HUD funding cuts to hurt the most vulnerable
Opinion
By Francis E. Dolan
The Asbury Park (NJ) Press
Originally published April 17, 2005
"The essence of civilization is that the strong have a duty to protect the weak," President Bush said after being told that Terri Schiavo had died.
Every day, the staff members of Catholic Charities help people fighting for their lives, lives damaged and disabled by unemployment, homelessness, hunger, poverty and hopelessness. We shelter and assist the homeless and those at risk of foreclosure and/or eviction; we feed the hungry; we offer job-training and other skills to help individuals achieve self-sufficiency; we provide housing and employment to the chronically mentally ill, those whom society would prefer to ignore. We agree with and act on the president's claim that we have a moral duty to protect the weak and vulnerable.
But if, as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. observed, budgets are moral documents, then the proposed federal budget for 2006 demonstrates a failure to provide protection to the most vulnerable in our society.
At Catholic Charities, we rely on funding from Housing and Urban Development to provide life-sustaining services to more than 100,000 individuals and families in four counties: Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth and Ocean. These services include transitional and permanent housing for homeless mentally ill individuals; emergency shelter, counseling, housing placement and follow-up for domestic abuse victims; counseling for juvenile sex offenders; provision of basic needs assistance such as food, clothing, information and referral for low-income residents; transitional housing and housing counseling for individuals and families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
The current administration has proposed cuts to HUD programs that will directly affect some of the most vulnerable residents of central New Jersey. These cuts will jeopardize our ability to continue desperately-needed services, including:
- Housing for 53 mentally ill adults in Mercer and Burlington counties.
- Emergency shelter for 500 women and children damaged by domestic abuse in Burlington and Ocean counties.
- Shelter and assistance to move from welfare to work for 46 families with children in Mercer County.
- Emergency shelter for 550 individuals and families in Burlington County.
- Counseling to resolve homelessness or prevent eviction or foreclosure to 1,675 households in Burlington County.
- Emergency food packages to 4,200 households in Ocean County.
- Counseling to 180 families affected by child abuse and family violence in Mercer County.
The budget resolution for 2006-2010 proposed by the administration means New Jersey is poised to lose between $682 million to $845 million in low-income programs such as Medicaid, food stamps, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, adoption assistance, foster care and the Social Services Block Grant. This will have tragic consequences for the least among us, particularly at a time when agencies such as ours have received a significant increase in demand for services over the last two years.
In 2004, we provided emergency food to 14,053 families in central New Jersey, representing a 14 percent increase over 2003. Nearly 9,000 requests were made for assistance with homelessness prevention (payment for overdue rent, mortgage or utilities, and security deposits) in 2004. Sadly, we were able to help with only 867 of these requests.
More compelling than the numbers are the very real struggles that bring individuals to us each day. Their faces and stories, more than statistical charts and tables, compel us to advocate for their protection.
On one recent afternoon, our Emergency Services staff met:
Gina, who just moved to New Jersey from North Carolina. Her car broke down and she used all her money to fix it and finish traveling.
Lori, who is pregnant and working three jobs; two to afford her motel room and another to try and save for a security deposit for an apartment. She's hopeful she'll get one before the baby's born.
Tom, whose first unemployment check didn't cover the basics. He asked whether we help could him for a few days.
Brian, whose unemployment hadn't kicked in and he's run out of money. He doesn't qualify for public assistance as he receives survivor benefits for his kids. Brian's wife died last year and he's finally getting treatment for depression. Things are looking up.
Catholic Charities' mission — to alleviate human suffering and improve the quality of life of individuals and families — is inspired by Catholic Social Teaching, which informs us that "the norms of human dignity compel us to confront (poverty) with a sense of urgency. Dealing with poverty is not a luxury to which our nation can attend when it finds the time and resources. Rather, it is a moral imperative of the highest priority."
I am hopeful that our president and congressional representatives will find a way to achieve an economically sustainable budget without imposing cuts to programs that sustain and protect the weakest members of our society.
This is an issue of human dignity and a matter of life and death for so many who deserve a chance to fulfill their potential and achieve self-sufficiency.
Francis E. Dolan is executive director of
Catholic Charities, Diocese of Trenton.
http://www.catholiccharitiestrenton.org/main.html