After years of struggling to provide social services to Hawaii’s needy, nonprofit organizations emerged from this year’s Legislature with the means to carry out their functions near to what they sought. But they are far from complacent.

"I don’t see that this is a glorious it’s-a-new-day," says Ruthann Quitiquit, president and CEO of Parents and Children Together, a large organiza- tion that provides youth services in Kalihi. "I don’t see the money running into the coffers."

It could be worse. In the past few years, federal funds that social service programs had grown to expect became no longer available. State legislators turned to rainy day funds to provide $27 million to the programs two years ago, but the money went dry last year.

"Coming into this year, much of that money was drying up," said Alex Santiago, executive director of PHOCUSED — Protecting Hawaii’s Ohana, Children, Under Served, Elderly and Disabled — a coalition of health, housing and human service agencies. "These agencies were really saying we can’t hang on any longer; we’re going under."

Lawmakers this year provided $11.6 million for those programs, slightly more than half of what they sought but enough to instill them to restore much of the public health, welfare and education they have provided to the working poor. An additional $4.9 million was provided in a separate bill to help seniors through programs such as Kupuna Care.

Among the recipients will be Child & Family Services totaling nearly $450,000 for its centers on Oahu, Maui and Kauai. Howard S. Garval, the organization’s president and CEO, said the Oahu program was shut down last year because of cuts last November.

"Last year, what happened is that somehow, some way, lots of programs managed to borrow from Peter to pay Paul and hang on," said Santiago. "How many (employees) actually fell to the wayside is very difficult to tell.

"The private nonprofits are reluctant to admit or say ‘I had to cut this, I had to lay off people’ and all that," Santiago said. "They have shared that hundreds, hundreds of people that they employed are no longer employed by them. They have had massive layoffs in the private, nonprofit sector."

Hawaii’s poverty level had risen to 12.5 percent in 2009 from 8.6 percent four years earlier as the recession struck the nation, while organizations with the mission of coming to their assistance experienced fewer resources.

The state Department of Human Services cut funding to child welfare services last year by $12 million.

Parents and Children Together (PACT) provides services to 150 children on a typical day at Kuhio Park Terrace, at an afterschool program that provides services to children in one of the highest-risk communities, including an immigrant population from Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and other Pacific islands. The organization’s budget dropped from $22.5 million last year to $18 million this year.

Quitiquit said the employees who are fortunate to keep their jobs remain at fixed wages. "If I have a contract for six years, it’s the same amount of money every year," she said. "The staff have not seen raises in four years."

Quitiquit and other representatives of social service programs lined up during the recent Legislature to ask for assistance. PACT collaborated with Susannah Wesley Community Center and the Kalihi branch of YMCA in making their request and were rewarded with $150,000 for each of the three programs of youth services in the neighborhood.

Other amounts approved in House Bill 304 range from $50,000 each to Hawaii’s Alzheimer’s Association, Gregory House Programs and Moiliili Community Center to $1.75 million to Wahiawa General Hospital.

One of the persistent difficulties, Santiago said, is the view by "the community at large" that those using social service programs are recipients of "handouts and they don’t deserve it, and why don’t you guys just get a job; look at how hard I work." He expressed dismay about those who express anger and say, "I’m paying my taxes and it’s going to pay that low-life over there who should be working.

"These perceptions, I think, are ill-founded," he said. "I do know that there are people who abuse the system, and they’re sensationalized, and people think that they’re all that same way.

"For the most part, people are hurting out there big time," he said. "What we’re fighting for is to just again say, ‘Here but by the grace of God walk I,’ and I think all of us know that. And we’re trying to get others who have fallen, to pick them up and bring them along."

Still, while Quitiquit is pessimistic about the effects from the recession over the last three years, Santiago says, "I see the economy rebounding.

"I do see some indications and I’m trusting that what we’re hearing from everyone is that it is in fact rebounding, and we’re going to see things coming back together," he said. "That’s very, very reassuring to us."