CRANSTON, R.I. (WPRI) — There was a line of people outside the Rhode Island Department of Human Services (DHS) on Wednesday seeking to find out why they didn’t receive their SNAP benefits.
A spokesperson for the R.I. Department of Administration said a “disruption of power to the state’s primary data center” forced them to take the state’s computer system offline, which affected services like SNAP.
The system is said to be back up and running, but no word on when people will get the benefits they rely on.
One woman told 12 News she’ll have to decide whether to pay rent on time or feed her family, while another who lives at Crossroads said she hasn’t been able to buy food in four days.
State Rep. David Morales said the outage failed the people in most need of help.
“Today is a perfect example of the crisis that our Department of Human Services has been facing,” he said. “And the worst part of it is there seems to be no sense of urgency to help address this issue.”
A DHS spokesperson said they’re working as quickly as possible to get benefits out to affected families.
The statewide outage also impacted the Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) which closed early on Wednesday. A spokesperson said reservations will be honored at any DMV branch through Friday, March 10.
The DMV’s website also said certain customer service functions were temporarily unavailable online due to the service disruption.
