Double budget impasse forces SARC to operate on reserves

With 90% of its funding coming from state and federal grants, Lebanon’s Sexual Assault Resource and Counseling Center (SARCC) is facing uncertainty as the state budget is at a standstill and the federal government is shut down.

CEO Ali Perrotto explained in an interview with LebTown that the Pennsylvania Coalition to Advance Respect administers Act 44 funding through the state budget, and the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency administers federal Victims of Crime Act funding.

Perrotto added that VOCA funding, one of the largest funding sources for services for sexual assault survivors, is paid for out of restitution from criminals to the federal government, not taxpayer dollars.

This funding, Perrotto explained, is typically reimbursed to the center after contracted expenses, with state allocations distributed once a month and federal allocations distributed quarterly. Though SARCC has still been providing services throughout this year, she said, its last reimbursement was received July 1.

“Everybody who provides this work and works through SARCC does it because we care about it, we think it’s important that survivors have access to support, to counseling, to 24-hour response,” said Perrotto. “Nobody chooses experiencing sexual violence, but having choices about healing kind of restores some dignity to the process of it. So we’ve continued to provide all of our services consistently through this impasse, but we’re doing it at the expense of the agency.”

Since then, Perrotto said, the center has been funding services out of its reserves.

Even if funds are later reimbursed, she said, the center would still need to pay interest on any lines of credit opened, as well as deal with opportunity costs from delaying projects.

“It’s only a matter of time before that will be necessary, and then when and if we do tap into a line of credit, that means that any interest that is owed isn’t refundable through the grant funding that would ultimately be owed to us later,” she said.

This comes after what Perrotto described as a five-year stint of targeted and intentional advocacy, with around 500 Lebanon residents requesting SARCC services last year, a 15% increase from the previous year. Over 170 of those people were children.

The center is trying to keep its funding struggles from interfering with the care of those who use the services, who are already dealing with trauma and crises of their own. But employees, Perrotto said, are now absorbing not just the stress of their patients, but fears about their job stability.

“The burden of this is falling on agencies, but it’s really putting a significant tax on the providers in this area,” she said. “A person who works in crisis and works in trauma, they’re already absorbing a lot in terms of stories, and challenging emotions and difficult experiences and processing complex trauma, and now on top of that they have to worry about whether they’re gonna have a job next week.”

Many sexual assault resource centers across the state, she said, have taken drastic measures to deal with the pause on funding, including cutting staff, taking up a line of credit, or even closing their doors to the public.

“When you have reduced staff capacity, reduced time, it creates waiting lists or really difficult choices about who get served when survivors request or need services or support. We only got saved because we happened to put a little bit of money aside for a housing project,” said Perrotto.

“Even if tomorrow, both budgets are magically resolved, there’s still a 60- to 90-day waiting period between when the budget gets passed and when funds get dispersed, so we would still be looking at several months, potentially, without funding coming in, which is why a lot of sexual assault programs are really scrambling right now.”

The organization has been operating at 75% staff capacity, and uncertainty around the future have led to an increased turnover rate for employees. Increased turnover, she said, also means more training costs for SARCC.

The only reason SARCC has not opened a line of credit, Perrotto said, is that it had been saving funds to open up a housing project in Lebanon for survivors of sexual violence who struggle to leave abusive situations due to lack of affordable housing. The Healing at Home Project has already opened two sites in Schuylkill County, also served by SARCC.

To continue providing services including crisis counseling, support groups, and trauma therapy to survivors of sexual assault, SARCC has postponed this project. However, Perrotto said, if the impasse continues, it is only a matter of time until SARCC needs to open a line of credit.

This type of standstill on funding is unprecedented, she said, noting that the last time the center had a lapse in funding was the nine-month budget impasse during the Wolf administration in 2016. Though the organization continued to receive federal funding, it still struggled to purchase basic supplies, and ended up relying on a line of credit.

She said the uncertainty felt by SARCC is likely matched by other nonprofits that rely heavily on state and federal funding, although organizations relying on fundraising are less affected.

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Ten percent of SARCC’s budget comes from the United Way of Lebanon, which has continued to provide funding.

Perrotto implored state and federal representatives to work together to pass budgets.

“When I made phone calls this morning to the federal government representatives, the message I left was, ‘Please, work together, find some kind of bipartisan solution; this isn’t about politics, this is about people’s lives,'” said Perrotto. “That’s really what we’re afraid of, is not having access to victim services, not having access to mental health support, not having access to food or to shelter; this can have real impacts on people in our communities.”