Say NO to Social Security office closure!

By Steve Kofahl and Robby Stern

PSARA will participate in a community meeting to oppose the neighborhood Social Security field office closures being planned by the Social Security Administration (SSA).

At 1:30 p.m. Friday, January 13, we will gather at the Chinatown/International District Community Center at 719 8th Avenue in Seattle, to demonstrate our opposition to SSA’s harsh, bureaucratic decision to close its long-established International District and Belltown community field offices, in favor of a new “Metro” office in the Jackson Federal Building.

SSA Regional Commissioner, Stanley Friendship met with community representatives December 19 to hear their concerns about his decision. Meeting with PSARA President Robby Stern; Minority Executive Directors Coalition Co-Chair Sharyne Shiu Thornton; Seattle NOW representative Thalia Syracopoulos; and Seattle Community Law Center Executive Director Alex Doolittle, Commissioner Friendship made it clear his decision is “set in stone.” The commissioner said SSA’s main motive was to save money in the face of shrinking budgets.

The delegation learned that a search for space for a consolidated office was limited to Seattle’s Downtown core between Yesler Street and Lake Union. Confining the search in this way excludes the International District and South Seattle, exactly the areas where an accessible neighborhood office is most acutely needed.

Friendship suggested that if they could meet the needs of 90 percent of their clients at the new location, the needs for personal service of the other 10 percent could be sacrificed.

The Agency is determined to compel Social Security beneficiaries to rely more on telephones and computers and less on person-to-person service. But many beneficiaries cannot use internet self service, and many, for language and other reasons, cannot communicate effectively by telephone.

Many poor and homeless persons lack photo ID and can’t afford to pay for it. They should not be turned away. Disabled individuals should have adequate disabled parking available. Language should not be a barrier to service.

Commissioner Friendship asserted that security would be improved at the new site. He denied that SSA’s office move would be out of compliance with Department of Justice guidelines that recommend against co-location of high security (ATF, IRS, FBI) and low security (like SSA) agencies.

In fact, the new Seattle Federal Building office would not necessarily be more secure. The 1995 Murrah Building bombing in a comparable facility in Oklahoma City cost the lives of 16 SSA employees and 24 of their clients. That bombing was a major reason for the establishment of the Justice Department guidelines.

To reverse this decision will require pressure from elected officials and from the impacted communities. Populations that require face-to-face service are concentrated in central and south Seattle. To make their access more difficult, or impossible, is to deny equitable service. This is simply unacceptable.

Does $160,000 a year in budget savings justify singling out the most vulnerable in our society for denial of government services? How do you put a price on denying service to 30 people a day?

Please call your elected representatives to register your objections. Please join us at the public meeting in the International District on January 13.