After months of uncertainty, nonprofit leaders across Pennsylvania say they’re relieved the state budget is finally passed but frustrated it took so long.
For months, organizations like Family Promise Montco PA and the Victim Services Center of Montgomery County operated without stable funding, relying on extra donations, community partners and credit while waiting for state funds to be released.
“It means that there’s less uncertainty in the lives of our families, in the lives of us as nonprofit leaders,” said Marsha Eichelberger, executive director of Family Promise. She said her organization, which provides food and shelter for families, had run out of essentials like milk and eggs during the Pennsylvania state budget impasse.
At the Victim Services Center of Montgomery County, executive director Mary Onama said they had to exhaust their line of credit to keep serving clients.
“The people we are serving are victims of crime, child abuse, and their families,” she said. “We had to make sure that we did not have to reduce services.”
Advocates at WOAR, Philadelphia’s only rape crisis center, said the budget freeze held up more than 70% of their funding, forcing layoffs for 22 staff members. When CBS Philadelphia visited last month, many offices sat empty.
“Once we receive our funding, we will assess the services we’ll be able to resume,” said Laquisha Anthony, WOAR’s senior manager of advocacy. “We hope to bring back as many employees as possible, providing that they haven’t found other employment already.”
While leaders welcome the long-awaited funding, they say the drawn-out process caused deep harm.
“At the end of the day, it still took them 134 days, which is a long time to be without a budget,” Eichelberger said.
“It’s playing with people’s livelihoods,” Onama said, “people’s lives, their health and mental health.”
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