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Facing stiff federal budget cuts, the First State Community Action Agency (FSCAA) will have to close its doors and the thousands of people it helps will be left out in the cold, perhaps literally.
In the proposed 2006 federal budget, the funds for the Community Services Block Grants will be cut to zero. FSCAA uses those block grants as a base to apply for other federal money, so if the agency loses those grants, it will have to shut its doors.
Last year, First State helped more than 39,000 people, through programs that include counseling on how to buy a home, helping the elderly find employment, showing people how to start a business and providing a shelter for battered spouses, officials said.
“This would have a devastating effect on the people we serve,” said FSCAA Executive Director Bernice Edwards. “We use [CSBG] funding to leverage funding from other programs that help empower the poor. Right now, we have more than 20 programs.” In 2004, the agency received about $3.2 million from the federal grant program. They were able to take that money and generate an additional $3.4 million.
Community Services Block Grants are federal funds used to assist low-income people through local programs focusing on employment, education, better use of available income, housing, emergency assistance, and community involvement.
However, like many other federal block grant programs, community Services Block Grants have been targeted for cuts in the proposed 2006 budget. Administration officials say the programs lack clear standards to monitor how well they meet local needs and reduce poverty.
First State officials say the agency “has coordinated and focused existing programs to meet the needs of the poor, and where programs have been inadequate or did not exist, has worked to develop them.”
“Paramount to the concept of program development has been the involvement of the poor in the planning of projects designed for their benefit,” one First State documents says.
Edwards said that nearly all of the agency’s 20 programs help the poor. “Our goal is to help those people who want to be self sufficient and build better communities,” she said. “It seems as though the gap is widening between the haves and the have nots.”
State block grant administrator Maureen Tucker said Delaware’s congressional delegation is working to restore the funds to the budget, but there is no guarantee their efforts will work.
“The Senate wants to preserve the community services block grant but the House hasn’t made any formal declaration about that,” Tucker said. “It’s tough to say what is going to happen.”
The trouble began when the federal government did an audit of block grant programs to see if the grants are working. “They did a program review of a lot of federal programs and they said that the community services block grant did not show that it was making a significant impact on poverty,” Tucker said.
“Part of the problem was that community block grants are geared to local programming, so programs are different throughout the country. So it’s not like one program where all the activities are uniform and mandated and everyone is reporting in the same way. I guess that since not everyone is doing the same thing, I guess the national statistics were not very impressive.”
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