Income support office plans some presence in Portales

PORTALES — Officials with the New Mexico Health Services Department on Wednesday assured Portales its Income Support Division plans to continue to have a physical presence in the city.

“I do want to clarify that ISD will continue to have a presence in Portales,” said Karmela Martinez, director of the Income Support Division. “It is not our intention to not have a physical presence. We understand that there are challenges that arise, whether they be transportation or Internet or phone. We want to make sure that we offer as many channels, as many doorways to attachment to services as we possibly can, and that includes being able to have a physical presence in Portales.”

The doors of the Portales ISD office have been closed since July due to the pandemic, and HSD officials announced earlier this month they would be holding a virtual public forum “to obtain input from the community on how HSD can best serve the residents of Portales and Roosevelt County.”

Residents and public officials said Wednesday night that those in need of ISD services have a lot problems applying for those services via telephone and Internet.

“We have seen a significant influx of those people (in need) trying to walk into our office to access those services since July since you guys have been closed physically in our location,” said Roosevelt County Manager Amber Hamilton. “I cannot convey enough that the migrant population needs the in-person services. Those are who we’re seeing have barriers with language; there’s barriers with access. They have said that they’ve had horrible experiences with the phone and have just given up throughout the process.”

Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Karl Terry said many people have also come into his office in the past several months in search of help with ISD services.

Valerie Pacini, an independent social worker in Portales, said she also spends much of her time helping her clients with ISD paperwork processes, because they have difficulty navigating the online or phone system and/or they do not understand the language in the documentation.

United Way of Eastern New Mexico Executive Director Erinn Burch shared results from a local survey regarding the needs of local residents with HSD services, saying that United Way received 526 responses in English and 15 in Spanish. Out of the 526 responses, 84 percent said they prefer the physical ISD office, because “it’s just easier.”

Burch said 26 percent of respondents said they have difficulty finding a phone or computer they can easily access, 36 percent have difficulty getting good Internet access, and 64 percent had problems sending documents electronically. She said 38 percent of people gave up on the process of applying for services due to difficulties, while 16 percent had troubles completing the process, therefore, didn’t qualify for services.

“That’s very significant in a high-poverty community like ours,” Burch said. “My point is if you’re seeing all of those clients but having this high rate of abandonment or failure to get services, in our small community, that’s a lot of people who could be missing out.”

“And then you have that communication challenge,” added Burch. “Difficulty understanding the forms and the questions, and that’s another reason why people like the face-to-face, because they can get their questions answered or things explained or get some of those difficult language barriers overcome.”

Burch said in regard to what people have access to in regard to technology, more than 100 respondents did not answer this question, adding that she feels that may be because United Way failed to provide a “none of the above” answer.

Martinez thanked Burch for conducting the survey and providing the results.

“HSD loves surveys and data and input, so thank you for giving us another set for us to consume so that we can make good, data-driven decisions,” she said.

Burch offered for United Way to conduct more surveys to help determine technological solutions.

Attendees of the forum also expressed concerns that the Portales ISD office would be closed permanently.

“Again, ISD will have a presence in the Portales area,” Martinez said. “We want to see how best to do that. Right now, we do have limited outreach on the first, third and fifth Friday of every month, and part of that is due to staffing. Due to some health restrictions that we encountered, we were not able to have both (Clovis and Portales) offices operating with curbside services, which is why we felt the need to make sure we implemented at least some sort of outreach and some sort of contact where people could ask questions … and help navigate that process through an outreach, which is not as frequent, from what we’re hearing, as it needs to be.”

Jeff Gentry, a board member with United Way, expressed that he was confused as to what HSD officials meant by they are going to maintain a physical presence in Portales.

“What is the plan?” he asked.

Angela Medrano, HSD deputy cabinet secretary, clarified that HSD will have an office in Portales, though it may no longer be in its current location.

“We are looking at how we can partner, potentially, with some of our sister agencies in the area to offer that one stop shopping experience for a customer, so our customers are not having to travel to multiple buildings. We have done this in other areas of the state,” Medrano said.

She added that HSD officials are trying to see what looks like the best opportunity for HSD and how it can best service the Portales community, which was the purpose of holding a public forum and acquiring feedback from residents.

“As we move to what I hope to be close to the end of the pandemic … we are looking at having a return presence hopefully in the next month or two,” Medrano said.

“We’ll continue to communicate with you all about what that looks like. Hearing all of this feedback and comments and stories are super helpful for us in shaping what that looks like for Portales.”