Press Release: January 14, 2009

The 28-page report is the result of a two-month study of the effects of the steep economic downturn in Pennsylvania and Ohio, where nonprofit organizations are struggling to meet a surge in demand for human services support from families and individuals, many of whom are seeking charitable help for the first time.

In its findings, the report says that $3.3 billion in supplemental funding is needed by the two states for 2009 and 2010, of which $1.61 billion in Pennsylvania and $1.69 billion in Ohio would be directed to public agencies and community-based nonprofits to enable them to adequately respond to the increased demand for basic safety net services by new users.

The figure includes approximately $80.3 million in Pennsylvania and $84.6 million in Ohio that the report says is needed to support local community-based nonprofit organizations, such as food banks and transportation assistance agencies.

The Pittsburgh Foundation began work on the report with Pittsburgh consulting firm, Dewey & Kaye following a meeting of the local region’s nonprofits in November last year. The study was extended to include input from other key community foundations in Pennsylvania and Ohio to provide a ‘real time snapshot’ of the plight of communities which are in close proximity and which share similar social and economic demographics.

The report details a significant upsurge in demand for basic needs assistance since 2007, especially in the areas of food, housing, utilities, transportation and childcare.

Food banks reported escalating first-time users of their services with increases of between nine percent and 46 percent across the five city regions.

Calls for mortgage assistance to avoid foreclosures rose by 50 percent, requests for help with utility payments spiked between 25 percent and 75 percent and in Pennsylvania, the waiting list for child care subsidy is up 100 percent. Increased calls for transportation assistance ranged between 38 percent and 70 percent across the five communities.

Communities, often led by their community foundations, were attempting to address the hardship, says the report, which adds: "Unfortunately, the gap is growing faster than we can possibly address on our own. Our service providers are staggering under the weight of new demands and a pre-existing decline in funding.

"It is imperative that Congress and the new Administration consider the unique challenges our communities face when considering how best to address the impact of this downturn on real people in real American communities."

The authors of the report said that they hoped their initiative will ensure that Federal policymakers are better informed about the critical situation facing communities in Pennsylvania and Ohio, "ultimately leading to increased financial relief to urban areas in our corridor and in similar communities across the country."

The report states: "Even as policymakers devise strategies to put the country back to work, America must remember the millions of its citizens in communities just like ours who are struggling right now to feed their children, stay in their homes, find affordable transportation to get to work, and literally to keep the lights on."

The call for $3.3 billion in additional funding includes between $6.6 million and $38 million for 2009/2010 for each of the five urban communities, based on their number of unemployed individuals.