Washington, January 21 (RHC)-- The U.S. government shutdown is approaching one month, with state and local governments warning social safety net programs could soon buckle under the strain. 

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio warns that if the shutdown stretches into March, some 1.6 million low-income New York City residents will lose benefits as the city loses a half-billion dollars a month in federal aid for food stamps, rental assistance and school lunches.

The New York City mayor said that he met with clergy leaders and “asked them to prepare to to help members of their congregations in every conceivable way, starting in all instances with food.  But that reality of the loss of half a billion dollars a month is just too staggering to miss.  We will not be able to make people whole.  We just won’t.”