In the 15 years Marty Friedman has been working with Niles Family Services, he has never seen more people desperate for the emotional, financial and practical help the agency provides.

The recession, which knocked many people out of their jobs into instability, has spurred growing numbers to seek help. Yet the recession is also forcing cuts in Niles Family Services' budget.

Friedman sees the irony in the fact that his agency will have less funding just when its services are most needed. He's trying to find creative ways to help the village in its budget crunch by limiting or cutting employees' hours, for example, while still helping clients.

“Our big concern is that we're dealing with the most vulnerable people in this community,” Friedman said. “We're seeing a lot of pretty disturbed people because the county mental health centers that serve the area have had cuts. We don't want these people to have no place to go.”

Niles Family Services' basic mission is to provide residents with counseling services and case management assistance, which includes helping people get access to public aid and social security, and to tap into state and federal services. It also help provide assistance with utilities, rent and mortgage on a one-time basis, and maintains a food pantry.

The agency is working with 450 active cases, and Friedman says it also helps about 50 to 60 people each week who walk in with questions, need help filling out a form or need food or financial assistance. Since many of them are seniors, the agency is intentionally housed in the same building as the senior center.

Clients pay based on their ability to pay, but Friedman said about a third are people who have little or no income.

A typical case the agency might see, Friedman said, is a man who loses his job, had been recovering from alcoholism but regresses, his wife and child leave because they're afraid he might hurt them, and then, in distress, he acts out and gets in trouble with the law.

“We can help work with him, help him get his life back together, and that helps the entire community,” Friedman said.

The agency is working with one family in which one child has a severe chronic illness and the father is not working because he's recovering from cancer. The level of distress in the family was so high that police were being called to the home two to three times a week for various reasons.

Two Niles Family Services staff members worked with the family, and there have not been any police calls for a significant time, Friedman said.

He cited that as an example of the ways in which the agency saves the village the financial cost of police services, in addition to alleviating human suffering and heading off the potential abuse, neglect or violence that can occur in distressed families.

Police, fire and code enforcement frequently call Niles Family Services with referrals on a 24-hour basis, Friedman said. He and staff members take turns carrying a pager so that someone is always on call for emergencies.

Police sometimes call them when there has been a suicide or murder — and they need help informing the surviving family members that a loved one has died, for example.

“Thankfully, we haven't had to do a lot of that,” Friedman said.

One client told a Niles Family Services therapist that before the family came into therapy, they were under so much stress that they thought about piling their children into the car and driving into Lake Michigan.

“That person is in therapy, and doesn't have those thoughts anymore,” Friedman said.

Other agencies in the area have a 10-week waiting list, and if a person as desperate as the one Friedman cited had to wait 10 weeks, there's no telling what they might do, he speculated. Niles Family Services now has a shorter waiting list, but staff members do what they can to accommodate people who need help.

The staff includes six full-time employees, including Friedman, three part-time employees and four contractual employees, who generally work 20 hours a week or less.

“The people who work here like working for an organization that has an impact on the community,” he said. “Something I've always respected about this village is that they've had the vision to do this.”