Donald said the department is also trying to speed up the process by accepting some applications over the phone rather that always requiring them in person. People also can check their eligibility for government help and print out forms to fill out at home before heading into local social services offices.
"We take it very seriously to be responsive to people who apply," Donald said. "They don't come in because they want to. They come because they have needs."
Thompson said she saw the department's thin staffing firsthand. When she called to check on her application, she said she talked with a testy claims administrator overwhelmed with work. "If you could only see everything I have on my desk," Thompson said the administrator told her, "You'd understand why it's taking so long."
At her apartment in Owings Mills, Thompson, 20, was facing her own stresses. She said she had always just barely gotten by without public aid, but her two boys, ages 2 and 1, are eating more, further strapping finances. She said her boys never went without food, but she sometimes did, though she is eight months' pregnant.
Her husband's job as a telephone salesman does not provide medical benefits. She graduated from Wilde Lake High School in Columbia and wants to enroll in nursing school after her baby is born, she said. Because of her pregnancy, her own state medical assistance was approved right away, giving her access to health care through Medicaid. But doctors for her boys began calling to tell her they could no longer see her kids until they, too, were covered, because of unpaid bills. She searched pharmacy after pharmacy for free antibiotics and affordable medication.
On top of those day-to-day struggles, Thompson said she worried about when - if ever - her public assistance approval would come. "I'd go to bed thinking about it, and wake up thinking about it," she said.
Although Maryland has seen some of the country's biggest increases in assistance applications, processing delays are becoming increasingly common.
Laura Redman, an attorney with the New York-based National Center for Law and Economic Justice, said her group has sued over similar delays in Indiana and in several New York counties (that state has a regional public assistance system). Redman is also involved in the Maryland lawsuit and said the state "has a long history of not addressing delays."
"Things are only getting worse," she said.
Redman's group successfully negotiated settlements in the Buffalo, N.Y., area and in the Long Island, N.Y., area, she said. Donald said she also hopes for an amicable solution.
The lawsuit has already worked for Thompson: The same day it was filed, a Human Resources official called to let her know she'd been approved for food and medical assistance.
