Shelters for kids, families need more help in pandemic, not less. City must restore funding.
Talk about kicking someone when they’re down.
But sadly, that’s what Mayor Linda Gorton’s recent budget proposal does to an array of social service agencies across Lexington, cutting funds to groups that care of our most vulnerable populations.
Lexington’s shelters and domestic violence agencies are dealing with the most extreme societal fallout from COVID-19 — lost incomes that lead to hunger and homelessness, quarantines that lead to more domestic violence and runaways.
Of course, everyone is in trouble because of an unexpected and unprecedented pandemic. COVID-19-related closures have decimated the city’s two main revenue sources: employee withholding or a tax on wages and a net profit tax, which is a tax on business profits. The city is dealing with a $9 million deficit for the rest of this year and $40 million in the fiscal year starting in July.
There are cuts inside and outside city government, from cuts of $12.6 million across city departments to slashing grants of $6 million to an array of outside agencies, such as Commerce Lexington and LexArts.
As reporter Beth Musgrave explained, $2.1 million of that $6 million cut for the extended social resources grant program, a competitive grant program which funds a host of social service agencies, including several key shelter programs. These include GreenHouse17, which serves domestic violence victims; Arbor Youth Services, which serves children; The Salvation Army of Central Kentucky, which serves women and children, and Community Action Council, which operates the only program that houses families in Central Kentucky.
“This is life or death,” Darlene Thomas, executive director of GreenHouse17, told Musgrave. “I don’t understand. We were deemed critical during the COVID-19 pandemic, we kept our doors open, but the budget does not reflect that or the value we bring to this community.”
The center serves women and children from Fayette and 16 other counties.
Gorton said she hoped some federal funding and philanthropic giving would make up the difference. But as we approach what could be a second Great Depression, people are worried about keeping jobs and feeding families. There won’t be sudden new waves of giving.
The mayor is in a terrible financial situation, but this is extremely short-sighted. Helping our most vulnerable now stops cycles of poverty; not helping makes those cycles, deeper, irrevocable and more expensive down the road.
Gorton’s chief of staff, Tyler Scott, said the budget still provided numerous programs, totaling $10 million to help people most in need of assistance, including more than 30 social workers.
“Extended Social Resource grants are something the City has been doing on top of its normal operation,” Scott said. “In the past seven years, the city has provided nearly $20 million in these grants. They are grants … something that has to be applied for every year. Something that is not guaranteed.”
It’s possible that Gorton, faced with terrible situations wherever she looked, decided to dump this into the lap of the Urban County Council, so they can make tough decisions, too. Certainly Vice-Mayor Steve Kay is not happy. “What I would like to assure the potential recipients is I am looking very seriously at restoring some or all of those funds,” he told me. It’s even possible council members need to look more seriously at the revenue side of things, an equally difficult undertaking.
To Gorton’s credit, she did not furlough or lay off any of the city’s 3,000 employees. We need every job we can get right now. But we also need every dollar for our most vulnerable and we need it shared equally. With more eyes on the budget, perhaps council members can find more creative ways to put together at least some of the $2 million. Out of a $372 million budget, surely we can find the money to help those who need it most.
