On Tuesday night, the Longmont City Council approved the allocation of funding for Human Services.
The city of Longmont Human Services Grant Program receives 3% of the General Fund revenue that funds services that assist low- to moderate-income residents in meeting their basic physical, social, economic and emotional well-being needs, according to city council communication. In 2024, that total comes to roughly $2.6 million.
The $2.6 million is divided into two categories: support safety net services and funding to address housing insecurity and adult homelessness. Safety net services were allocated 56% or $1,480,045. The remaining 44% or $1,168,001 of funding will help address housing insecurity and adult homelessness.
The placement of this funding is determined based on a community human services needs assessment that was conducted in 2020. It identified housing stability, food and nutrition, health and well-being, self-sufficiency and resilience, education and skill building and safety and justice as priority areas in the community.
The allocation process is determined by a formula to eliminate bias as much as possible, according to Eliberto Mendoza, spokesperson for human services.
This year the Human Services Department received applications from 48 agencies in the area to fund 58 programs. The total ask was roughly $2.5 million. The Human Services Department was able to provide some funding to 55 of those programs for 45 agencies.
“It was a very hard year for staff and the board as we struggled with all of these agencies that made it through (our application process). These agencies do wonderful work. It was a challenge to do the evaluations and to do scores, understanding that some that agencies were doing great work would lose some funding,” Mendoza said.
This year’s allocation of funding was broken up with 8% going to Safety and Justice, 18% for Housing Stability, 12% for Food and Nutrition, 20% for Health and Well-being, 26% for Education and Skill-building and 18% for Self-sufficiency and Resilience. Although Housing Stability is the department’s priority fewer agencies asked for funding in this area this year, Mendoza said.
The requests from the community increased this year. In 2023, the community requested $1.8 million. According to Christina Pacheco, spokesperson for Human Services, the department is not keeping up with requests from local nonprofits.
“We anticipated some of this dynamic, knowing what the economy has looked like, knowing the struggles our nonprofits have,” Pacheco said.
Although there is not enough funding, Pacheco said the department will assess where future funding can be allocated to make the biggest impact on the community.
