Comment Submitted by Michele Jarman, CNCS

Coming up with 25% matching funds is a very significant amount in the times of competitive grants AND communities are already tapped out due to the economy and the donations they already make to local churches, food pantries, etc. We are currently doing a school supply drive and can’t even get enough donations to help the children we already have signed up who need school supplies. ..so how will we get 25% of our matching funds if we can’t get a few notebooks and crayons? We have been providing services to homeless since 1997 with the help of HUD funding. Homeless count on being able to go to someone for help. This will also be putting our agency in harm’s way of liability issues with the leasing. In today’s society of people being lawsuit happy we will be spending more dollars defending what we do instead of providing the crucial services needed. Also how are tenants to become responsible if we are carrying the lease to their property…how do they take ownership when we are liable. We cover a huge geographically area of Nebraska and have very limited resources….we budget our funding well and do the most good we can with what we are given! Please take into consideration all of these facts! I firmly believe these changes will be detrimental to rural areas. Our rural areas are already struggling with the prices of fuel to commute 30+ miles one way to a job; fuel prices seem to never get as low as they do in the cities; food prices are higher…all things that are affecting our rural families already. And all of these things put huge burdens on families who use our services already. Offices struggle to keep food in the food pantry and other needs these families depend on us for and now you want to make it even more difficult for us to take care of those in need.