photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World File Photo

The Douglas County Courthouse is pictured in September 2018.

Local social service organizations received encouraging words on Wednesday that they may get a significant amount of the $23 million in federal pandemic relief funding that has been awarded to Douglas County.

They also may be getting a new county-funded position that aims to better organize and coordinate the multitude of social programs that help with affordable housing, rent and utility assistance.

Douglas County commissioners on their third day of budget hearings reviewed funding requests from a variety of social service agencies for the 2022 budget. They didn’t approve funding for any of them. Commissioners aren’t scheduled to start making decisions about their 2022 budget until next week.

Further, only a handful of the social service funding requests are included in County Administrator Sarah Plinsky’s recommended budget, which normally would create multiple red flags for the organizations that rely on government funding to provide aid and assistance in the county.

Some of that concern, though, might be lessened by historic amounts of federal funding the county is receiving related to the American Rescue Plan Act, which is providing about $350 billion of funds to state and local governments in response to the pandemic.

“These ARPA funds can be fundamental game-changers in how we address human services in this community,” Plinsky told commissioners and a group of social service executives who were in the audience for Wednesday’s budget hearings. “There is no question about that. I just want to be deliberate in how we do it.”

The federal funding can be spent over a period of two years, and Plinsky has said the county will develop a process for applications and allocations shortly after the 2022 budget is approved in August.

But the county may use some local dollars to help establish a new social service coordinator position that would be a county employee. The idea is a new one that currently is in Plinsky’s recommended budget. The project calls for about $142,000 in county funding to create the Douglas County Human Services Navigation and Assistance Program.

The new employee would work to organize and coordinate social service programs, with a particular emphasis on rent and utility assistance programs in the county.

Plinsky said rent and utility assistance programs locally had “pitiful funding” prior to the pandemic and the federal CARES Act funds that followed. Those programs have received better funding since, and she said it is important for the community to figure out how to maximize those dollars and keep assistance programs operating efficiently long after the pandemic is over.

“What the CARES Act showed us is that when you make investments in that area, you can save lives,” Plinsky said. “I’m really looking forward to continuing that work with ARPA.”

County commissioners on Wednesday made no promises to social service agencies about receiving ARPA funds or how much they may receive. But officials did tout the possibilities.

“I think ARPA funds provide a tremendous opportunity to address some of this,” Plinsky said.

But she also warned that there are limits to what the federal funds can do because they will only last for two years. Social service agencies will need to be strategic in how they use the funds, she said.

“We have to be cautious,” Plinsky said. “If this goes to pay base operations to keep the lights on, these funds will run out in 2024, and I don’t think the county will be able to pick up the mantle of $23 million in spending.”

For those reasons, many social service agencies may prefer to receive local dollars from the county, which may be more flexible in how they can be spent, and could be requested year after year. On that front, the county received far more requests from social service agencies than Plinsky said she can recommend to fund.

Here’s a look at some of the social service organizations that have requested new or additional funding through the county:

• Artists Helping the Homeless: $62,000 for additional housing space to accommodate homeless individuals.

• Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center: $690,000 for increased funding for charitable care, cost-of-living raises for WRAP mental health workers, increased homeless services data collection and a new mobile access team.

• DCCCA: $100,000 for increased assistance for the Douglas County Drug Court and diversion program, drug and alcohol abuse prevention funding, and increased capacity to provide drug and alcohol treatment to uninsured men.

• Douglas County CASA: $30,000 to help hire a new recruiter and trainer for people who want to volunteer with the court-appointed advocate program.

• Heartland Community Health Center: $27,000 to help provide assistance hiring a registered nurse, a medical assistant and a primary care provider.

• Heartland RADAC: $223,000 to hire a recovery coach and a supervisor related to drug and alcohol treatment.

• Just Food: $25,000 to provide additional operational support to the food bank.

• Kansas Suicide Prevention Headquarters: $326,000 to provide funding for a mobile crisis call center.

• Lawrence Community Shelter: $86,000 to help restore capacity to the homeless shelter.

• Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health: $39,000 to help fund a health equity planner position.

• The Children’s Shelter: $20,000 to help families receiving specialized case management services.

• Trinity In Home Care: $30,000 to help offset losses due to low Medicaid reimbursement rates.

• Ballard Center: $41,000 to fund staffing and program expenses that previously were done by an unpaid intern.

• Kansas Holistic Defenders: $425,000 to establish a new public defender office that would provide legal counsel to defendants who are charged with misdemeanor crimes and are unable to afford an attorney on their own.

• Tenants to Homeowners: $50,000 to extend affordable housing opportunities outside the city limits of Lawrence.

• The Willow: $50,000 to provide operational support to the center that serves victims of domestic abuse.

• United Way of Douglas County: $48,000 to support a Eudora Resource Center employee.

• The STA Care Center: $25,000 to support operations at the sexual trauma and abuse care center in Lawrence.