Matt Schickling, the Wire
Poverty should be fought locally — that’s the idea behind U.S. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick’s latest legislative effort.
“The real solutions are in local government,” he said. “I believe to my core that attacking poverty and providing economic opportunity begin at the local level.”
The congressman met with leaders of the Bucks County Opportunity Council and Community Action Development Commission of Montgomery County (CADCOM) to discuss The Community Economic Opportunity Act (HR 1655) on Monday in Doylestown.
The resolution would reauthorize the Community Service Block Grant (CSBG) program, which has not been done since 1998.
“The dollars have still been flowing,” Fitzpatrick said. “But it’s not guaranteed.”
The legislation would authorize CSBG funds until 2018, which is good news for organizations like the Bucks Opportunity Council and CADCOM, which rely on these funds to provide services for people in areas throughout Bucks and Montgomery counties.
In fact, they leverage each dollar received through CSBG into nearly $2.30 from other local and private funding and grant programs.
Annually, about $730 million is appropriated to these organizations by Congress. According to Fitzpatrick, this bill would secure $850 million.
This legislation also lays out rules for how states distribute this funding to local municipalities, which, in turn, cuts down on dollars wasted in administrative costs at the state and federal levels.
The bill has picked up about 40 cosponsors, which by legislative standards is solid support, and that number is split almost evenly by Democrats and Republicans. Fitzpatrick hopes he can reach 60 to 80 cosponsors before it comes to a vote.
“It will, I believe, become law,” he said.
Erin Lukoss, executive director for the Bucks County Opportunity Council, laid out some of the programs the organization uses to fight poverty locally, like the Economic Self-Sufficiency Program.
“We try to keep people moving along the continuum, but you have to want to,” Lukoss said. “The people who want to keep going are here.”
The program represents exactly the kind of locally-based solution Fitzpatrick is driving at. Workers assist people looking to gain education, skills and resources to find jobs and assistance with any other issues, like housing and sustaining life without welfare assistance.
According to BCOC figures, over 275 have permanently left poverty since the 1990s, thanks to this program.
Amy Moyer, of Quakertown, said this program helped stabilize her budget and get her education in the wake of an abusive marriage and years of working minimum wage jobs part-time with no benefits.
“I decided I needed to go to college so I wasn’t stuck in this endless cycle,” Moyer said. “I started the Self-Sufficiency program and it changed the course of my life.”
She eventually graduated the program and has since moved on to getting her college education and even earned her doctorate in educational leadership.
CADCOM, which serves Montgomery County, helps people in similar ways, whether it be with housing, food, starting a business and, generally, becoming financially stable.
These are two of 44 community action agencies throughout the state that, together, serve over 312,800 low-income families in Pennsylvania.
According to HR 1655 language, 90 percent of CSBG funding is placed under local direction, which aligns with what Fitzpatrick wants to do: fight poverty from the inside-out.
“Washington is not actually serving the client directly. Washington is not providing the self-sufficiency programs we heard about today,” Fitzpatrick said. “That’s what you do and that’s what we need to talk about.”
For information or assistance, visit www.bcoc.org or www.cadcom.org.
