Viewpoint: Federal cuts threaten assistance to local families
Ruth Burke
Did you know over 60,000 Montanans utilized Community Action services throughout the state last year? Chances are, you or someone you know needed help when life took an unexpected turn. Montanans are hard-working and resilient. Even so, many families are living paycheck to paycheck, with only one medical emergency/job loss/family tragedy/crisis, away from needing temporary assistance to help cover food, utilities, healthcare or housing.
For over 60 years, Montana’s Community Action Agencies have been trusted organizations for people to turn to in times of crisis. Your Community Action Agency, the Human Resource Council, is an essential hub for helping folks in Mineral, Missoula, and Ravalli counties get out of a bind and back on their feet.
As you’ve probably read, federal funding cuts put Montanans at risk and threaten the services provided by Montana’s Community Action Agencies. The Community Services Block Grant is a longstanding program supported by lawmakers across the political spectrum. The Community Services Block Grant is the only federal program with the overarching mission of eliminating poverty at the local level, regardless of its cause. No other organizations cover the whole state including rural Montana, and yet have local ties and know-how to get the work done.
Community Action Agencies leverage the Community Services Block Grant to produce affordable housing, to address the causes and conditions of poverty, to prevent folks from falling farther in a crisis, and to respond to a crisis as small as an individual house fire and as large as Covid. The proposed funding cuts are not good for hard working Montanans.
Funding cuts threaten affordable housing, the biggest issue across our state. Human Resource Council has leveraged the Community Services Block grant over the years to create or preserve affordable housing including 36 units of Missoula County rental housing. Over 500 Missoula County residents have received home energy conservation measures, and over 225 families in Missoula County used HRC’s downpayment assistance to become homeowners for the first time. Or another example of impacts to our community is energy assistance. Many Montanans who benefit from heating assistance are elderly or have a disability and most are choosing between food or heat by the time they ask for assistance.
The Low Income Heating Assistance Program (LIHEAP) funding, can make a one-time investment of $500, leverage utility provider discounts, and keep the heat on and/or prevent an eviction. Homelessness costs the whole community through increased insurance premiums, medical care, public safety response, shelter costs, and lost workforce. Keeping people in their homes is a more responsible and effective use of taxpayer dollars, rather than cutting funding, now only to deal with the downstream costs of homelessness later.
Some say local communities should just step up to raise the money and perform the services but in Missoula County, our community already actively contributes. Human Resource Council is lean and efficient, operating with low administrative costs - around 10% for the last 60 years.
For every dollar from the federal Community Services Block Grant program, Human Resource Council leverages over $25 of state, local, and private contributions. Our local City and County governments already stretch every dollar and could not reasonably be expected to divert funding from local infrastructure and public safety to replace millions to support in the social services safety net.
At the end of the day, prevention is cheaper than crisis and community action agencies keep our workforce strong and our communities stable without wasteful spending. We urge you to let your congressional delegation know you support the Human Resource Council, and the Community Services Block Grant. We urge congress to continue funding community services so that Montanans can keep doing what we’ve always done – take care of our own.
Ruth Burke is the executive director of the Human Resource Council.