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Promises and Prayers: Budget impasse seriously hurting social service agencies

By Christine Haines chaines@heraldstandard.Com 5 min read
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Roberto M. Esquivel|Herald-Standard

Jim Stark, executive director of Fayette County Community Action Agency, is pictured inside the food bank warehouse. “We’re really struggling with our food bank. It was down in November and will be down even more in December. I don’t know what it will be like in January,” said Stark.

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Roberto M. Esquivel|Herald-Standard

Because of the state budget impasse, Fayette County Community Action Agency was forced to cut back its operating hours at the Beeson Avenue senior center in Uniontown.

Area social service agencies continue to struggle to meet at least some of the local needs while the budget stalemate continues in Harrisburg.

Service providers met in mid-November with local lawmakers, who offered no promises, but said a budget was possible by Thanksgiving. There is still no budget in sight.

Albert Gallatin Human Services in Masontown has already laid off or reduced the hours for half of its 12-member staff and had to discontinue services to 80 low-income handicapped clients because funding for their program may not be in the new budget.

“They’re provided with nonmedical care: housekeeping, errand runs, things to allow them to stay in their homes instead of being placed in a personal care home situation that would cost the state a lot more,” said Kristin Dunham, the agency’s CEO/director.

Dunham said her agency receives about 90 percent of its funding from or through the state. Fundraising efforts make up the remaining money, but those funds are usually set aside for building repairs and other unusual expenses. Dunham said that money is almost gone.

“We’re operating on a promise. We don’t know what’s going to happen,” Dunham said.

Albert Gallatin Human Services is still providing meals to about 180 seniors through the Masontown Senior Center and home delivered meals, but Dunham said those programs may soon be affected as well.

“This is something that should never happen again,” Dunham said.

Jim Stark, executive director of Fayette County Community Action Agency, said his staff of 80 has lost about 15 employees through layoff or attrition during the budget impasse and funds to keep the remaining programs afloat could run out by the middle of this month.

“It will be sometime around Christmas week, which is a terrible time of the year to consider layoffs,” Stark said. “November and December are the two busiest times of the year for our programs and services.”

Community Action oversees 50 food pantries across Fayette County as well as operating four senior centers and the home delivered meals in the Uniontown area. It also handles applications for the Dollar Energy Fund, and provides budget counselling and rental assistance.

“We have no rental assistance for the homeless and near homeless,” said Tammy Knouse, the customer service director for the Community Action Agency. “At our senior centers we’ve had to cut back our hours.

We’re really struggling with our foodbank. It was down in November and will be down even more in December. I don’t know what it will be like in January.”

“We were able to work with one of our food suppliers to get our shipment in for December. They agreed to wait until the budget is in for us to pay them,” Stark said.

Irmi Gaut, executive director for City Mission-Living Stones in Uniontown, which operates emergency shelters for men, women with children and teens, said daytime hours have been reduced at the shelters in order to save money.

“We’re trying to keep people on. Depending on how things go, we may need to do across the board pay cuts until money comes through,” Gaut said.

City Mission receives about one third of its funding through the state.

“The program that’s primarily affected is our emergency shelter. We don’t charge anything. Our other programs, there are at least some funds that sustain them,” Gaut said. “There needs to be legislation passed to keep this from happening in the future, some type of stopgap legislation that keeps money going to social services.”

Jana Kyle, executive director of the Fayette County Drug and Alcohol Commission, said her staff is limping along, but cannot provide services to other state agencies at this time because of the lack of funding.

“We’re not going into the jail to do assessments on a regular basis; there are not as many community services other than school presentations. I’m not doing any testing for Children and Youth Services because they aren’t paying us. That was a terrible discussion to have,” Kyle said. “Inpatient stays are limited for those without insurance. Usually I have money for that through our allocation. Some providers who have been kind enough to provide intakes, I’m holding their checks. If I start laying off staff, that’s even fewer services I can offer. That’s January,” Kyle said.

“These are people’s lives we’re talking about. This is a disease, the disease of addiction that we can’t treat or prevent because the legislature hasn’t been able to pass a budget. It’s unacceptable.”

Kyle said she has cut out as much spending as possible, only permitting staff training or travel as required by law or licensing. Even office supplies have been limited.

“I’ve stretched my staff and they’ve been fantastic, but I can’t stretch them any further,” Kyle said.

Kyle said the state legislature and governor need to come up with a budget agreement soon, noting it is already five months overdue.

“They don’t stay up at night wondering how they will pay their staff or who they will need to lay off. They don’t barter to see how they can make the money last,” Kyle said. “Their hurting us, everybody else, by their inactivity.”

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