Hit by the grim realities of state and county budget crises, coordinators of social programs supporting the state’s most vulnerable residents are trying to keep their heads above water while reaching for a lifeline.

Within the Diocese of Sacramento, state cutbacks and local shortfalls have been devastating for Catholic social service agencies from Sacramento to Shasta counties.

Sacramento County is cutting more than $13 million from community-based programs which operate under the county’s Department of Human Assistance. Cheryl Davis, director of the department, which is looking at a $56 million budget deficit in the 2003-2004 fiscal year, said the severe cuts have made recent months “the most difficult time” she has faced in her job.

“We’re trying to save as much as we can,” she said, “but it’s been devastating.”

Funding for some programs, including those serving teen-agers and senior citizens hardest hit by cuts, Davis said, may receive some relief from one-time funding the county has available through refinancing debt for facilities.

In north Sacramento, Stanford Settlement, a neighborhood social service agency whose services primarily target seniors and youth, is faced with losing a $321,000 contract with the county, approximately 40 percent of its $800,000 annual budget.

“One of the things our board is trying to do is salvage some parts of all our programs so down the road if funding becomes available, we’ll have something to build on,” said Sister of Social Service Jeanne Felion, executive director of Stanford Settlement. “We’re just trying to hold on, keeping the doors open.”

To accomplish this, she said, the agency’s board of directors has elected to go into a $100,000 deficit for the next fiscal year.

“We have a very responsible board and they don’t like spending money we don’t have, but there was nothing else to do,” she said.

The agency’s teen center, which lost approximately $90,000 in contracts with Sacramento County, will go from being staffed by three full-time staff members to one part-time worker, and program hours will be cut from 30 to 20 hours a week starting July 1.

Amanda Rodriguez, a youth social worker at Stanford Settlement, said the teen center serves a vital function for young people in the north Sacramento and Natomas areas.

“It’s a place for teens to come to be with other teens, where they can learn to work together,” she said. “It’s important to meet and have things to do so they’re not outside the neighborhood doing stuff that’s not productive.”

Lucy Preciado, 16, has been spending time after school at the teen center for the past three years and has found support in tackling her homework and meeting new friends.

“Friends I’ve met here are people I’ve been waiting to meet,” said Preciado, who helps out with the center’s mentoring program for children. “It’s helping me get close to what I want to achieve in life.”

The agency’s popular senior center will be forced to cut two full-time staff and while it will remain open five days a week, it will now be closed in the afternoons. Sister Felion said seniors ask daily if they will lose programs like the brown-bag and potluck activities that provide their “nutrition, social life, and connection to reality.”

For seniors like Irene and Albert Korbe, the center is an important link to friends and social interaction.

“The transportation that the center provides is important because my husband has had heart surgery and can’t drive,” Irene Korbe said. “But people who don’t have enough food and don’t have heat and cooling will be missing more when they have to leave the center at 1:30 p.m.”

At the Cathedral Neighborhood Senior Center in downtown Sacramento, the loss of $84,769 in contract funding with Sacramento County has had an even more disastrous impact.

“We were already down to bare bones staff and can’t cut staff any further,” said Elizabeth White, associate director of social service ministry for the diocese.

Formerly named Camilla City Center, Cathedral Senior Center, a member agency of Catholic Charities of Sacramento, has been a gathering place since 1975 for elderly downtown residents otherwise alone in apartments or on the streets.

White said the difficult decision to terminate services at the senior center June 30 was made by the Catholic Charities board in consultation with Bishop William K. Weigand.

“There will be more people on the street between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, people who would have been at the center, and there will be seniors staying in their rooms,” said White, who explained that of the approximately 100 people visiting the center daily, an increasing number are homeless.

They are people like Cecile, 80, who asked that her last name be withheld. She said she has shed some tears and is “very disheartened” to learn that the senior center, which is like a second home, is closing.

“I’m concerned that we’re going to be left behind. I call it falling through the cracks,” said Cecile, who is more concerned about some of her friends at the center who don’t have cooking facilities in their apartments and will miss the hot coffee and snacks.

White said that plans are currently being made to provide transitional support as clients search for alternative services.

Blocks away at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, the parish’s St. Vincent de Paul Society chapter volunteers have already begun seeing a steady increase in people who stop by the rectory in need of assistance.

One St. Vincent de Paul program assists neighborhood people who come to the rectory for assistance. They are given bag lunches, Sacramento-area bus passes, and referral services. A second program targets parishioners with limited incomes who need assistance with such issues as paying medical bills or funeral expenses.

“We are making more and more lunches,” said Shannon Lahey, who coordinates both programs. “During the month of April, St. Vincent de Paul volunteers handed out 350 lunches, which increased to 400 lunches in May.”

Lahey said the ministry to people in need was begun by Father James Murphy, Cathedral rector, who saw the urgency of providing support services to help the poor.

“We have our hands full and need volunteers from all over Sacramento,” Lahey said. “We would love the help.”

At Catholic Social Service of Sacramento, more than $168,000 in state CalWORKS funding has been lost.

Kurt Chismark, executive director, said that the loss in revenue will necessitate the elimination of three members of the counseling staff. Other counseling programs, including the fee-for-service New Pathways program, which has seen a demand for service nearly double over the past year, will not be impacted.

Chismark said that losing approximately one third of his budget in CalWORKS funding puts tremendous pressure on the agency to locate replacement funding.

“Our fee base is so low compared to everybody else out there and there are so many people who are poor. The challenge is, how do you hire great people after losing a third of your revenue?” he said.

Vocational programs and services to the homeless and mentally ill are hit hardest at Northern Valley Catholic Social Service, which serves individuals and families in five Northern California counties.

Jan Maurer Watkins, executive director, said that the agency is now looking at least $1 million in government cutbacks, with Shasta County suffering the most in lost revenues.

“We live in a society that criminalizes the poor,” Maurer Watkins said. “Whenever resources are slim, their programs are the first to go.”

Chet Sunde, mental health program manager for the agency’s Intensive Lifted Off the Streets program, agrees.

“Our program is an outreach to identify the homeless with persistent mental illnesses,” said Sunde, who will be laying off seven staff members at the end of June. “Last year alone we identified hundreds of people who are fearful to go to a government agency...and may end up in jail or hospitalized instead of getting services they need.”

Aware of breaks in the safety net of social services available to people, Loaves & Fishes in Sacramento is gearing up its food services and intensifying requests for donations. Tim Brown, the charity’s executive director, has already noticed an increase in demand for food among the elderly and other vulnerable segments of the population.

“Higher numbers have been showing up since January, and we’re posting meal counts of 870 people a day,” said Brown, who explained that Loaves & Fishes has cut back on traditional second servings to meet demands that are reaching an all-time high. “People in downtown neighborhoods are really hit hard.”

Peter Berghuis, executive director of Sacramento Food Bank Services, said the agency has begun making contact with social service agencies threatened by cutbacks to assist with groceries and other services.

“We’ve got such a great network of companies and donors willing to give and may be able to connect donors to charities that are struggling,” he said. “Seniors referred to the Food Bank can come here once a month for groceries and other services. It’s a bleak situation, but the private sector is stepping up to the plate.”

Financial support to some social service agencies may be expected from the diocese following the Annual Catholic Appeal, formerly called the Diocesan Stewardship Appeal, which is planned for the weekend of Nov. 8.

Father Michael Kiernan, director of social service ministry for the diocese, views the appeal as an excellent opportunity to make a difference in the lives of people most in need.

“People need to make a super effort to provide resources that will offset the loss of funding by government agencies,” Father Kiernan said.

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