A county budget can seem remote, distant, something that politicians argue about in downtown Seattle.

Here at Encompass, however, the county budget walks in the door every day. Like other service organizations in the Snoqualmie Valley, we see hungry, homeless and threatened families who don’t know where to turn. We connect them directly with food, clothing and housing.

Our job will be a lot tougher if a proposed elimination of county human-service funding, a tiny percentage of the overall 2010 King County budget, becomes reality. The county council is holding hearings this month and expects to approve the budget in late November.

Now is the time to ask the county to preserve this crucial support for those who need it most.

Jeopardized are organizations that provide emergency food, programs for youth at risk and shelter for victims of domestic violence and others who are homeless — the very organizations we refer to every day.

One vivid example illustrates the point: isn August, the mother of a 6-year-old boy and 1-year-old girl walked into Encompass, where the boy had attended preschool. The mother, a Valley resident, had fled the physical threats of her live-in partner (the father of the younger child) and was struggling to survive. She and her children lived with a friend in a single bedroom of an area home, but she had trouble raising rent, and housemates were eating her food. Soon, this mother and her kids were living out of a car.

Over the next two months, our bilingual support specialist worked intensively with this mother, who eventually landed a job, found childcare, secured donated clothing and moved with her kids to a two-bedroom townhouse operated by one of our partner organizations, Hopelink, which receives county funds. This family, which can stay in the townhouse and pay minimal rent for three months, is well on its way to the stability and health that many of us take for granted.

Where would such a family go if county funding were eliminated? More such families would seek help, and local organizations would be less able to provide it. Waiting lists would balloon. In countless ways, our community would suffer.

The county budget is in crisis, but the demand for basic services for families in need is growing. These families are hit hardest by a bad economy because even in a good economy, their lives are precarious. How will our county treat its most fragile constituents?

Please contact King County Council member Kathy Lambert at (206) 296-1003, or e-mail to kathy.lambert@kingcounty.gov. Encourage her and her colleagues to preserve funding for human services.

These services cost taxpayers far less than the expenses of unresolved homelessness, hunger and violence incurred by schools, courts and communities. The plight of those in need may be invisible to many of us, but we at least can keep the county budget in our sights.

• Nela Cumming is director of program development for Encompass.