Local agency takes over poverty services in Richland County

from the Mansfield News Journal

By LINDA MARTZ

MANSFIELD -- The state has appointed a 20-year-old nonprofit group to be Richland County's new low-income services provider.

The 20-year-old Central City Economic Development Council, which builds affordable housing for low-income county residents, will now run federally funded programs designed to help area residents escape poverty. The Ohio Department of Development decision means low-income services will again be administered by a local agency.

The CCEDC expects to handle about $180,000 in poverty block grant funding for the remainder of this year and $240,000 next year. The Home Energy Assistance Program, home weatherization improvements, job training, education and transportation programs will be affected.


"We will be collaborating, partnering with a number of social service groups in the community, to help eliminate poverty, slum and blight," CCEDC director Leonard Dillon said.

Ohio Heartland Community Action Agency Program in Marion provided low-income services after the Ohio Department of Aging and Department of Development halted funding to Mansfield-Richland-Morrow Total Operation Against Poverty. Both state agencies had concerns about cash flow problems and accounting procedures at MRM.

"It will be basic programs that community action agencies offer -- job skills, job training, education, and emergency services when families hit a crisis," CCEDC administrator Pattie Luckie said. "We have to be frugal with these dollars. We want to be good stewards of the money."

CCEDC is a member of the Richland County Homeless Coalition. It works closely with the North End Community Improvement Collaborative, Veteran Services, the Domestic Violence Shelter and other agencies, Luckie said.

The agency has also begun talks with the Area Agency on Aging, to see if it could be a designee for federal funding for senior citizens, which might get certain programs back up and running. Among the needs is a Mansfield-based senior center where retirees can meet and socialize. MRM's loss of senior funding resulted in the abrupt closing of the Friendship Center in downtown Mansfield at the close of 2005.

"Is there still a gap in services? Absolutely. We hope to fill some of that," Luckie said.

The Area Agency on Aging managed to keep some programs running, particularly medical programs and meals for shut-ins, CCEDC officials said.