Nonprofit agencies in Schuylkill County are in a bind due to budget stalemates at both the state and federal levels, having to work with reduced staffs, borrowing money to operate, cutting or delaying programs, and worrying how much longer they can keep providing services.

Things will only get tougher as those impasses drag on, nonprofit officials said, and concerns are growing with no end to either deadlock in sight.

The funding difficulties are coming at a time when many nonprofits are seeing higher demand for their services than ever, in part because of inflation and cuts to federal funding, officials said.

The last Pennsylvania budget expired on June 30, meaning state reimbursements to nonprofits have been on hold for more than 100 days. The federal budget stalemate is about two weeks in, and federal reimbursements will soon also be withheld if that situation is not resolved.

The nonprofit Sexual Assault Resource and Counseling Center serving Schuylkill and Lebanon counties — known as SARCC —  receives almost 90 percent of its funding from the state and federal levels, CEO Ali Perrotto said.

SARCC counsels, supports and advocates for sexual assault survivors and educates students and the community about sexual violence and prevention. It should have a staff of 12 to serve both counties, but now has just nine workers, as it cannot afford to fill three vacant positions.

Its 24-7 phone hotline remains open and other supports are still available, but that’s getting more difficult, Perrotto said.

“We’re being hit with a full double whammy,” she said.

In other parts of the Pennsylvania, similar organizations have been forced to cut back on services, including the hours of their hotlines.

“The whole system of sexual assault response is crumbling,” she said.

The budget issues are delaying some of SARCC’s new programs — holding up its housing program for survivors, for instance — and placing a burden on the remaining staff, but most operations continue, she said.

“The staff here is dedicated and passionate about their work, so we’re still up and running,” she said. “It’s important that the community know that.”

Child Development Inc., a Schuylkill nonprofit operating preschool child care programs for more than 250 children at sites across the county, is also overdue for state funding to its Head Start and Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts programs, said director Mary Ann Devlin.

The organization is taking out lines of credit to keep each program going in the county, but its state grants don’t cover interest on loans, so it will be forced to absorb any borrowing costs, she said.

Federal funding for Child Development runs through October, but if the federal impasse is not solved by then, that too will soon become a problem for the organization, she said.

Child Development’s goal is to insulate the families it serves from its funding difficulties, she said, since so many rely on their services.

“We don’t want them to be impacted,” Devlin said. “We will weather through this the best we can to stay open.”

Helping Harvest Fresh Food Bank will stop handing out food to about a dozen of its Schuylkill County pantry and mobile market sites beginning in November due to cuts in its federal funding and the Pennsylvania state budget deadlock, officials there said recently.

That lack of funding is forcing the nonprofit to reduce distribution sites at a time when the need for food is higher than ever, in part due to reductions in federal food stamp allocations to clients, said Jay Worrall, Helping Harvest president.

“We have more demand and less food,” he said. “We truly wish this change was not necessary, but our hand has been forced.”

Worrall also chairs Feeding Pennsylvania, and said that the same problems are occurring statewide.

In September, a coalition of Pennsylvania nonprofit, for-profit and county organizations sent a letter to Gov. Josh Shapiro and the Pennsylvania General Assembly relaying its concerns about the ongoing state budget impasse.

“A recent survey of our partners, as well as anecdotes from the field, clearly demonstrate that the lack of action to enact a state budget means our communities are hurting, critical services are shutting down, and Pennsylvanians’ quality of life is impacted,” it said.

“Our coalition surveyed organizations representing all 67 counties in Pennsylvania, and everyone has the same concern. Our services cannot continue without a state budget, and our community members are in danger.

The effects of a late state budget will worsen significantly in October, it said, with organizations forced to enact staff layoffs, service curtailments and expensive borrowing.

“Providers of life-sustaining and workforce-enabling services across the commonwealth are unable to access the funding they need to deliver critical support such as older adult care and meals, early childhood education, mental health services, housing assistance, food support, child protection services and protections for survivors of domestic violence,” the letter said.

Eighty percent of the responding agencies reported that they would run out of contingency funds in October, with some already shutting their doors, laying off or furloughing staff members, and taking out high-interest loans that will impact their financial stability in the future.

Nonprofits account for 15.7 percent of private sector jobs in Pennsylvania, it said, and generate $67.4 billion in annual earnings, showing the impact that their struggles have on the overall job market and economy.

“The longer the impasse drags on, the more it will exacerbate the financial insecurity of your constituents,” the letter said. “The longer this continues, the deeper the damage will become.”