[US] NSCAP would take cut under Bush budget

from Salem News Online

By Ben Casselman
Staff writer

PEABODY — North Shore Community Action Programs would lose a key source of federal funding under the budget submitted by President Bush last month.

The president's budget would eliminate the Community Service Block Grant program, which provides the anti-poverty agency with more than $300,000 a year.

That money — just under 6 percent of a $5.7 million budget — may not sound like much, but NSCAP Executive Director Elizabeth Hogan said the agency depends on it.

"That's the glue that holds the agency together," Hogan said. "We use that money directly to support programs that otherwise we wouldn't be able to fund."

Those programs include adult education, transition to work services and, perhaps most importantly, the advocacy work that is the core of NSCAP's mission. These are programs, Hogan said, that can be the difference between poverty and homelessness.

"Without programs like ours," Hogan said, "the number of people and the number of families living in dire poverty will just expand to an enormous extent."

Hogan said the cut isn't just bad social policy, it's bad fiscal policy as well. North Shore residents who depend on NSCAP for help with their rent, heating or health bills could end up costing taxpayers more if they can't find help.

"If someone comes in to us, we keep heat in their house," she said. "What happens if there's no heat? People could potentially freeze to death."

The agency, created in 1965, is based in Peabody and serves cities and towns throughout the North Shore.

NSCAP has enlisted the help of Congressman John Tierney, D-Salem, who is lobbying House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, R-Iowa, to reverse the cut. Tierney co-authored a letter, signed by 140 of his colleagues, defending the program. Nationwide, the federal government provided $603 million in Community Service Block Grants last year, including more than $15 million to agencies in Massachusetts.

"It's critical," Tierney said. "A growing number of families take advantage of at least some of the services these agencies provide. ... It's really a sad day when the federal government no longer sees its responsibility to communities."

Tierney described the cut as part of an effort to appear tough on spending by eliminating social programs that make up a tiny fraction of the federal budget. But he said he is optimistic about getting this particular cut reversed; a bipartisan group of legislators signed the letter supporting the program, which supports agencies in Democratic and Republican districts alike.

"I think we can rally some support to save it," Tierney said. "Whether we'll get all of the money we're looking at, that remains to be seen."

For her part, Hogan is trying to remain upbeat.

"We know that this is a first step in a longer, more protracted fight," Hogan said. "We're deeply, deeply concerned, and I think now our role is to educate people about the vital services we provide."