The Boulder County Family Resource Network is sounding the alarm over mounting pressure on safety net services as demand rises, federal and state funding declines and local government budget constraints grow. On Oct. 31, FRN — a coalition of Boulder County nonprofits, school districts and local government leaders working together to support families — gathered in Lafayette to ask the community for help.
Nonprofit leaders compared this moment to other times when the Boulder County community rallied to bolster support services, such as during the Marshall Fire and the Covid pandemic.
“It’s a call to action: We need you again. This is one of those times, it’s just not as evident as the pandemic was,” said Marc Cowell, chair of the FRN Regional Council and executive director of Our Center, which provides safety net services to families in the St. Vrain School District. “We truly believe that we can somewhat keep up with this if we have the community support.”
“We’re sort of like the canaries in the coal mine,” said Simon Smith, president and CEO of Clinica Family Health. While nonprofit leaders say this is a moment of crisis, it is not as visible to community members as a fire or flood.
Boulder County recently notified nonprofits of plans to cut millions from safety net funding, citing reduced federal and state Covid stimulus funds and a budget deficit. The cuts will affect the Community Partnership Grant program, which awarded $12.3 million to nonprofits in 2024 but will allocate only $7.9 million next year — a 36% decrease. This reduction will impact nonprofits providing essential services, such as emergency shelter, mental health care and rental assistance.
These cuts have sparked concern — and in some cases, consternation — among Boulder City Councilmembers, who relied on county funding to support local safety net programs like All Roads, Boulder’s largest homeless shelter, and the Emergency Family Assistance Association (EFAA), which uses county grant funds to provide rental assistance at a time when eviction case filings are rising. Other cuts and changes include the county’s freeze on the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program, reductions in federal SNAP food benefits and renewals for Medicaid eligibility. Some FRN members anticipate the situation will worsen next year as Colorado works to balance its deficit.
Smith said that, beyond the loss of federal stimulus funds, Colorado’s TABOR law — which limits the amount of tax revenue the state can spend — further contributes to funding challenges. In both fiscal years 2021-22 and 2022-23, the state returned about $3.5 billion in excess revenue to taxpayers under TABOR requirements.
Several nonprofit leaders described a surge in demand for safety net services.
Tom Mahowald, board chair and treasurer of the Nederland Food Pantry and president of Peak to Peak Housing and Human Services, said that on Oct. 30 the food pantry ran out of milk for the first time in his memory. “When cuts happen at the scale they’re happening, it ripples through the entire supply chain,” he said. “Food we used to get at no cost, now we have to pay for.”
Suzanne Crawford of the Sister Carmen Community Center described a family that has not recovered since the father lost his well-paying job during the pandemic and may now face eviction despite their best efforts. Ana Karina Casas, community development coordinator for El Centro AMISTAD, shared the story of a mother who, unable to afford permanent housing, sent her U.S.-born daughter to live in Mexico when their emergency housing expired rather than have her live out of their car.
“All of the network has reached the limit where they can no longer accept new clients, or they have a waiting list,” she said.
“I’ve led Clinica as CEO for the past 11 years, and in all my years of work I’ve never experienced a period as challenging as the one we now face,” Smith said. From the spring of 2023 to 2024, everyone was required to re-enroll in Medicaid, which resulted in thousands of Clinica patients losing coverage. Of those who lost coverage, 70% are now uninsured, placing Clinica’s mix of Medicaid and uninsured patients at levels that haven’t been seen in nearly a decade, he added.
FRN is asking people to donate, volunteer and help spread awareness of the situation.
Correction: A previous version of this story reported that 70% of people who were on Medicaid are now uninsured. Of those who lost Medicaid coverage over the past year, 70% are now uninsured.
Given the plethora of NPAs in the county—and the likely redundancy of a lot of their administrative needs—such as reporting requirements and financial and legal transactions would it make sense to set up a central ‘basic’ service for all the smaller npos to use in handling those requirements? A one stop site for employee record keeping, including payroll and taxes? Perhaps even a core for fundraising records keepitngnand again, required reporting. Keep your fundraising independent.
Maybe tie in with CU or other schools which have NPO curricula and might want to offer students some hands on–supervised and mentored–real world exposure.
How about a centralized ‘business needs center’ with access to the common core admin needs so not each NPO has to pay for these needs on their own.
Think it could be a cost saver, especially for the smaller groups.
This is absolutely despicable. The Boulder I moved to years ago cared and supported all people of Boulder. It does seemed these short sighted people do not realized the catastrophic repercussions of these cuts . It will NOT be short termed. Even if they return funding next year there will be a huge ripple effect.
Who/what do I “pester”.? I am a retired social worker but can’t volunteer( had a stroke) but have fingers to write to them and call.
Donate where? Volunteer where?
Find your local family resource center, food pantry or basic needs assistance center and contribute time or money there. Sister Carmen, Emergency Family Assistance Assoc, OUR Center, Nederland Food Pantry, etc.
Philanthropy is the barometer of social injustice. Let the developer pay. LIHTC’s continue as the Feds. drop safety net services. Growth never pays it’s way. Then the localities have the audacity to beg for the public to foot their bill. Stop already.