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Local organizations warn southeast Ohio faces huge state and federal cuts to critical programs
By: Theo Peck-Suzuki | Report for America
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GLOUSTER, Ohio (WOUB/Report for America) — State and federal aid programs are a defining pillar of everyday life for thousands of southeast Ohioans. Now many of those programs are facing significant reductions, if not outright collapse.
Visitors packed into a meeting room at HAPCAP’s Glouster headquarters Friday for a presentation on the upcoming state and federal cuts.
Staff from HAPCAP and Integrated Services took turns outlining what is at stake for SNAP, federal food bank allotments, utility assistance programs, Medicaid, a statewide housing fund and the Head Start education program. Proposals at the state and federal level call for funding cuts at each of these programs, potentially shrinking services for thousands of families in southeast Ohio.
Here is an overview of each program discussed at the meeting facing state and federal cuts.
Food programs
Congress has proposed cutting $230 billion from SNAP over the next ten years, according to Southeast Ohio Foodbank Director Alicia Miklos. That would amount to a 20% reduction in services at a time when food insecurity remains at record levels.
In addition, there are proposals to require states to pay for a portion of SNAP benefits.
“This would fundamentally change the structure of the SNAP program and would in all likelihood erode benefits for many people facing hunger,” Miklos said.
Miklos said this will likely increase demand on food banks, which are facing funding cuts of their own.
In March, the Trump administration canceled $500 million of funding for the Emergency Food Assistance Program and the Commodity Credit Corporation. As a result, the Southeast Ohio Foodbank lost over 162,000 pounds of food that had already been marked for shipment. The Local Food Purchasing Assistance Program, which gives food banks funds to buy from local farmers, has also been sunset and will end June 30.
Miklos also expressed concern for Meals on Wheels. The program receives funding from Title 3 of the Older Americans Act, which the federal Department of Health and Human Services oversees.
“In late March, the current administration announced it was closing half of the HHS regional offices and laying off 10,000 plus employees. Then in mid-April, a budget proposal from the Office of Budget and Management was leaked that would cut about $40 billion from the department,” Miklos said.
That could make it harder for the department to administer grants. In addition, Miklos said the proposed cuts would eliminate other services Meals on Wheels recipients rely on, such as the falls prevention program.
Medicaid faces federal cuts that could trigger state cuts
Integrated Services Director of External Affairs Rose Frech said a combination of state and federal proposals could outright end Medicaid expansion in Ohio.
In Congress, legislators are floating cuts to Medicaid to help pay for a renewal of the 2017 tax breaks.
As it happens, the current proposal for Ohio’s upcoming budget would end Medicaid expansion in the state immediately if a federal funding reduction took place.
Ohio originally adopted Medicaid expansion in 2013. Frech said that gave 770,000 people insurance, halving the number of uninsured people in the state.
“Our internal analysis suggests that about 4,000 at least of the people that we serve are covered through expansion and would be at risk for losing their services (if expansion ended),” Frech said.
There is also a proposal to add work requirements to Medicaid. Frech said this would likely cause its own problems.
“These requirements often lead to people losing coverage, not because they are unwilling to work, but because there’s a whole lot of red tape involved with reporting your hours and getting the information to maintain your coverage,” Frech said.
“There’s an estimate about 3,000 people in Athens would be at risk to lose their coverage through the work requirement,” Frech said.
Frech noted that the lack of job opportunities in Athens and the surrounding counties would make it hard for people to meet the requirement. She also said ending the expansion would prevent people from accessing treatment for substance use disorder — a serious issue in many communities, including Glouster.
“We started to gradually see progress, right? We’re starting to gradually see things like overdose rates go down. And I think there’s a chance that a lot of that progress would be reversed,” Frech said.
That would likely place more pressure on hospitals and the criminal justice system, she added. It could also have serious economic consequences.
“If you look across this region and look at the top industry … in almost every county in our region, health care is either number one or number two on that list,” Frech said. “So our local hospitals, our mental health agencies, our SUD treatment providers — they stay afloat because of Medicaid reimbursement.”
Transportation
HAPCAP Transportation Director Carolyn Conley said there has not been much talk of federal cuts to transportation funding — yet. However, she stressed that rural areas like southeast Ohio are heavily dependent on federal dollars for public transit programs like HAPCAP’s. Any change at the federal level could have serious consequences.
Conley said there have been concerning signals.
“The secretary of transportation released a memo stating that federal transportation funds would be partially allocated based on state birth rates and marriage rates,” Conley said, drawing laughs from the crowd. “This is new. … We really don’t know how this is gonna play out.”
Housing
Integrated Services Chief Real Estate Officer Becky Eddy discussed a proposal in the state budget to reshape the Ohio Housing Trust Fund. The fund pools revenue from county recorder fees across the state, then redistributes that money to housing-related projects.
The fund also helps fill gaps left by other funding sources for affordable housing — a major obstacle in getting more affordable units built.
Under the Ohio House’s proposed budget, counties would no longer be required to send their recorder fees to the state. This, Eddy said, would severely hamstring the ability of less affluent, rural counties like Athens to fund housing-related efforts.
“I want to be clear, if I have not been already, that this would cause service disruption and uncertainty in the communities that we serve,” Eddy said.
Many of Integrated Service’s projects would not have been possible under the House’s proposal.
“If any one of those projects — including Carpenter Hall, Beasley Mill, Sheltering Arms — those all received funding from the Ohio Trust Fund, and any one got funding in excess of what Athens County would have been able to collect in any given year,” Eddy said.
She stressed that this is a budget-neutral move from the House.
“They are not saving money by changing this, they are not making more money by changing this,” Eddy said.
Utility assistance
HAPCAP Development Director Eva Bloom said her organization’s utility assistance program — which helps low-income households pay for things like heat and air conditioning — began receiving cuts under the Biden administration.
This forced HAPCAP to eliminate three positions.
“That has left us, quite frankly, with an inadequate amount of staff to meet the demand for assistance,” Bloom said.
The situation has not improved since. In January, the Ohio Department of Development shared changes to the formula for calculating benefits from the program. Bloom said these changes reduce benefits by about 50%.
On Apr. 1, the entire federal staff of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program was laid off.
“This sudden news had understandably caused alarm throughout the network of utility assistance providers, and it remains unclear how any additional funding award would be administered without staff,” Bloom said.
Pre-K education
Head Start provides early childhood education and support to low-income families. In addition to offering instruction, the program conducts health screenings, provides food and supports parents.
“There are regular parent support meetings that work on personal and family goal-setting and teach and encourage supportive, positive parenting techniques,” Bloom said.
On Apr. 1, five of the ten regional offices Head Start had around the U.S. were closed. Bloom said this has roughly doubled the time on getting reimbursements from two or three days to five. Communication with administrators has also slowed or stopped, complicating operations.
“We have also lost pre-approved funding that would have provided two new buses, two new vans, upgrades to three playgrounds (and) a kitchen rehabilitation,” Bloom said. “And that is all despite previously approved status, consistent follow-up, and assurance from administrators that the final administrative actions … would be made. But we have not received it, and we will likely not be able to.”
Bloom said the situation is putting immense strain on frontline staff.
“It is hard even in the best time to recruit and retain staff for our Head Start program. Now those staff are also worried about how long their jobs may exist,” Bloom said.
Visitors share their takeaways on state and federal cuts
Athens County Job and Family Services Executive Director Jean Demosky was blunt in her assessment of what state and federal cuts to Medicaid would mean here.
“Cuts to Medicaid would be catastrophic for a lot of people in our county,” she said. “If the Medicaid expansion cut the uninsured rate in Ohio in half — so now, you’re going to double the uninsured.”
Demosky said she’s also worried about what these state and federal cuts will mean for food insecurity.
Demosky said that the push toward work requirements is problematic in southeast Ohio, where there just aren’t many jobs.
“Would we love manufacturing in southeastern Ohio? Absolutely! Someone come build some manufacturing plants here. We’ll put people to work every single day,” Demosky said.
Local economic development experts have said building new factories here would require more housing — which may become harder with new restrictions on the Ohio Housing Trust Fund.
Amy Lipka, who coordinates the Age Friendly Athens County program at the city-county health department, said the changes are bigger than an individual program.
“It’s all a network of care and support,” Lipka said. “And so any one change has a ripple effect throughout the entire community.”
Or, as Demosky put it: “We’re bracing for impact.”