Marketplace - Most seniors who qualify for food benefit aren’t getting it

Episode Date: October 16, 2024

An estimated 13 million older adults are eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Fewer than 4 million are registered. SNAP benefits can be a lifeline for food-insecure Americans, but they’ve got to apply. Plus, mortgage rates are up, and the European Central Bank is expected to cut rates again.

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Yesterday was retail America. Today, it's housing America. From American public media, this is Market Class. In Los Angeles, I'm Todd Rizdal. It is Wednesday, today the 16th of October. Good as always to have you along everybody. The economic data we are being given this week is, as I alluded to, of the housing variety. Come Friday we're going to get housing starts from the Census Bureau. September data on new residential construction is what that is. It was up in August.

Best guesses are it's going to have gone the other way last month. This morning, meanwhile, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported the average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in this economy increased last week for the third week in a row, which means mortgage rates have been rising since the big Fed cut last month and they are as high now as they were a couple of months ago, which the NBA says is depressing mortgage applications and refis, the whole kit and caboodle. Marketplaces' Kayleigh Welles spent the day figuring out what is going on.

The bad news about rising mortgage rates is a symptom of good news for the rest of the economy. If the economy continues to outperform expectations, then you're likely to see rates come down more slowly. Gerald Cohen is chief economist at the Keenan Institute of Private Enterprise at UNC Chapel Hill. He says mortgage rates aren't just based on what interest rates are now, but the expectation of what rates will be and. You've seen kind of a pullback in expectations for a level of rate cuts or the amount that the markets expect the Fed to cut rates.

And thing is, this six to seven percent mortgage rate might feel high, but once upon a time, it was considered really good. Maria Letton at Florida State University College of Business says rates have been relatively low because of a recession and then a global pandemic. So rates will not go to 3% unless there's something horrible that happens and hopefully it doesn't. So I think the expectation with how far are they going to go down needs to be adjusted. Letton says those low rates also inflated housing prices. So now that the rates are higher. I think it's more likely that house prices will come down. So affordability should improve. That's kind of mixed bag news for home buyers. But the advice from senior

economist Ralph McLaughlin at Realtor.com is pretty clear. If you can buy the home, buy the home. The benefits of a motor ship don't come from, you know, timing the rates market very well. It comes from stay input in that home. McLaughlin says it's always possible to refinance when interest rates come down again. We haven't had this many homes in the market in many, many years. So for those maybe that felt stymied not just by prices and high mortgage rates, but by lack of choice, that latter part is kind of reversed. McLaughlin says in the fall and winter, there are usually more price cuts as sellers get desperate.

So buyers have more negotiating power. I'm Kayley Wells for Marketplace. On Wall Street, as the week at long last passes the halfway mark, it's been one of those. Traders were in a good mood. We'll have the details when we do the numbers. Hi, how are you? Nice to meet you. How's it going? I apologize about being late.

I found out about this at about 8-10 this morning. Don't worry about it. You're just going to follow me onto base and I'll drive you. I apologize about being late. I found out about this at about 8, 10 this morning. Don't worry about it, guy. You're just going to follow me onto base, and I'll drive you. Marine Corps Air Station Miramar is about 15 miles north of downtown San Diego. We're headed into a glass box of an office with a big frosted logo that reads Marine Corps Energy. So this is your kingdom in here, right?

This was the last part of the Navy. This was like the last Navy facility. Yeah, this used to be a naval air station. We've come to see Miramar's microgrid, basically a self-sufficient energy system, a backup source of power in case the power grid goes out, which feels more and more important as we wrestle with the impact of climate change. Think about storms like Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, which have left millions of people without power. In an emergency, a microgrid is what you want to have.

It generates and distributes energy and it can work completely off the grid. So layman's terms, how does this thing work? A microgrid is defined as a electrical definable boundary that can be both disconnected from the utility and also connected to the utility. That's Mick Wasco. His job title is Energy Operations for Marine Corps Installations Command, and he's been working on this microgrid for more than a decade. Microgrids are mentioned a lot in the Pentagon's climate plans, and he's been working on this microgrid for more than a decade. Microgrids are mentioned a lot in the Pentagon's climate plans, and more than a couple of people told us this is the DOD's most complicated and advanced version. So we have sort of a chart of the schematic of how the microgrid basically works, right?

We've got a map of the base and then an org chart. Yes. Right? Organization electrically, if you will. I will. Mick unrolls a giant map, takes up most of a conference room table. Yes. Organization electrically, if you will. I will. Mick unrolls a giant map, takes up most of a conference room table. Get me one of those soda cans, one of those teas.

We hold the corners down with cans of Arizona iced tea. So what makes the Miramar microgrid special? So the special thing about MCS Miramar is in our Marine Corps boundary, land boundary here, contains the City of San Diego landfill. Miramar's microgrid stands out because it has access to a whole range of energy sources. The landfill on base is actually able to capture methane from the trash there and turn that into electricity for the base to use. A smaller percentage of energy comes from solar panels and it can also pull, if needed, from a power plant on base that runs on natural gas and diesel. Important point here, the microgrid, a microgrid, is not necessarily all green.

Not necessarily. The technology and the cost is not really feasible at this point in time for us to meet our mission with a hundred percent grain power. But renewable resources do make this microgrid more powerful. To give you perspective, with incorporation of the landfill and our solar, our microgrid system can operate the entire flight line for up to 21 days with just the diesel that we have on station. And so that ability to run so long on so little fuel is due to our ability to leverage the renewable resources. That's three weeks this base could keep doing its job at full capacity with all its jets

in case of crisis. They've been working on the microgrid at Miramar for 14 years and they're still not done. Mick and his team are trying to make it more renewable. They're adding lithium battery storage to help get there. The challenge is that there is no off-the-shelf microgrid yet, something you can just buy and plug in. They're custom-made and they need highly skilled

and in very short supply engineers to maintain and operate. So Marine Corps leads the way, we all know that. Ketch is, the Pentagon's a big place, DoD is a big place. And there's a goal and an ambition, I'm sure, to have this kind of resiliency everywhere. Let me ask the expert, is that realistic, Meg? I think that the goal for energy resilience needs to be there. I think that the feasibility is that in being a person who's done one of these projects,

they are much harder than we might assume, but that doesn't mean we can't get after it. Is it a resource thing? Pentagon has $860 billion a year to throw around. You need more of that. It's it a resource thing? Pentagon has $860 billion a year to throw around. You need more of that. It's definitely a resource thing. And so I think the balance to the leaders above me is all the competing priorities and energy resilience at its installations is just one of all the alligators out the boat, you know?

So far, the Marine Corps has six microgrids across its 24 bases. The word you're looking for here is energy resilience, being able to keep the lights on even during a crisis to get the mission done. Resilience is a buzzword you'll hear from the Pentagon way more often than the words climate change. But they're related because while for now the Miramar microgrid has been kind of break glass in case of emergency, it's not going to stay that way for long.

And this is the guy who gets to decide whether or not to break the glass. It's actually much more helpful to think about this air station as a power projection platform. Colonel Marty Bedell is the commanding officer of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, and he thinks a lot about the base's role in a potential crisis, its troops and its planes. And there are lots of scenarios, be it cyber attack or earthquake, I could imagine, where we would need to be prepared to respond if called upon. Self-sufficiency basically, that's what you got to have. That's exactly right. How many people live in this little town? We have about 12,000 Marines and Sailors.

We've got 548 homes. We've got 4,000 barracks rooms. So we have a lot of people, military and civilian, who live and work here. Like Mick said, this microgrid could support this little town for 21 days all on its own. Back in the summer of 2023, San Diego had some brutal heat waves and the city asked Miramar to help out. We did relieve the grid of our burden at their request. Right, and that's only gonna start happening more. Absolutely correct.

We are absolutely aware here in Southern California of climate considerations. We just had our first hurricane in a very long time, which is not normal. We have fire danger, which is something that is ever present in Southern California. All of these climate events that are increasing in frequency are things that impact everyone,

including our military installations. So I have to tell you, sir, we've been talking to a lot of people, a handful of them at your grade level. And when I say how big a challenge is climate change for you, most of them say our mission is to get bombs on target on time, basically. You're the first one who's actually said

climate change is a huge challenge for us. It is both true that our job is to get bombs on target on time and it is short-sighted to not connect barriers to being able to do that with our ability to support forces when they are forward. Is climate change affecting the Marine Corps' ability to provide for the common defense? I believe that it is. And I think that the small impacts are collectively felt. An hour-long power outage because of a heat wave might not seem like much, but when it comes to climate change, all those small impacts are going to add up.

And in the end, like Colonel Bedell said, we're all going to feel it. We've been working on a podcast this year about the military, its huge climate footprint, and what it's doing about that, and also what climate change means for national security. It's called How We Survive, and the very last episode drops today.

You should listen to the whole series though. Follow us, subscribe, rate, review on the platform of your choice. Kelly Wells was talking about the hard data we're getting this week about home construction and how mortgage rates are affecting the housing market overall. We have also gotten some softer data about how people are feeling about the economy right now and where it's headed. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York surveys consumers every month about their economic expectations and one of the questions it asks is whether people think it's getting easier or harder to get a loan.

Last month, people said access to credit is a lot better than it was a year ago and they think loans are going to be even more available this time next year. But because there's always a but. As Marketplace Adjust-and-Ho reports, that does not necessarily mean people are going out and loading up on debt. It makes sense that people were more optimistic about getting loans in September than they were earlier in the year. People are very pleased that the Fed is now on a downward path.

That's Ann Villamil, an economics professor at the University of Iowa. She says lower interest rates should help more people qualify for loans. But even though a new mortgage or car loan might be cheaper than it was a year ago, Villamil says new debt can still be kind of scary. You might be looking at some of this existing debt

that you have to pay off and say, wow, I really need to get this paid down. People surveyed by the New York Federal Reserve also said that the likelihood of missing a debt payment over the next few months was at its highest level in three and a half years. And I think that makes sense in the context of a time when you're starting to see delinquency rates rise a little bit on the margin. That's Tim Quinlan, senior economist at Wells Fargo. He says rising delinquency rates are likely having a chilling effect on whether people want to borrow more.

We look specifically at revolving credit, which is primarily comprised of credit card debt. That's actually declined in two out of the past three months and shown only modest growth in the first half of the year. Meanwhile, lenders themselves have been keeping their credit standards tight. David Reiling is CEO of Sunrise Banks in Minnesota. Our lens is still a little suspicious. We're looking for any cracks that we may feel could present some risk that we don't want to take. Reiling says his bank is getting more inquiries about loans, but he's been focusing on lending

to the strongest borrowers because the economy is still so uncertain. We're still not quite confident that, you know, it is a soft landing or how quickly do rates need to go down and how does this impact employment and ultimately the cost and the quality of borrowing. Reiling says he hopes that falling interest rates will make it easier for people and businesses to afford new loans, but rates just haven't fallen enough so far. I'm Justin Ho from Marketplace. Coming up. For $23 a month, you know, we're talking what, 75 cents a day.

What are you really buying with that? Probably not too much, right? First though, let's do the numbers. Dow Industrial is up 337 today, 8 tenths percent, 43,077. The NASDAQ added 51 points, 3 tenths percent 18,000 367 the s&p 500 gained 27 points half a percent ending at 58 and 42 she's thinking about the number of sevens and all those numbers anyway the Dutch company as ml holdings makes equipment that makes computer chips it accidentally released its

quarterly report early including the part where reported sales for the year will be lower than expected. Oops. Blamed a weak recovery in every sector of the industry except AI. Not surprising there. ASML subtracted 5 and a tenth percent. The container store group added 12 and a tenth percent today after announcing 40 million dollars worth of investment from Beyond, as in Bed Bath and

Beyond fell a half percent. You're listening to Marketplace. This podcast is supported by Fundrise. Buy low, sell high. It's a simple concept, but not necessarily an easy concept. Right now, high interest rates have crushed the real estate market. Prices are falling and properties are available at a discount, which means Fundrise believes now is the time to expand the Fundrise flagship fund's billion-dollar real estate portfolio. You can add the Fundrise flagship fund to your portfolio in minutes by visiting

fundrise.com. Carefully consider the investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses of the Fundrise Flagship Fund before investing. This and other information can be found in the Funds Prospectus at fundrise.com. This is a paid advertisement. What do they say? More money, more problems, and way more questions from your kids, right? But not to worry. Million Bazillion, a podcast from Marketplace, has you covered. I'm Bridget

Bodner and with my co-host, Ryan Perez, we take you and your young ones on grand adventures and comedic sing-alongs to answer all the questions your little ones have about money. Join us as we explain how banks work, why name brands are more expensive, and what happened to Black Friday sales. Listen to Million Bazillion wherever you get your podcasts. This is Marketplace. I'm Kyle Rizdal. Much as we Americans might like to think so, the Federal Reserve ain't the only central

bank game in town, you know, and what a difference a continent makes. The European Central Bank meets tomorrow and scuttlebutt is they are going to cut their key rates for a third time after quarter percentage point cuts in June and September. Now, you will recall, of course, that the Fed waited and waited until mid-September to start cutting, then went big with that half point cut. Since then, though, inflation here has proved a bit sticky, job growth has been strong as you know, and consumers have been spending. So speculation is that Powell et al are going to take it slow, cut wise, from here on out.

Not so though in Europe where inflation has cooled sharply and the economy is a bit weaker. Marketplace's Mitchell Hartman has that one. Europe's economy isn't exactly sick, more like sluggish and kind of under the weather. Eurozone growth was just two tenths of a percent in the second quarter and Germany contracted slightly. The data is quite concerning, obviously, especially coming from Germany with industrial production. Economist Jennifer Lee at BMO Capital Markets says the deterioration in business conditions sets the stage for lower interest rates from the European Central Bank.

It helps that inflation in Europe just fell to 1.8%, significantly lower than in the US. In fact, the whole economic story has been different in Europe since the pandemic hit. Europe's economy was weaker than ours to begin with, says Jacob Kierkegaard at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, and consumer and business spending wasn't boosted as much by fiscal stimulus.

But then Europe had something that the US never had, the external energy price shock after the invasion of Ukraine. As you know, the Russians who mess with the European gas supply. Energy and food prices spiked, Europeans started conserving and ramped up natural gas supplies from the Middle East and US, and overall inflation fell. But it's all left economic malaise in its wake, says Sharon O'Halloran, a political economist at Trinity College Dublin. Prices of oil, energy and housing, the conflict both in the Middle East and Ukraine have set a different tone for consumers than in the US.

Plus Germany, the continent's powerhouse, has problems of its own, especially in the auto sector, says Jennifer Lee. They basically failed to modernize. We're very reliant on China for all those key supplies to produce more electric vehicles. Meanwhile, European farmers have recently become more dependent on cheap fertilizer from Russia, pointing out just how economically vulnerable Europe is to the conflicts raging around it.

I'm Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace. There are 42 million people in this economy who get food assistance from the federal government. SNAP is the acronym, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Every October, those 42 million people get an increase in benefits to keep up with inflation. Income requirements are updated, too. This year's increase, by the way, in benefits, is tiny, just a couple of bucks in most places. But it turns out that not everyone who is eligible for SNAP is on it. A report from the National Council on Aging and the Urban Institute not too long ago found

that about 70% of adults 65 and up who qualify are not getting it. Marketplace's Samantha Fields has that one. Twice a month, Erika De Jesus spends all day in a little windowless office on the ground floor of an apartment building in upper Manhattan, helping people apply for SNAP. De Jesus is a benefits access specialist with a local nonprofit, the West Side Campaign Against Hunger. This is the office of a state assembly member, and people from the neighborhood come here for help with all kinds of issues, Immigration, housing, health care.

That's why De Jesus says it's a good place to come to reach people who might need help applying for food assistance. Access is the biggest issue. I would say you got to meet people where they are. Today De Jesus is helping Berkis Vera apply for SNAP. Vera has brought all sorts of documents with her. Utility bills, pay stubs, proof of rent payments, her family's passports and social security cards. Every inch of De Jesus' desk is covered in papers.

She brought everything. She brought everything she might think she may need. De Jesus is taking photos of each document and uploading them all to the Snap application she's created for Vera online. She's also helping Vera fill out a separate application for her mom, who's 87. She's someone who can't travel, is losing a great deal of her memory, so if her daughter wasn't advocating for her, I would find it very difficult for her to get access to these benefits.

A lot of seniors have trouble accessing benefits they're eligible for, says Elaine Waxman at the Urban Institute. We estimate that about 13 million older adults are eligible for SNAP in a given year, but only about 3.8 million actually participate in the program. So that leaves a really big gap. Applying for SNAP is a lot of work tracking down all the required documents and uploading them online or traveling to an office to get help. Then calling the benefits office for a phone interview, which often requires

waiting on hold for hours. A lot of seniors have a lot of issues with technology. Greg Silverman is CEO of the West Side Campaign Against Hunger. A lot of seniors have mobility issues, you know, from just distance and the dollars to travel to health issues. And so first you have some people who can't figure out how to get the benefits.

And then he says there are those who do figure it out and go through the application process, only to learn they just qualify for the minimum benefit. Doing all that for $23 a month, you know, we're talking what, 75 cents a day. What are you really buying with that? Erika De Jesus, the benefits access specialist, says she finds there's also a lot of stigma that keeps older people from applying for SNAP. I've encountered a lot of customers who say, I've never applied for public benefits in my life.

This is the first time I've had to do this. And there's a lot of shame attached to it." Add in the fact that, because Social Security counts as income, many seniors only qualify for $23 a month. I do encounter a lot of people who are just like, I just don't want to deal with it. I just, I don't want to deal with it. For a lot of older people, though, the biggest barrier is figuring out if they're eligible and how to apply, especially if they don't speak English or aren't able to travel far to get in-person assistance.

DeHizou says that's why it's so important to get out in the community and offer that help in places older people already go, like the doctor or this assembly member's office. I have a lot of customers who come here because, oh my sister came, my mom came, my cousin came and can you do this for us so and so. And so a lot of the access comes from word of mouth. For Berkis Vera, having someone who can explain everything in Spanish and walk her through the application helps. So does the $400-ish a month her family gets from SNAP.

Food and everything is so expensive these days, she says. And now that her mom is in her 80s, the SNAP money is especially important because she has all sorts of special dietary needs. But even with SNAP... All of her family's income still goes to rent, bills and food. They can't save at all. But she says SNAP does still make a big difference. I'm Samantha Fields for Marketplace. This final note on the way out today, it has been two and a half years and who knows how many public comments and behind closed doors lobbying sessions. But as of today, it is finally gonna be easier

to cancel your subscriptions or gym memberships or what have you. The Federal Trade Commission voted three to two today to finalize its proposed rule on what has come to be called a click to cancel. You know those memberships or subscriptions that renew automatically unless you do cancel and the companies then make it really hard to cancel?

That is supposed to be all over now. Kavi at mTOR, that's all I would say. Our media production team includes Brian Allison, Jake Cherry, Jessen Duller, Drew Jostant, Gary O'Keefe, Charlton Thorpe, One Color Storado, and Becca Weinman. Jeff Peters is the manager of media production and I'm Kyle Rizdall. We will see you tomorrow, everybody. This is APM. What do they say? More money, more problems, and way more questions from your kids, right?

But not to worry. Million Bazillion, a podcast from Marketplace, has you covered. I'm Bridget Bodner and with my co-host, Ryan Perez, we take you and your young ones on grand adventures and comedic sing-alongs to answer all the questions your little ones have about money. Join us as we explain how banks work, why name brands are more expensive, and what happened to Black Friday sales. Listen to Million Bazillion wherever you get your podcasts.