Nonprofit social-service organizations struggle to meet spiking demand amidst federal cuts, the government shutdown and shrinking resources.
A caller who recently reached out to the Wyoming 211 help line had a stark message for the person on the other end of the line: If I pay my utility bill to avoid a disconnect, I’ll have to eat cat food this month.
Others in a desperate situation aren’t hiding their frustration about needing help at all — a cultural shame in Wyoming — or their stress navigating a perplexing, ever-changing and shrinking network of social services.
“Our call center has had — I don’t think I would use the word aggressive, but — more unpleasant interactions in the last month, really since probably July, than we have had in a long time,” Wyoming 211 Executive Director Ann Clement told WyoFile. The desperation, she added, “is palpable. It’s absolutely unbelievable.”
Wyoming’s most vulnerable, along with those who have been teetering on the edge, are feeling a culmination of pressures, from the high cost of living to cuts to the social-service safety net. Some cutbacks, like the suspension of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and low-income heating assistance due to the government shutdown, are presumably temporary.
Those pains are exacerbated by federal employee layoffs and furloughs, deep spending cuts, rising electric utility rates and increasingly inaccessible health care and rising health insurance costs, according to several front-line social-service workers who spoke to WyoFile.
The compounding hardships are happening as local nonprofits scramble to do more with less.
“It sucks so bad,” Gillette’s Council of Community Services Executive Director Mikel Scott said. The council’s own employees, as they scramble to meet a surge in needs, face skyrocketing health insurance premiums and the prospect of not having health insurance at all, she added. “You don’t know what’s going to happen next. You don’t know what money they’re going to take from you next. And it was never enough to begin with.”
Some federal programs that people have relied on for decades don’t seem to be functioning well, Scott added. The council was in line for a $177,000 Housing and Urban Development grant to provide rental assistance to those seeking refuge from domestic violence, but the agency reneged on the money, Scott said. She alleges the grant was denied based on changes to the council’s application that were edited by HUD itself.
“We lost $177,000 for our community that would have gone to help victims of domestic violence,” Scott said.
Both Scott and Clement noted that when families are stressed for basic needs, there’s typically an increase in abuse.
“That’s what starts to bubble over into other spaces that people don’t necessarily think about, when there’s a stressor at home,” Clement said.
Scrambling to help
Gov. Mark Gordon recently declared a public welfare emergency that will allow him to spend up to $10 million to help cover suspended SNAP benefits, while lawmakers have applied for $800 million in federal money to stabilize hospitals, bolster preventative health and grow the workforce.
Churches, neighbors and local businesses are stepping up to help, Clement and Scott say, but those efforts simply can’t match the level of federal government dollars and social service infrastructure necessary to meet even typical needs in rural Wyoming, let alone the surge in hardships Wyomingites are facing today and might face in coming months.
“We’re already pretty used to having to tell people ‘no’ or ‘we ran out’ or ‘we can’t help with that,’” Scott said. “It’s going to be worse when tons of people get kicked off of health insurance. I mean, forget actually lifting anyone out of poverty. At this point, the goal feels like trying to keep someone from becoming homeless, to keep them fed, trying to keep them from freezing to death in their home because they can’t pay their utilities.”
In addition to providing meals, there’s an emphasis among both government and nonprofits to keep people from losing their homes or apartments. Tenants can get evicted for not paying utilities, so help like rental assistance and the Low Income Energy Assistance Program go a long way to prevent homelessness, which is extremely unsafe and one of the most costly public health-and-safety challenges for any community to address, according to Scott.
“They’re either going into shelters or they’re going onto the street,” she said. “Either way, it’s costing a lot more money than if we just helped supplement a utility payment.”
LIEAP also helps qualified applicants weatherize their homes and fix heating units, which not only saves money but avoids dangerous attempts to stay warm.
“Our crews have seen very dangerous situations,” Scott said, “like people heating their home with a barbecue grill or just opening a gas oven.”
Food assistance
SNAP was suspended Nov. 1 due to the federal government shutdown, putting at risk more than 28,000 Wyomingites who rely on the program, according to Food Bank of Wyoming. Of those, 44% are children and 13% are people over age 65.
Food Bank of Wyoming has been working overtime to distribute the governor’s $10 million emergency aid while determining how to get the money to food pantries and those in need without using the federal SNAP infrastructure. The organization is “directing the funding in the form of credits to order food for free from Food Bank of Wyoming and in direct payments to keep money circulating in the local economy by allowing partners to purchase food from grocers in their community,” according to a Friday email update from Executive Director Danica Sveda.
Despite an efficient statewide network to collect and distribute food, there are challenges, including trying to replicate the scale of the federal SNAP program in Wyoming. SNAP, via direct distribution to individual recipients, injects about $5 million into Wyoming’s economy each month, according to Sveda.
“For every meal that a food bank can provide, SNAP provides nine,” Sveda wrote. “Even if SNAP benefits are reinstated this month, there is a chance people will not receive a full back-payment for November. This disruption in SNAP benefits is and will continue to be devastating for our neighbors facing hunger.”
The increase in demand at food centers and mobile food pantries is significant, Sveda told WyoFile in a Friday phone interview.
“What I’m hearing from all of our pantries is that they are seeing a lot of people that they have never seen before,” Sveda said. That’s because SNAP recipients typically take their SNAP debit card to the grocery store, she added. “So now they’re having to go to a food pantry for the first time.”
Sveda suspects that there are also a lot of federal workers who have been laid off and are relying on food pantries for the first time. “So we’ve been increasing the amount of food that we normally send out to our mobile pantries.”
Even when the SNAP program is restored, it’s unclear whether Congress will fully fund the program. Congress, in the Big Beautiful Bill, made several changes to the program, including expanded work-reporting requirements for young adults and requiring states to match a portion of the cost to manage the program.
To find a local food bank near you, go to the Food Bank of Wyoming website. Go to the same website to learn how to help.
Because there are so many different social service organizations in each Wyoming town, one of the best ways to find help or to learn how to help is to visit the Wyoming 211 website or dial 2-1-1. The call center can connect you to services and organizations in your community.
WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
