Snapshot Survey: The Personal Pain of Economic Disaster

Second Quarter 2009 Survey of Local Agencies

Forty Catholic Charities agencies responded to the recent snapshot survey. The survey asked local agencies, on the frontlines of providing social service during the current economic recession, to specify trends experienced in their agencies. Results demonstrate an increased demand for services from new populations coupled with a decrease in government funding and philanthropic donations.

Feeling the Stress: Mental Health Counseling is Strained

As the economy worsens, not only are more people stressed, but those who need mental health services may not be able to receive them. Our survey indicates that 32% of agencies are seeing an increase need for mental health services directly related to the economy. At the same time, the agencies have to scale down services, redeploy staff to other programs, and lay off employees.

Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas: “We are also diverting funding from counseling services and referring clients to other providers to free up resources for emergency assistance where requests are up 30%.”

Catholic Charities Diocese of Gary, IN: “We have realized a greater need to provide counseling services to more people, but there are no resources to held defray costs. We have applied for some grant money, but have been disappointed in the response.”

Catholic Charities of Idaho: “We have a greater number of working poor coming to our doors for basic need assistance (housing, food, utilities). We are also seeing an increase in counseling needs with stressors being experienced by new families and lack of health insurance due to unemployment.”

Coming To Our Doors

The continuing economic crisis has driven new and underserved populations to Catholic Charities agencies for services. Agencies identified alarmingly higher requests for services from specific populations in the first quarter:

90% of agencies - from the working poor
55% of agencies - from the homeless
50% of agencies - from middle class clients
78% of agencies - for families

Families continue to be especially impacted by the economic climate. Agencies reported increases in domestic violence issues, more interaction with Child protective services and increased enrollment in Medicaid, SCHIP, and SNAP(Food Stamps). The demand for services often outweighs the ability to respond.

Catholic Charities of Phoenix reports that its foster care and in home family services are the most strained as a result of the increase in clients. “In Home Family Services targeted to keeping Child Protective Services families together were virtually eliminated, result is more children into foster care.”

Catholic Charities of San Bernardino “Our agency provides services throughout a high need, low resource geographic area that covers two of the largest counties in the country. We are one the largest providers of social services in the two county…I shutter when I think about the number of families that cannot access our help because of our limited capacity to respond. There are few agencies that provide the basic needs assistance families need. Literally, if we can't help them, they have nowhere else to turn. Our phones ring constantly, voice mail boxes fill up, desperate families fill our lobbies doing whatever is possible to get some assistance. It's painful to know if only we had more capacity, we could be there for them. Hundreds of households make it through the net to get what they need, and many more thousands do not.”

Seeking Help

The economic crisis has driven new and underserved populations to Catholic Charities agencies for services.

Catholic Charities of Idaho reports, “We saw an increase in counseling service from 121 to 465 clients in one quarter. We saw an increase in case management from 590 to 1308.”

Agencies reported increases in demand for clothing, counseling and mental health services, food, foreclosure prevention, job training and placement, permanent housing, prescription assistance, rent or mortgage assistance, temporary housing, utilities assistance and emergency financial assistance.

The agencies noted the following:

88% reported requests for rent or mortgage assistance
80% reported increased requests for utilities assistance
60% reported a need for emergency financial assistance
75% reported increased requests for food
Catholic Charities of Santa Rosa reports that the need for food is up 100% this quarter.

Catholic Charities of Lake Charles “We are seeing more clients who are new to the world of social services. Many have been laid off from construction careers and have never been out of work for an extended period of time before. Coming to get a box of food, signing up for food stamps, and asking for help with rent is very painful for them. One of our volunteers quietly asked for help yesterday. He is very close to losing his house and has been off work for a year. There are no jobs in his field, and he is told by retail managers that he is over-qualified for their positions. The defeat in his eyes is very painful to see.”

Funding Crisis

This first quarter survey indicates that Catholic Charities agencies seek to do more with less. They must provide more services for new and preexisting populations with less funding. Agencies reported that funding resources have either remained at the already lowered 2008 levels or have continued to decrease in the second quarter of 2009.

Reporting agencies experienced the following decreases:

45% in state government funding
40% in local government funding
78% in investment income
52% in corporate donations

Catholic Charities of Phoenix: Our state funding for child welfare, housing, and domestic violence has dropped by $1.4 million during the quarter. We have laid off over 70 staff during the quarter, and continue mandatory salary reductions of 4% for direct service, 6% for professional, 8% for managers and 15% for executives.