Catholic Charities of Arkansas is fielding more calls for financial help than it has money to answer, with a monthly assistance budget of just $2,000 to $2,500 that routinely runs dry before the month ends, leaving a growing number of Arkansans without the emergency support they need.
A helpline with more callers than dollars
Deacon Jim Goodhart, a retired attorney who staffs the Catholic Charities helpline two days a week, begins each shift working through a backlog of voicemails, writing down names, contact details, and needs. Rent. Utilities. Car repairs. Food. Medical bills. The requests are varied, but the money is not.
“The task can sometimes feel overwhelming because the need is so great,” Goodhart said. “Unfortunately, there are more requests for help than our current situation can handle.”
When funds are depleted, callers are turned away. When there is money left, Goodhart prioritizes people with a stable situation who need a temporary bridge rather than those in deeper, more chronic need. A $200 payment, he noted, can make a far bigger difference in the right case than the wrong one.
Dennis Lee, executive director of Catholic Charities, described the kinds of people on the other end of those calls: elderly grandmothers raising grandchildren on fixed incomes, injured workers who have exhausted their leave, people with no family safety net and nowhere else to turn. Federal funding cuts in recent years have driven more of those people to the helpline at the same time they have reduced the capacity to help them, a dynamic affecting Catholic Charities organizations across the United States.
Catholic Charities stretch resources through partnerships
With limited cash, Catholic Charities leans heavily on a network of partners. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which has chapters across Arkansas and conducts home visits to people in need, is among the most important. Goodhart often pieces together help from multiple sources, pooling small amounts to reach a workable solution.
The helpline also connects callers to Divine Mercy Health Center for medical and dental needs, and to Lyon College’s new dental program. For those struggling to find work or manage addiction, Catholic Charities tries to make referrals that lead somewhere real. “We seek to make referrals that will be effective and not a dead end,” Lee said.
The human dimension of the work sometimes goes beyond utility bills. Goodhart recalled helping a man get a passport to return home, delivering a bed to a heart patient in Northeast Arkansas, and helping arrange a medical flight so a family could be with their son before he died. In the majority of cases, payments go directly to landlords, utility companies, or service providers rather than to the individual requesting help.
Call volumes this year have surpassed anything Goodhart has seen in his nearly two years on the job. The surge that typically accompanies the holiday season never fully receded, and the backlog is visible. “Normally, I don’t let that flash,” he said of the blinking voicemail light on his phone. Catholic Charities chapters in other states have similarly been absorbing rising demand with shrinking resources, pointing to a national pattern rather than a local one.