“The facts demonstrated that something drastic had to happen,” said Santa Fe lawyer Daniel Yohalem, part of the legal team that prevailed.

The New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty brought the legal action, accusing Human Services of practices that delayed the application process and incorrectly denied or terminated families’ benefits. The center said the delays violate a 15-year-old consent decree with the federal government, in which the state department agreed to timely processing of requests for benefits.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Gonzales ruled from the bench after about 10 minutes of deliberation.

“The spirit of this decree, I think, has just been forgotten,” he said.

Human Services attorneys had asked Gonzales to wait three months before ruling on the issue, but instead he emphasized the situation’s urgency. He said New Mexicans in poverty are struggling without assistance as long as the backlog exists.

To that end, the judge ordered the department to immediately create a mechanism that moves applicants seeking emergency food benefits to the front of the line. People who qualify for these benefits have monthly incomes of less than $150. Under the federal consent decree, applications for emergency benefits were expected to be processed within one day, and qualifying applicants were expected to receive food benefits within one week.

However, applicants in this group have been waiting months to learn whether they would receive assistance, according to affidavits from applicants and advocates for the homeless.

Additionally, Gonzales ordered Human Services to immediately cease disqualifying applicants from receiving benefits for any reason other than a failure to meet asset, income or residency requirements. And the judge ordered the department to cease terminating benefits or denying benefits through its automated system, which is designed to disqualify new and renewing applicants 30 days after they have applied, if no caseworker has reviewed their cases.

Lawyers for the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty had argued that the computer system, known as ASPEN, was denying benefits to eligible applicants because caseworkers hadn’t gotten around to processing their paperwork in time.

Outside the Income Support Division office in northeast Albuquerque on Thursday, the frustrations of those seeking food aid were on display. A line of more than 30 people, including many holding babies and toddlers, snaked along the sidewalk just before the office opened at 9 a.m. Some in line — most of them declined to give their names — said they’d been told their benefits were terminated, even though they had submitted their annual renewal applications on time.

Others had experienced dropped calls or didn’t have access to computers.

Many people in line said they’d been there on multiple occasions in hopes of getting their benefit applications processed.

Francisco Cuellar, a father of three, including an 11-month-old, said he applied for food benefits more than two months ago and still hasn’t heard from the Department of Human Services about whether he qualifies.

“We’ve been waiting since March,” Cuellar said. “We’re close to the edge. We don’t have the money for our bills or anything. We’re about to lose our place.”

What’s more, Cuellar has been receiving letters from Human Services demanding repayment of nearly $600 in benefits that he never received. He was back at the Income Support Division, trying to sort it out.

Cuellar has company, according to Gail Evans, legal director of the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty. During Thursday’s hearing, she cited reports from a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In fiscal year 2012, the report said, the federal Food and Nutrition Service found that about 54 percent of eligibility determinations for food benefits in New Mexico contained errors.

“These are appalling numbers,” Evans said. “These are hungry families.”

The Department of Human Services contends the error rate in determining food benefit eligibility last year and this year improved to the 30 percent to 35 percent range.

Lawyers for Human Services acknowledged to the court that a backlog of applications exists, but they said it’s a symptom of factors beyond the department’s control. Christopher Collins, general counsel for the department, called the troubled rollout of the Affordable Care Act last fall, coinciding with the launch of the ASPEN computer system and Medicaid expansion in New Mexico, “a perfect storm.”

“We recognize that there needs to be timely processing of applications,” Collins told the court. “That’s not occurring right now, and as a result, some people are not receiving their benefits.”

Collins told the judge the department is already making progress culling the backlog, which stood at “tens of thousands” in March and now is roughly 7,500.

Marilyn Martinez, acting director of the Income Support Division, couldn’t verify Collins’ numbers.

“I don’t want to guess at those numbers,” she said.

Judge Gonzales ordered Human Services to report statistical data to the court, including the number of benefit applications received, denied and approved.

Martinez said the state developed a plan to reduce the backlog in February, and Collins told the court that if the department implements the plan, the backlog would vanish by August. However, lawyers for the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty said no such plan was provided.

“The plan is not documented,” Martinez said.

She said its components include shifting department staff’s duties and locations, assuring expedited review of emergency food benefit applications and other steps that already are underway, such hiring temporary staff to meet the caseload demand.

Human Services spokesman Matt Kennicott said the department will begin complying with judge’s orders immediately. However, he wouldn’t rule out legal action seeking a stay or modification of the court’s order if it proves onerous.

Even in the afterglow of their triumph Thursday, lawyers for the plaintiffs were wary about what to expect next from the state.

“I am not particularly optimistic that the state will turn this around quickly,” Yohalem said.

Evans circled back an email written last year by Gov. Susana Martinez’s Cabinet secretary for Human Services, Sidonie Squier, that stated: “There has never been and is not now any significant evidence of hunger in New Mexico.”

Squier quickly backed away from the remark, but Evans said it was emblematic of a disregard for the poor under Martinez’s administration, which she said is “leaving federal money on the table” by limiting qualified applicants’ access to benefits.

“We have seen this administration be very hostile about taking full advantage of federal funds available for these types of programs,” she said.

Contact Patrick Malone at 986-3017 or pmalone@sfnewmexican.com. Follow him on Twitter @pmalonenm.