The large, nondescript white building, home to the S.C. Department of Social Services, serves more than one million of the state's neediest residents. It's where people come when all they have left is hope.

But hope is in short supply these days. Like everything else, it has become a victim of budget cuts.

Since mid-2001, the department's budget has been cut by almost 30 percent, down from $126 million in 2001-02 to $89 million this fiscal year. As a result, the agency has lost 1,300 employees in the past 18 months, 700 since January.

To prevent more job losses, DSS officials enacted widespread cost-saving measures, including reducing phone lines, cell phones and pagers, closing satellite offices and instituting a mandatory two-week, unpaid furlough for all employees.

All of this took place as DSS dealt with major increases in the number of its clients, a byproduct of the same economic climate that has caused the state budget woes.So while news from the state Board of Economic Advisors last week about the upcoming budget was mildly optimistic, officials with DSS have adopted a siege mentality.

Already, they have made plans for a 3 percent, 5 percent or 7 percent cut, outlining the programs that would be axed if such cuts become a reality.

It is not a pretty picture, but a logical one given the department's recent history.

"We are not very optimistic about our next budget," says Linda Martin, DSS director of planning and research. "A lot of us are just hanging on here, day to day. If the cuts keep coming, I'm concerned about our ability to do our job."

In a report given by the agency to the state Budget and Control Board, DSS officials outlined their strategy should more cuts come.

According to the report:

-- A 3 percent cut, about $2.6 million, would force DSS to eliminate funding for county teen pregnancy prevention programs or cut foster children's educational services, such as tutoring. It also would require the agency to cut half of the Homemaker Services' budget, which helps abused and neglected adults avoid nursing home care.

DSS officials say such a cut would affect more than 50,000 people in all 46 counties, including 40,000 teenagers in the teen pregnancy program. They say the program helped reduce the number of teen pregnancies from 10,229 in 1980 to 8,080 in 2001, a 21 percent drop.

-- A 5 percent cut, about $4.4 million, would include all of the cuts named in the 3 percent category and eliminate the rest of Homemaker Services.

-- A 7 percent cut, about $5.8 million, would include all cuts listed in the 3 and 5 percent categories and include the loss of some 200 jobs, bringing the agency's total loss to 1,500. The agency had about 5,000 employees before the cuts began 18 months ago.

Even without the prospect of further cuts, life around DSS is hectic these days. The agency is down 12 county directors. Those slots are currently filled by other county directors doubling or in one case, tripling up.

In Charleston, many DSS employees are doing double duty, working more than one job. The staff is down about 40 people, some of whom were let go, while others quit or retired and were not replaced.

At the same time that the office wrestles with a 20 percent reduction in its work force, it also is dealing with a caseload growing dramatically.

Statewide, the welfare caseload has grown by 32 percent since 2000, from 15,358 to 19,453. The food stamp caseload has grown even more dramatically, increasing from 125,000 families in 2000 to 195,000 families in 2003, a 64 percent jump.

In Charleston, the welfare caseload followed suit, increasing from 1,204 families in 2000 to 1,402 in 2003. Food stamp recipients were up as well, from 8,486 families in 2000 to 12,587 this year.

"When the economy is slow, our caseloads increase," says Valeria Williams, Charleston DSS business manager. "When the economy is bad, that's when people need us the most."

Last week, the Board of Economic Advisors discussed the financial outlook for the 2004-05 budget. For the first time in a long while, the numbers indicated a turnaround in the state's economy, if only a modest one.

Still, South Carolina faces a budget deficit of about $350 million, and Gov. Mark Sanford has made no secret of his desire to continue cutting fat from state government.

Sanford was traveling in China on Tuesday and could not be reached for comment. His spokesman, Will Folks, declined comment in detail on the governor's executive budget but said considering the size of the deficit, the outlook for any agency escaping without some cuts is not good.

This comes as no surprise to DSS officials, who have grown used to watching their money disappear.

"It's almost like we are invisible over here," Martin says. "People tend to forget us and what we are going through."

For its part, DSS is trying to trim what little fat remains. Recently, officials have eliminated 200 cell phones and 300 pagers and all nonessential phone lines, estimated to save about $43,000 in state funds. By eliminating several satellite offices, they expect to save $500,000 a year. Returning about 89 state vehicles will save $375,000.

All of these moves were made in hopes of staving off another round of cuts that would diminish the agency's work force even more.

Martin has worked for DSS for 26 years, holding jobs from caseworker to administrator. These days, she is holding three jobs at once: director of planning and research, interim director of family dependents and head of program quality reassurance.

She works past 6 p.m. most nights and hasn't taken a lunch break in weeks.

But she says others in the department, like her, are hanging on right now. They have no choice.

"It's not like a faucet," she says. "We can't just cut our budget and tell our clients to go home. They don't go away. The need is still out there, whether we have the funding to help them or not."

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