March 28, 2024
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Federal funding cuts hurt United Way

PRESQUE ISLE – A 30 percent cut in federal funds slated for the United Way of Aroostook will mean less money to area food and shelter programs in 2002.

In 2001, federal funds to the regional United Way program equaled $47,357 to supplement emergency food and shelter programs in The County. That has been cut to $33,372 for 2002.

Claudia Stevens, director of the United Way based in Presque Isle, said the federal funding is based on a formula that uses the region’s unemployment rate for September to calculate funding rates.

“What’s really hurt us is the unemployment rate,” she said last Friday. “It’s at an all-time low.”

She recalled that in 1993, the United Way received more than $68,000 from the federal government. At that time, the unemployment rate for September in the Presque Isle-Caribou area was almost 12 percent, according to state figures.

According to the Maine Department of Labor, the unemployment rate for Aroostook County in September 2001 was 2.8 percent.

“Because of that, we’ve had a major hit,” Stevens said.

She expressed concern that the federal funding formula does not take into consideration the most needy people, the children and the elderly.

United Way of Aroostook uses the federal funds to assist 10 area agencies that operate soup kitchens, homeless shelters and to provide some limited assistance to help people pay rents, electricity or heating fuel bills.

Stevens estimated that 40 percent of the funds went to the Sister Mary O’Donnell Shelter in Presque Isle and the Battered Women’s Project, which operates shelters at three sites in Aroostook County.

For Gloria Lagassie, administrator for the Sister Mary O’Donnell Shelter, getting more cuts in funding is not good news. She said the shelter uses the federal funds administered by the United Way to pay salaries, and that allows the shelter to stay open 24 hours a day.

Lagassie said the shelter has had to deal with funding problems before and has managed to find extra funding elsewhere.

Between 50 percent and 60 percent of the shelter’s funding comes from private-sector donations. But after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, those donations were down for September and October.

Donations have started to pick up again, but they’re still not at the levels they were before the attacks.

Lagassie said that if the lost funds cannot be made up somewhere else, the shelter might have to cut back on hours.

“I’m going to have to close our doors during the day,” she said. “I’m not comfortable with having to tell people they have to leave for the day.”

She said that on average, 15 to 20 people use the Sister Mary O’Donnell Shelter daily.

Because of the harshness of Aroostook County’s winter weather, Lagassie said she was most concerned for children and families that use the shelter.

Without the shelter during the day, those people usually hang out at the Aroostook Centre Mall or the Presque Isle Library.

A local board composed of the United Way and representatives from other nonprofit charitable organizations that do not receive the federal funds will determine the exact level of funding to organizations in Aroostook County

“This year, it’s going to be very difficult,” said Stevens. “Some of those groups will take a pretty big hit.”


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