Last year, the DeKalb City Council adopted a plan to reduce funding to human services organizations. With the fiscal year beginning on July 1, many organizations are just beginning to feel the effects of this plan, as well as funding cuts from the state.

“We’ve had to lay off staff members and restructure,” said Pam Wiseman, executive director at Safe Passage, 151 N Fourth St.

Wiseman said that in addition to losing many staff members, the funding decreases also brought a feeling of uncertainty, not only for the remaining staff, but for clients as well.

“The shelter in a neighboring county closed, but has since reopened,” Wiseman said. “It was very scary for clients who worried our shelter might close and weren’t sure where they’d go.”

Besides providing short and long-term housing for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, Safe Passage’s services also include counseling, crisis intervention and children’s services, as well as others.

The feeling of uncertainty also resonates with the Volunteer Action Center, 1606 Bethany Road, who provide transportation and Meals on Wheels services for senior citizens.

“We’ve lost a bit of local funding, about $25,000 that we’re certain of,” said Tom Zucker, executive director at Volunteer Action Center.

Assistant City Manager Rudy Espiritu said the original objective of the five year plan was to reduce funding to human services by $50,000 each year, eventually eliminating funding from the city altogether. Instead, the council decided to keep human service organizations on city funding and re-evaluate the plan the next fiscal year. Espiritu also stressed that human services weren’t the only organizations to receive funding cuts to make up for the recent economic situation.

“All city employees were asked to make wage adjustments,” Espiritu said. “All city employees.”
Both Wiseman and Zucker said the majority of funding cuts have come not from the city of DeKalb, but from the state.

“The state is in a fiscal crisis, so that’s where the majority of the funding cuts came from,” Wiseman said. “The council thinks it doesn’t matter [to cut funding to human services] because it’s not that much money, but for us that’s a half time position, and we’re already so lean, it just makes matters worse.”

Zucker confirmed that they were able to keep all client services and the Volunteer Action Center.
Wiseman said the same of Safe Passage, but added that if they receive more cuts, there will be nothing to do but begin making changes in services provided. For now she asks that the community be patient.

“We may not be as responsive as quickly as we have been in the past, but we hope that will be a short-term problem,” Wiseman said. “We’re going to do our best and we hope the community will be patient as we try to figure out the next steps.”

Zucker said that it’s good news the hear that the city is going to rethink the plan, but for now all they can do is wait on the state, who review the budget at the end of fall.

“There’s not much we can do but wait and react and try to be proactive.” Zucker said.

All comments are moderated before being published. We will not edit your comments, but we also will not approve those that are abusive, off-topic, attack another poster or contain information we know to be libelous or false.

During peak weekday viewing times, most comments will be reviewed within six hours. For more detailed information, click here.

After submitting your comment, check below for a confirmation message.

• Your name:
• Enter text from image:
  

• Your comment:

* 300-character count. HTML formatting will not display.