Boulder County service providers ask for community support as security approaches ‘tipping point’ – Boulder Daily Camera

Social service providers in Boulder County are sounding the alarm about the state of the local safety net, which continues to see a surge in demand for services amid deep cuts in state funding.

At a news conference in Lafayette on Thursday, leaders of the Boulder County Family Resource Network, a coalition of nonprofit organizations serving families throughout the county, called on community members to get involved and help support groups that provide safety net services such as rental assistance and food pantries. , health care and child care.

That’s according to Suzanne Crawford, CEO of Sister Carmen Community Center, a Lafayette-based nonprofit serving the east side.

“We’re all finding it harder and harder to keep up with the times,” she said.

The press conference came weeks after county commissioners announced a $4 million cut to the county’s competitive 2025 Community Partnership Grant program.

Commissioners said the cuts were necessary because local, state and federal funding sources, such as the American Rescue Plan Act and other COVID-19 relief stimulus programs, are drying up and there is now less money available for social services. But many social media providers that rely on this funding, such as All Roads—a former homeless shelter in Boulder—and the Association for Emergency Services for Families, were blindsided by the news.

At the conference, social networking providers from Boulder, Longmont, Lafayette, the Netherlands and beyond shared heartbreaking stories of families who needed their support but were left with no choice.

One family who moved to Boulder County in 2016 needed rent and food assistance when the father was laid off from his job and the mother was unable to work because she needed to stay home with the children. The family has nearly exhausted its savings to make ends meet, and the rental assistance provided by Carmen’s sister is about to run out.

A couple of single mothers from different families living in emergency housing could not afford new housing on their single income because the rent was so high, but their time in emergency housing was coming to an end and they had nowhere to go. One mother took her daughters to stay with family while they waited in line for a housing voucher, and another ended up having to send her U.S.-born daughter to live with family in Mexico.

Ana Karina Casas Ibarra, access and community development coordinator at El Centro AMISTAD, said her organization has health and mental health programs that help people develop better habits, but families are calling in distress because rents keep rising and they can no longer afford to buy food or keep their children in sports.

“How can we help people, how can we teach them to eat better and live healthier lives when they can’t even afford to buy food?” asked Casas Ibarra.

As state funding for social services dries up, hundreds of thousands of people in Colorado have also lost Medicaid coverage, straining the health care system. Simon Smith, president and CEO of Clinica Family Health and Wellness, said that from spring 2023 to spring 2024, everyone who secured Medicaid coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic had to re-enroll, a “complex and cumbersome” process.

As a result, compared to pre-pandemic, 5.9% more Clinica clients are now uninsured, and 8.2% fewer are covered by Medicaid. More than 70% of Clinica clients who lost Medicaid coverage now have no insurance at all. Clinica provides primary care, behavioral health and dental care in Adams, Boulder, Broomfield and Gilbert counties to at-risk and marginalized community members.

Smith said millions of dollars in funding cuts “forced extremely difficult choices and deep cuts.” Clinica had to abandon programs such as mother, baby and home visits, health clinics, homeless assistance and refugee screening. More than 15% of Clinica’s employees were also laid off.

Anne Tapp, executive director of the Progressive Alliance for Safehouse Nonviolence, said Thursday’s news conference was a “call to action” for the community to support organizations offering essential social safety net services. She encouraged community members to consider volunteering and donating to these groups, and suggested calling for legislation that would make it easier for families with disabilities and low incomes to “thrive in our communities.”

And Mark Cowell, executive director of the OUR Center, a family resource center in Longmont, ended the conference with a dire warning.

“What you heard this morning is really just the tip of the iceberg. The growing enormity of this crisis is becoming quite alarming. We see this every day, right now, and we are quickly approaching a critical point in our community where we need to act,” he said.

“We are committed to doing everything we can with the resources we have to build a stronger, more resilient community. But we can’t do it alone.”