Centerstone's crisis and information call center is on the front line for Louisville residents in crisis, almost like a police, fire and EMS service for mental health, its director said.

And much like those city emergency services, the nonprofit call center is expected to feel the pain of funding cuts this budget cycle that could put the safety and well-being of people in need on the line.

"The rates of suicide have been increasing tremendously, at the same time as resources for help are decreasing," director Geneva Robinson told the Courier Journal. "That's a recipe for disaster."

For years, the call center has relied on roughly $100,000 from Louisville Metro for employees tasked with answering and helping callers experiencing crises such as suicidal thoughts. It answered 60,000 calls last year alone — and it could've taken more if its capacity were larger, Robinson said.

But as spending is slashed to help cover a $35 million shortfall, made necessary in part by a ballooning pension obligation and the Louisville Metro Council's rejection of a tax hike, the impact is extending to the dozens of external agencies, such as the nonprofits that typically get crucial city dollars.

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Mayor Greg Fischer's budget proposal strips the crisis and information call center's funding, along with roughly $2 million that's typically gone to outside agencies across the city.

Robinson explained that the cost to Centerstone, if the budget as proposed passes, would be two paid staff members working 80 hours per week, dropping the full-time worker equivalent from 13.5 to 11.5 employees.

"Not to be dramatic, but honestly, this literally could mean that people die — that people who have those loaded guns on their lap try to call and they can't get through because we don't have the people to answer the phone," Robinson said.

"Especially after-hours and weekends, there's no one else to call or anywhere to go. ... It literally means these services will not be there."

Nearly $7 million from Louisville's budget, excluding federal grant money, flowed to these external agencies in the budget for fiscal year 2018-19. But in Fischer's latest budget proposal, they're recommended to get just $4.9 million in local funding.

That means less money for nonprofits that address homelessness, domestic violence, sexual assault, food insecurity and other issues.

"All of these cuts demonstrate the need for individuals, other nonprofits and our business community to step up and help these agencies," said Councilman Bill Hollander, D-9th District, the budget committee's chairman. "It's another indication of the difficult budget situation that we're in, and there can be no sacred cows when you're cutting the budget."

For Dare to Care, Louisville's largest food bank, the proposed cuts could mean about $250,000 less to spend on fresh fruits, vegetables and high-quality food items for struggling families.

For ElderServe, it could mean reduced services for Louisville's aging community, which one leader said is already an overlooked population.

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For the Center for Women and Families, it could mean fewer dollars for employees in its crisis call center and children's program — positions vital to the organization's mission, said CEO Elizabeth Wessels-Martin.

The call center is "truly the heart" of the organization and is the first contact clients have with the center's services, she said. Advocates point callers to resources, conduct lethality assessments and can help with "safety planning," to find a safe place for callers to go or come up with options for when they're ready.

The children's program, meanwhile, works directly with those in the shelter, who would have been exposed to domestic violence in their homes.

Wessels-Martin said she has a "lot of frustration," both as the center's CEO and as a citizen of the community. The center, which doesn't charge for its services, instead relying on grants and private donations, will have to find more money from the private sector.

"It's a burden, it's hard," she said. "It's the center and other organizations in this community that are being so negatively impacted because the people who are making decisions can't come to an agreement.

"The bottom line, what matters, is I hear bickering, disagreeing and pointing fingers (among city leaders)," Wessels-Martin said. "While you're doing that, people are suffering."

Local external agency funds are typically distributed in two ways: either through community nonprofit or departmental external agency funding.

The former stems from a panel evaluation of applications and has traditionally distributed funds from a pot of $1.8 million. This year, that pot has shrunk to $1.3 million, and Fischer's budget doesn't include recommendations on where to trim those funds.

More coverage:Does Fischer want to raise Louisville property taxes?

To start off funding conversations, the council's budget committee leaders implemented a 27.78% cut — the same ratio as going from $1.8 to $1.3 million — to the panel's funding recommendations and published the revised amounts online.

The departmental external agency funding, meanwhile, also includes less money, with fewer recipients, known as "partners."

The hearing schedule on this budget proposal includes public meetings where EAF recipients have traditionally made their cases to Metro Council for more money. The first was Tuesday, with another where EAF recipients can speak set for 6 p.m. May 16.

This time around, there will be even less funds to distribute.

"It becomes a competition, when cooperation is what we really need," said Karyn Moskowitz, the founder of New Roots.

Moskowitz's New Roots program sells shares of local organic produce on a sliding pay scale, serving 1,400 families in 2018 on a $325,000 budget. This year, it's reduced its operations to a $225,000 budget in response to lost funding from a private foundation.

New Roots isn't slated to get the $50,000 it got as a "partner" with Resilience and Community Services last year. And its $35,000 recommendation from a panel could shrink to $25,300 with the 27.78% cut.

"The more money that we can raise, the more people we can feed," Moskowitz said. "... The food comes out of the ground in a few weeks. We're in a race against the clock to get fresh local organic food into the community and on people's tables."

Background:Louisville budget cuts: 300 city jobs, 2 libraries, 4 pools and much more

The Healing Place, a recovery program and homeless shelter, is slated to get $56,000, down from the panel-recommended $77,500. Leaders say that reduction will be noticeable but don't expect to eliminate any services.

"What we will do is work harder to look for other funding sources to make up for that loss of funding," Karyn Hascal, president of Healing Place, said, adding that the money is expected to go toward their emergency homeless shelter beds.

"Actually, from our position right now, we're very grateful we were included in the budget at all," Hascal said. "We recognize the strain on the system and on the city."

Another food-centered nonprofit, meanwhile, Dare to Care, received $270,000 from the city in last year's budget to purchase and deliver food to families across Jefferson County.

This year, the food bank is proposed to receive just $14,500 — a 95% reduction that could have purchased more than 500,000 meals, said Stan Siegwald, director of strategic initiatives for Dare to Care.

"We understand these are difficult times," Siegwald said. "But the fact is the people that look to Dare to Care are the most vulnerable in our community. We hope Metro Council will get us our allocation back to where it was and we won't have to see any type of interruption in services to the families that need us."

Darcy Costello: 502-582-4834; dcostello@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @dctello. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/darcyc.