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How has the great recession impacted the work of Catholic Charities in the archdiocese’s counties north of New York City? Karen Reynolds, Catholic Charities Community Services supervisor for Westchester and Putnam counties, has noted a foreboding change in the clients coming through the doors in her Yonkers office to ask for help. Many were once donors.
“We were hardest hit by layoffs,” she told CNY during a recent telephone interview. “We see everybody from lawyers to home makers, students, Wall Street executives.”
While the perception might be that the suburban communities that extend north from the city along the Hudson River are bastions of wealth and privilege, the truth is much more complex. There are urban areas and rural areas. There are itinerant farm workers and day laborers as well as struggling senior citizens, single moms and, more recently, growing numbers of the unemployed, both white and blue collar.
For many in the latter group, perhaps facing economic hardship and the need to reach out for assistance for the first time, the emotional and spiritual dimension of their predicament may be the most difficult to deal with. The possibility of eviction or foreclosure can exacerbate the situation. Regardless of religious affiliation Catholic Charities stands ready to help.
“The ongoing recession with continued high unemployment means that people are stretching whatever dollars they have to meet their basic needs,” explained Msgr. Kevin Sullivan, executive director of Catholic Charities. “We’re finding many people coming in need of help to meet the basics: food, sometimes utilities, they need help with paying those bills, they need help with paying the rent at times. There is a lot of frustration and a lot of people need support in order to take steps to move forward in their lives.”
To help Catholic Charities has sponsored a number of career coaching workshops throughout the Hudson Valley to show people how to tap into the unpublished job market, teach them networking strategies and techniques, hone their interviewing techniques and explore future career goals. Confidential individual sessions deal with emotional stress and family issues that often accompany unemployment. Msgr. Sullivan described it as taking the “holistic approach.”
But high unemployment is only one facet of the economic malaise. Another is under-employment and the growing numbers of what Msgr. Sullivan described as the “near poor,” both prevalent in the Hudson Valley.
“With the poverty level for a family of four at about $24,000, in many places in the Hudson Valley nobody can survive on that,” Msgr. Sullivan explained. “We’re seeing more and more working poor families than in the past.” For these families their needs can be as basic as the next meal on the table.
Catholic Community Services of Rockland County Inc. distributed 105,000 meals to more than 1,500 low-income households, including 6,052 adults, 5,888 elderly and 5,029 children in 2010. They also distributed some 2,000 pounds of fresh vegetables from their own “Community Garden of Love” with a team of 40-plus local volunteers organizing, packing and distributing food to the needy.
“The idea (for the community garden) was born out of the need to save money,” explained Martha Robles, executive director of Catholic Community Services of Rockland Inc., “plus people get fresh vegetables and quality, nutritious food. Our volunteers deserve all the credit.”
Next door, Dr. Dean Scher, executive director of Catholic Charities Community Services of Orange County, noted the changing demographic of those seeking help and explained that for the working poor and the unemployed blue or white collar worker, just figuring out where to go for help and how to navigate the social services system can be daunting. Catholic Charities give them help in figuring that out, too.
“We’re seeing a real shift,” he said. “This is a population of hard-working individuals that have spent their lives contributing. They don’t know where to turn.”
Msgr. Sullivan said, “This may be the first time in their lives that they have felt the need to turn to an organization like Catholic Charities. Because of that they may not be as familiar with some of the ways that you have to get help.”
One problem, especially in the more rural areas of the upper counties, is that there simply aren’t as many social service agencies and programs as in the city. “It varies greatly,” said Mary Ellen Ros, Catholic Charities director for Hudson Valley Services. “Some counties do a really good job. In some, resources are scarce. Our services are a safety net for people who fall through the cracks.”
Another is the distances one has to travel to access services.
“In the city, somebody can walk some place to get help. They can get on the bus or the subway,” Msgr. Sullivan said. “Those transportation possibilities don’t exist anywhere close to that amount in the suburbs and more rural areas. So transportation is a major, major issue.”
Of course, Catholic Charities is facing the same economic conditions as everyone else. At a time of growing need, the agencies that comprise Catholic Charities have to figure out themselves how to do more with less, how to take up the slack when government is less able or willing to provide services.
Meanwhile, in the midst of recession, the work of Catholic Charities continues apace. In Westchester County, through the Nutrition and Outreach Education Program, Catholic Charities Community Service caseworkers screened some 700 households for food stamps eligibility. Immigration attorneys and paralegals provided immigration legal service. CCCS provided consultation and technical assistance to four food pantries and one soup kitchen that provided some 600,000 meals. In Yonkers Catholic Charities continues to work with recent immigrants and day laborers.
In Orange County Catholic Charities Community Outreach’s Chemical Dependency clinics helped more than 1,800 individuals. The case management program provided $120,000 in support to 3,100 homeless and destitute individuals and families.
In Dutchess County Catholic Charities has done community organizing to get people to take advantage of low-income tax credits and Msgr. Sullivan said the formation of a formal Catholic Charities agency for Dutchess County is imminent within the next year.
In Ulster County a new community center is due to open in Kingston in the former St. Peter’s Church within the next year. It will have a food pantry, a daycare center, office space and a gym for CYO activities.
“I think it’s going to be here for a while,” Msgr. Sullivan said of the recession. “I don’t think it’s the new normal, but I believe demand will remain high. We’ve taken a number of steps to make sure that we can be responsive to the needs of the Hudson Valley.”
