Impacts of the economic recession continue to spread among children and families in Fremont County. With unprecedented demand for food stamp assistance and applications for Temporary Assistance to Families (TANF) at the Fremont County Department of Human Services the Board of Commissioners has announced that there are no more dollars for TANF Community Grants for the 2011-2012 fiscal year. In past years, depending on the amount of money available in TANF reserves, the Board of Commissioners has awarded TANF Community Grants to qualifying agencies such as Loaves and Fishes, Manna House, Rocky Mountain Behavioral Health, Colorado CASA, Developmental Opportunities, the ‘WIC’ program, Project Echo, Teen Court, and several others.
For the current year which runs through the end of June the Commissioners in 2010 awarded TANF agency grants totaling more than $577,000. But demand by individual families for assistance has left the TANF reserves nearly depleted. Human Services Department Director Steve Clifton said in 2008 the TANF caseload had dipped to 144 cases per month. Since then caseloads have steadily climbed to a current level of 227 cases per month. TANF client benefits have increased by 469 percent from an average of $23,855 a month in 2008 to a current monthly average of $135,748. The need to spend TANF dollars on clients’ benefits has exhausted the reserve funds.
Human Services Finance Director Linda Smith said at the current rate of benefits distribution it’s estimated that the TANF fund will close out the fiscal year at the end of June with $122,000 in reserves.
County Commission Chairman Ed Norden said the board has become very familiar with the needs of families and children through the TANF grant application reviews in recent years. He said those needs won’t go away and the agencies that are losing funding should work to put a face on the social impacts of the people in the community who will be hurt by the loss of those grants. He said now more than ever perhaps citizens will consider donations to help those agencies deal with the loss of the TANF grants.