Agency that assists poor in seven counties bracing for severe cuts

President Barack Obama said more than 7,000 words during his State of the Union address in January, but only 13 of them caused Keri McCrorey's heart to sink.

As the president discussed reductions in federal spending, he mentioned only one social program, saying that he proposed cuts to things he cares deeply about, like community action programs.

"I wasn't prepared for community action programs to be specifically mentioned," said McCrorey, East Missouri Action Agency's community services director. "After I heard that, I knew we'd be slated for cuts."

And even then, she had no idea how deeply they would go, leading to what she considers severe program eliminations and cutbacks and slashes to staffing and office hours for an agency that aims to assist the area's economically challenged.

The agency's community services department budget is about to be cut by more than half. While the budget has not been finalized, the state has directed the agency to move forward with cuts, McCrorey said.

The fiscal budget last year that funds its Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and Community Service Block Grant programs was $2.2 million, McCrorey said. The proposed budget for both programs for fiscal 2012 is slightly over $1 million.

Details are emerging about similar cuts among the more than 1,000 community action agencies across the nation that receive a share of $700 million in federal funding to assist low-income people with everything from job training to child care to utility assistance.

The East Missouri Action Agency offers programs in Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Perry, Iron, Madison, St. Francois and Ste. Genevieve counties.

The number of households served in Cape Girardeau County so far this year is 522, which contain 1,294 people. The department offered services to 103 children through its back-to-school fair, 131 families received free tax assistance and 436 families got emergency utility assistance. The agency referred 231 households to various services in the county and to services provided by the agency. About 1,800 households received service through the LIHEAP program.

That number will no doubt decrease next year.

"When you get to the bottom line, everybody wants to cut the poor," said Cape Girardeau resident Bill Holly, an agency board member for the past five years. "When I heard about these cuts, I said, 'Uh-oh, this is going to hurt.' And it will."

It's a small part of the agency's overall $17 million budget, most of which pays for programs such as Head Start, the Woman's Wellness Center and administers housing programs like Section 8.

But through the Community Service Block Grants, the community service department, McCrorey said, helps low-income families pay rent, utilities and buy food and medicine. It also offers programs and classes that help the area's poor better themselves educationally, learn life skills, live on a budget and how to conserve energy.

The programs aren't the only things being eliminated. So are some of the workers. As of Sept. 5, the agency's office hours on Linden Street will be reduced to three days a week, as opposed to five. Other county offices, which also used to be open five days a week for community outreach, are being cut down to one, including those in Perry, Bollinger and Ste Genevieve, she said.

While Head Start, the Woman's Wellness Center and the housing departments -- housing handles Section 8 applications -- will still be available five days a week, community outreach will be closed Wednesdays and Thursdays in Cape Girardeau.

That's because the cuts have caused staffing levels to be reduced, too, McCrorey said. As of October 2010, the department had 24 staff members for its outreach centers. Following the president's address in March, they laid off six staff and another eight will be out of a job at the end of the week, including one who worked at the Cape Girardeau office. Two positions went unfilled after employees found other jobs and now the total number of community service staff workers stands at eight.

Other programs that are disappearing include poverty simulations, back-to-school fairs, life skills budgeting classes and energy conservation classes, the community garden and the entrepreneurship program.

"But the biggest loss will be access," McCrorey said. "We find resources in the community to help with a lot of different areas. Anybody who comes in with a need, we try to find some way to help them with that need. With these cuts, we just aren't going to be able to do that as much."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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