hoped to address some of the union's proposals through policy changes, funding allocations, and collaboration with the administration.
She added the administration will be creating an ongoing dashboard of social services data to track the progress of the city's commitments. At the start of the new year, Lynch expects to receive monthly updates during Human Services Committee meetings.
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