“It’s the unknown,” the ElderSource CEO describes the feeling of working with federal funds and senior programs right now.
ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — With thousands of people who worked under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services being laid off, some local organizations that rely upon federal funding are wondering if they will see an impact.
This includes senior services such as Meals on Wheels, senior centers and programs for senior health.
At the Council on Aging senior center in St. Augustine, healthy meals are served every weekday.
“We have about 400 local seniors who count on that funding for their daily meal,” Becky Yanni said. She runs the St. Johns County Council on Aging. Through this center, seniors receive healthy food on-site or through Meals on Wheels, engage in social interaction and even receive transportation help.
The Council on Aging gets federal funding from Elder Source in Jacksonville, which distributes the money from the feds to seven counties in Northeast Florida.
Elder Source CEO Linda Levin was in DC last week, urging Congressmen Bean and Rutherford to continue funding senior services. Levin said she has learned services will still be funded, but the cuts are to administrative staff at regional offices.
“If you lose 50% of your staff, how do the dollars get to the people who need to deliver the services (such as Elder Source and Council on Aging)? And that’s the question we all have,” Levin said. “We don’t know. I don’t know what the impact of receiving the funding will be.”
Meanwhile, other organizations such as Pie in the Sky in St. Johns County are preparing for a possible flood of clients who could be left in the cold if funding is delayed or reduced to Council on Aging. Pie in the Sky works without federal funding, delivering fresh food to seniors in need.
When asked if Pie in the Sky has the funding and the resources to take on more clients, Executive Director Malea Guiriba told First Coast News, “We don’t, but we also have a policy of not saying no, so we would have to find it. So, I mean, it would definitely hit our budget in a way that we wouldn’t have anticipated.”
Leven noted, “It’s so much more cost effective for the government — AKA taxpayers — to support these programs and services than it would be to let these folks get more frail, more sick, and end up in the hospital with those costs or nursing homes with those costs.”
And so, while the federal government aims to save money, these women in Northeast Florida are still trying to navigate the unknown. That’s what Levin called it. “It’s the unknown.”
However, the known is: there are seniors who need help.
Yanni in St. Augustine said, “There is a lot of need.”
In full transparency, Jessica Clark is on the board of directors for Pie in the Sky.
