More than half a million Brooklyn residents now receive food stamps, an increase of 34% in the last 22 months, according to statistics from the Human Resource Administration (HRA).

New food-stamp users are popping up by the thousands in almost every Brooklyn neighborhood – including many in stable, middle-class communities.

In Carroll Gardens, new food-stamp users went up 24% since January 2008, while in Park Slope they went up 44% and by as much as 57% in Dyker Heights.

While Brooklyn’s growing number of first-time food stamp users includes an increasing number of white-collar and middle-class professionals, experts said the majority of new enrollees are still of modest means.

“The majority of our clients are working class,” said Monroe. “Their salaries are basically just not meeting their needs.”

In Brooklyn, poorer neighborhoods that have always had a large number of food-stamp recipients have seen dramatic jumps in the rolls since last January. East Williamsburg/Bushwick is at the top of the list, gaining almost 9,000 new enrollees over the past 22 months.

The biggest increase since January 2008 was in East Flatbush, where new enrollees grew by 68%.

But in neighborhoods like Bay Ridge, Bergen Beach and downtown Brooklyn – neighborhoods that before last year had only a few thousand food stamp recipients – first-time enrollees over the past two years have grown by as much as 59%.

“In Brooklyn, a lot of companies have moved out, downsized or phased out departments,” said HRA Brooklyn food stamp interviewer Kathleen Desire.

“I have a lady who was making $65,000, and her bank just eliminated her department altogether. She has a family, a mortgage and now collects unemployment and food stamps.”

(Source: NY Daily News)