(Spirit Lake)– A 50 percent reduction in federal funding for the Community Service Block Grant being proposed by President Barack Obama has officials with Upper Des Moines Opportunity deeply concerned.
Laurie Ruuf heads up the Spirit Lake UDMO office. She told the Spirit Lake city council Tuesday the agency relies on that funding for some of its programs and most of its operations. She says UDMO receives more than $144,000 a year in CSBG funds to operate 12 outreach offices…including the one in Spirit Lake. Without that, she says the agency will be forced to reorganize, and in a worse case scenario, may even have to shut down altogether. She says that would put the burden of providing services on the shoulders of local governments.
Ruuf says in Spirit Lake alone, 917 individuals or 421 households received services from UDMO that were funded through the Community Service Block Grant program. She adds that more than 39 percent of the persons served in Spirit Lake by the agency are elderly and/or disabled.
Not only is UDMO faced with the 50 percent reduction in CSBG funding, but Ruuf says another part of the President’s proposal would make the remaining funds available on a competitive basis only, instead of continuing the current allocation formula. So she says the loss could even be greater.
Several area cities have adopted resolutions expressing support for a continuation of Block Grant funding at its current levels. But some are questioning just how effective the resolution will be. They fear they’ll be bombarded by requests from others who are threatened with similar cuts in funding. A motion at Tuesday’s Dickinson county board of supervisors meeting for the county to adopt such a resolution failed to pass due to the lack of a second.
