Delco homeless shelters prepare to reopen after state budget impasse stretched limits of regional nonprofits

For the first time in months, the director of the Community Action Agency of Delaware County, which operates three homeless shelters and a rental assistance program, isn’t thinking about service cuts.

The organization was forced to reduce capacity at one of its shelters to 50% in October and close the other two on Nov. 1 as a result of the state budget impasse. Delaware County, which had been backfilling for missing state dollars, had to cut the funds it delivered to social service organizations in half last month.

Now, the agency is beginning to reopen its doors and its rental assistance program.

“[Employees] have been busy kind of preparing for the residents to come back,” said Ed Coleman, the nonprofit’s executive director.

The Community Action Agency is one of several nonprofit organizations across the region that were stretched and stressed over the last several months as state dollars stopped flowing in the absence of a budget. Since January, they have grappled with uncertainty over federal funds as President Donald Trump’s administration cancels grants and Congress considers major cuts to social service programs.

The dynamics exposed the vulnerabilities facing philanthropic organizations while threatening the assistance they provide to those they serve.

Last week the Pennsylvania General Assembly finally passed a budget, ending one source of uncertainty. At the Community Action Agency, this meant employees began swapping out bedding and restocking toiletry bags given to incoming residents this week, undoing significant reductions in service.

By Wednesday, Wesley House Shelter, a facility for families and single women that Community Action manages, was able to take in a senior citizen whom a church had placed in a hotel amid the budget stalemate. A former resident who had to stay with a relative until the shelter could reopen also returned to the facility.

The promise of state funds could not have come soon enough.

Coleman said since Nov. 13, the agency received a little more than 250 rental assistance requests — including almost 80 on Tuesday alone.

The organization, Coleman said, is now assessing how much it can spend on services as it waits for state dollars to begin flowing again — which is expected to happen in the next 30 to 90 days as state agencies catch up on millions in missed payments to counties, schools, and nonprofits.

“We really don’t get paid very quickly with most of the contracts we have,” Coleman said.

The rebuilding mirrors what nonprofits across the Philly region are managing after the state budget impasse. Several nonprofit organizations told The Inquirer they had to freeze hiring and take out lines of debt. Nearly all reported burnout among staff as need increased and uncertainty over funding loomed large.

The federal government shutdown, which saw a pause in federal food subsidies, only exacerbated the problem.

“In many ways, it felt similar to the early months of COVID,” said Jennifer King, executive director of the Council of Southeast Pennsylvania.

The Bucks County Opportunity Council was forced to reduce the number of individuals it could provide rent assistance to.

And at A Woman’s Place, a domestic violence shelter in Montgomery County, more people were showing up at the shelter door, even if they weren’t domestic violence survivors, asking for help the shelter was not equipped to provide. Often, she said, staff did not even have an answer of where to send people because of the reduction in services across the board.

“That takes a toll on staff, and they start thinking, ‘Do I really want to do this work?’” said Beth Sturman, the shelter’s executive director.

Providers worried most about the impact the freeze had on those they served. Jill Whitcomb, president and CEO of Surrey Senior Services in Delaware County, said older adults are facing greater stress and anxiety as a result of state and federal services being rolled back.

“Our mission is to help people remain at home and independent and engaged as long as they possibly can or want to,” Whitcomb said. “That becomes really hard on a limited income when those incomes are already tenuous, and then they’re living with the anxiety about losing their Social Security.”

Jeannine Litski, president of Mental Health Partnerships, said the closure of shelters in the region resulted in greater trauma to unhoused people.

“Imagine you’re just holding on by a thread, and you have at least a place you can lay on a cot for the night and you have a little food, and now that’s taken away,” she said.

While philanthropic organizations were grateful for the state budget deal, they remained anxious about the possibility of another federal government shutdown at the end of January and questioned how much more they could take.

“We got through COVID. Let’s see if we can get through this,” Whitcomb said. “It’d be interesting to talk five years from now and see where everybody is.”

This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.