Buncombe County advisory panel reallocates supplemental aging funds, approves Jewish Family Services rate change

The Buncombe County Home and Community Care Block Grant (HCCBG) advisory committee on June 25 approved reallocating supplemental county aging funds to cover provider overspending and accepted a unit-rate change for Jewish Family Services that staff said should reduce a large overage.

The action responds to a year of disrupted services and shifting funding streams, committee members said, including congregate-meal site closures and a temporary switch to American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding that allowed “grab-and-go” meals. Committee members and staff described multiple providers showing overspent allocations as of May and said $50,000 in additional county funds had become available to help make those providers whole.

Why it matters: the HCCBG supplemental dollars are the county match that helps ensure continuity of nutrition, transportation and in‑home services for older residents. Committee members said reallocating the county funds now would prevent service interruptions for providers that have reported spending above their HCCBG allocations.

What the committee approved and why: staff reported that Meals on Wheels, Jewish Family Services and Mountain Care were among the providers showing the largest overages; staff said Meals on Wheels was about 125% over its allocation as of May. Committee members moved to distribute surplus county funds to cover overspent units; the motion was seconded and approved. Staff calculated a set of unreimbursed unit-dollar amounts that they said totaled roughly $53,087 for a subset of line items; committee discussion used those figures to determine first-pass reallocations.

The committee also accepted a submitted rate change request from Jewish Family Services that staff said had been filed on June 20. Committee members and staff reviewed the unit-rate issue: staff displayed a current unit rate in the ARMS reporting system of about $153.91 and said Jewish Family Services proposed to reduce its unit rate to about $54 (staff described the revised figure as approximately $54). Committee members said the lower unit rate would reduce the program’s reported overage and bring the overall supplemental reallocation nearer the committee’s target.

How money was allocated in practice: committee members discussed making “everyone whole” as a first pass—using the newly available $50,000 plus other relinquished or underspent funds to cover overspent units. The group applied first-pass allocations to the three named providers, then ran line‑by‑line adjustments across the submitted applications. Several newer applicants received reduced or zero supplemental allocations in this cycle; staff and committee members said those applicants may reapply next year.

Other program and process decisions: committee members agreed to (a) revisit scoring priorities and the application rubric over coming meetings so the panel can better align grant-scoring with service priorities (members repeatedly identified sustenance needs—food, medical access, transportation—and legal services that prevent eviction as high priorities), and (b) bring the Mountain Mobility funding arrangement back for review in a future meeting (committee members discussed a prior multi‑year arrangement and asked staff to check whether any formal contract or written requirement exists obligating block‑grant funding to Mountain Mobility).

New applicants and first-pass allocations: the committee briefly discussed new applicants including Center for Conscious Living and Dying, Community Health and Wellness Collective Services, and Better Together Transportation. The committee moved to give Better Together a first-pass allocation (staff cited a first-pass number of $41,000) and decided not to fund Community Health and Wellness Collective Services in the supplemental round; committee members repeatedly noted that first‑pass allocations could be adjusted later as final accounting for June is received.

Process and next steps: staff said June accounting will change several lines, that some congregate nutrition sites will resume normal operations and that the committee will reconvene to finalize any remaining adjustments. Members also agreed to dedicate future agenda time over the next several months to refine funding priorities and the application scoring tool ahead of the next grant cycle. The committee set its next meeting for July 23, 2025.

Meeting context: committee members described this year as an anomaly because of the hurricane impact, ARPA shifts and lingering service disruptions; they emphasized protecting services that keep older adults safely in their homes.