Hawaii’s Department of Human Services began slashing welfare payments to thousands of the state’s most vulnerable this month as emergency reserve funds ran dry amid increasing demand for aid.

The state’s “general assistance” program provides cash assistance to adults with physical or mental disabilities that prevent them from working. Social service agencies say many of the recipients are homeless or on the brink of homelessness and that the modest monthly payments help with their most basic of needs.

Beginning March 1, the state agency reduced the payments by one-third, from $388 a month to $260 a month for the approximately 6,700 claimants.

Gov. David Ige’s administration and state lawmakers are working to fully restore the benefits, but that could take months.

Meanwhile, service providers and beneficiaries say the reduction in payments is exacerbating an already difficult situation.

Hawaii island resident Ian, who asked that his last name not be used, has been staying at a shelter run by HOPE Services Hawaii in Kona for a little over a year. Suffering from epilepsy, he said his seizures had worsened, making it too hard to work. Ian has relied on the $388 in monthly assistance to cover basic expenses and pays the shelter a $150 program fee. He uses what’s left to pay for his phone and cover costs for laundry detergent, toilet paper and transportation.

“It’s pretty huge,” he said of the reduction in assistance. Asked what he was going to do if it’s not restored, he said: “Just keep on keeping on. What else can you do? You got to survive.”

The shelter uses the program fees to pay for utilities, basic provisions and the costs of helping residents obtain personal identification documents, according to HOPE Services, which runs eight shelters on Hawaii island. In one of the shelters, which has 29 beds and caters to those suffering from mental illness, the majority of the residents rely on the general assistance payments.

Hawaii’s general assistance program serves as a stopgap for many claimants who are in the process of applying for permanent disability through Social Security, which can be a lengthy process with no guarantee of approval.

This fiscal year, the state appropriated close to $24 million into the general assistance fund, which operates as a block grant. The total pot of money is divvied up among those enrolled in the program, but as a result of the economic shocks caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the general assistance caseload shot up 26% higher last month than a year ago.

Last year, the Department of Human Services drew down $3 million from a separate special fund to maintain payments at the same level. But that funding is maxed out and the department cut the level of appropriations starting this month.

The Ige administration is asking the Legislature for a $5.4 million emergency appropriation this current fiscal year. Senate Bill 1127 has passed the Senate and gained approval from the House Health, Human Services and Homelessness Committee on Thursday. But it still faces additional House and Senate approvals before it can be sent to the governor.

The intent is to use the funds to provide retroactive payments to beneficiaries, said Brian Donohoe, administrator of the Department of Human Services’ Benefit, Employment and Support Services Division. He acknowledged that if the funds aren’t expedited, those payments could be delayed until July.

Catholic Charities Hawaii is urging lawmakers to step in. “Can we tell disabled people who are barely surviving that no help is available?” said Rob Van Tassell, president and CEO of the social services agency, in written testimony supporting SB 1127. “As a society, we must take care of those who are most vulnerable — that is, disabled people with no other sources of income.”

The state received more than $600 million in federal relief last year that was distributed throughout state agencies and is set to receive an additional $1.6 billion to bolster the state budget. But the general assistance program seems to have fallen through the cracks. Donohoe and other state officials said it wasn’t clear if the federal relief could have been used for the state’s general assistance fund.

The new relief package will provide additional federal assistance for food, child care and Medicaid programs for low-income residents.

Betty Lou Larson, legislative liaison for Catholic Charities Hawaii, stressed the importance of restoring the funding for general assistance payments.

“They are the poorest of the poor. Imagine trying to live on $388, much less the $260 a month,” she said.