Ellsworth ? A fraction of the $16 million cut from the state prison system’s budget is affecting a group that provides an affordable place to stay for people visiting inmates.

Ellsworth Family Connections Inc. is housed in a refurbished motel near the Ellsworth Correctional Facility. The nonprofit’s president, Rev. Philip Hoppe, said he recently learned it won’t be receiving the annual $11,000 in state funding.

That’s more than half the facility’s $20,000 budget that pays the insurance, property taxes, utilities and the salary of a part-time manager.

“We are looking for individuals, groups, or institutions who would be willing to make consistent monthly donations to the ministry. Only with their financial support will we be able to continue our work in the community,” Hoppe said.

Rooms are available on weekends at $15 for the first night and $10 for additional nights.

“It’s helpful to families who come in to visit who would otherwise have to pay the going retail rate for a motel,” Corrections Department spokesman Bill Miskell said.

The nine-room motel has been in the community for decades. It was first a commercial business, then in the 1970s, a group known as Outside Connections operated it privately, Hoppe said. But about seven years ago, that closed down and the motel fell into disrepair.

In the past five years, the community stepped in with different church groups and organizations volunteering to carpet and refurbish individual rooms.

Miskell said it’s a valuable program, but the state’s financial problems forced the department to make cuts.

“There is nothing on the list of cuts we wanted to do, but the steps we have taken thus far and continue to take are steps to reduce our budget by targeted levels,” he said.

The department has closed minimum-security prison units in Stockton, Osawatomie and Toronto. Last month, it shut down a housing unit at Winfield Correctional Facility.

Also, the department has canceled contracts for conservation camps for men and women in Oswego, day reporting centers in Wichita and Topeka, and community residential beds in Wichita, Topeka and Kansas City, Kan.