The entrance to the POMOC building
A New York based non-profit that has provided social and immigration assistance to Polish Americans living in the New York area for over 30 years now needs help itself. POMOC, Poles Organized to Minister to Our Community – pomoc means "help" in Polish – faces closure due to budget cuts.
For a couple of years now budgets cuts have affected city agencies and non-profits alike. As a result, while the number of the needy in the city is growing the resources to help them are dwindling. Mayor Michael Bloomberg seems to have little understanding for the situation. "You have to do more for less," he has been repeating since the onset of the economic downturn.
"But how much can you cut?" asks POMOC Executive Director Ewa Kornacka, whose nonprofit faces extinction due to the lack of funds.
"Since the beginning of July we are practically working on a voluntary basis, without paying the organization's bills. Short of a miracle we will have to make a radical decision," comments Kornacka, who says she won't be able to pay rent for the building housing the organization's main office in Maspeth.
Probably every Pole living in the New York area is familiar with POMOC, which has been providing assistance to the Polish community for over 30 years. Dozens of Poles from all parts of the city visit its offices in Maspeth, Ridgewood and Staten Island daily. The organization also has clients from Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut, and gets calls from Poles from all over the country.
Some people have used POMOC services for many years when applying for different kinds of social benefits, medical coverage or food stamps. They come to get help in dealing with housing or immigration issues. A very popular form of immediate assistance provided by POMOC are bags with food distributed from the organization's main office in Maspeth. In the first five months of this year alone, close to 1,500 people benefited from this service.
"All employees have worked with us for many years. They have experience and are very dedicated. Many of them devote their private time to accompany our clients to court and city agencies," Kornacka says.
"Usually such services are very expensive but here they are free of charge and very professional," said Stanislaw, a resident of Queens, who has used POMOC assistance in immigration matters, like when he was applied for U.S. citizenship.
The problems started in July 20010 when the city cut services for the low-income elderly and POMOC lost an annual $70,000. It was a big blow for the organization. "The situation became tough, but we still had other grants to fall back on," Kornacka says.
In March, POMOC began asking for voluntary donations from its clients, naturally from those who could afford it; however, real tragedy struck at the end of May, when the organization found out it would lose another big contract with the Department for the Aging (DFTA). "The contract was the foundation of our operations since the 1980s," Kornacka says.
DFTA spokesperson Jeanette Reed wrote in a statement that, owing to a smaller budget for the 2012 fiscal year, the agency had decided to eliminate funds for a couple of smaller social assistance programs that did not directly relate to its core mission: senior services. POMOC, along with another organization in Queens, had its funding eliminated in the FY 2012 budget – part of the funds was used to pay the rent for the Maspeth office.
"If it turns out that we have to close the Maspeth office we could operate from the smaller offices, but distributing food bags for the hungry at a bank may be a problem. [POMOC's other offices are housed at two local banks.] Besides, once we lose the location in Maspeth, there will be no way back," Kornacka says.
POMOC has been receiving other funds, but some of them, like the grant from the Queens Borough President, have been dwindling. The organization has devoted sponsors in the community, like the Maspeth Federal and Atlas banks, and has received money form local councilmen, but the funds are not enough to allow the organization to survive.
The biggest losers in this situation will be the people who have been using its services. Regular clients are already worried how they will do without POMOC.
"Some want to write letters and petitions to the politicians who represent them. Such initiatives are certainly welcome as they will show the legislators that people care and need our services," Kornacka says. "We are also appealing to Polish-American institutions and individuals to support us. Each dollar counts," she adds.
