Calls for Food, Utility Help Nearly Double

The increases, even for a veteran of the social-services world like Marcia Di Trapani, were staggering: The number of people looking for help paying utility bills had nearly doubled since last year. Would the small Reston nonprofit agency be able to keep up with the growing number of requests?

"I haven't seen anything like this in 20 years. . . . It's the worst it's been," said Di Trapani, executive director of Herndon-Reston FISH (Friendly Instant Sympathetic Help). "And there are people coming to us who have never asked for assistance. Ever."

Di Trapani was among a group of representatives from Fairfax County nonprofit organizations gathering yesterday to discuss how they could help each other provide services to those in need in one of the country's wealthiest counties. The meeting was the second of its kind in two months.

The stories of hardship were familiar: families looking for shelter, families looking for food, families looking for help paying the rent. Agencies are seeing not only more people at their food pantries and employment centers, but also different types of clients: households with two working parents and families that considered themselves middle class. There was even a story about a pastor who was seeking help to stave off foreclosure on his home.

"We clearly are seeing something that we've never seen before," said Verdia Haywood, a deputy county executive in Fairfax. Calls from residents seeking emergency food assistance have increased 70 percent over the past two years. There has been a 69 percent increase in applications for food stamps and a 46 percent increase in requests for emergency rent assistance, he said. "We have to expect that this is going to continue," he added.

Much of the concern for nonprofit organizations is that their main sources of funding, including the county, are facing their own budget shortfalls. And the nation's financial crisis is squeezing the endowments of some area nonprofit organizations, which rely on those investments for capital projects and operating expenses.

Meanwhile, the federal takeover of Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae has alarmed the Washington region's nonprofit community. The embattled mortgage giants have long been among the area's biggest benefactors, and their troubles could mean cuts to or elimination of their charitable giving.

Indeed, there is already concern among some agencies that they might have to scale back programs and services because of the financial crisis. For instance, Annandale Christian Community for Action, which provides child care, food and rental assistance and other services to low-income families in the Baileys Crossroads area, might have to close its early childhood day-care center early next year because of declining funding.

"We're running a deficit of $200,000 in the child-development center, and we can't do that anymore," said Norman Hicks, the organization's president. "This could mean the last year for that program."