HARRISBURG — A roughly $31 million emergency relief package will help more families get state-subsidized health insurance, home heating aid and mortgage assistance as the recession continues to push people out of work, Gov. Ed Rendell said Monday.

Rendell said the state's declining employment numbers and the growing list of factory and store closings convinced him that a relief package was necessary.

"It is absolutely brutal and I don't think it's likely to change in the next few months," Rendell said at a Capitol news conference.

Rendell said funding the package will not mean spending more or adding to the state's shortfall of $2.3 billion this fiscal year. Instead, the money is being drawn from existing programs or is proposed in Rendell's spending plan for the new fiscal year beginning July 1, officials said.

In any case, Rendell called the cost minimal, but said the aid will be important to the families it helps.

The package will extend health coverage through the state's adultBasic program to 16,000 adults who meet its income limits.

More than 43,000 people are in the program now, but 25,000 people joined the waiting list just last month, pushing it past 200,000. With savings from attrition and cost-cutting, state officials determined that the program has enough money to offer coverage to another 16,000 people on the waiting list at a cost of about $19 million over 15 months, a Rendell spokeswoman said.

AdultBasic does not offer prescription drug coverage, but Rendell is asking the Legislature to add it.

Mortgage assistance through the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency should reach another 550 homeowners by tapping $5 million of the state's federal welfare money.

People who qualify for the loans through the Homeowners' Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program must have fallen behind on their mortgage payments through no fault of their own, said agency executive director Brian A. Hudson. The loans can help people get current on their payments, or make part of their mortgage payments for up to 36 months, Hudson said.

An additional $6.6 million in home heating help for the remainder of the winter is aimed at helping another 18,000 to 19,000 families pay their bills, Rendell said. The money is being shifted from the state's weatherization program, which is about to receive tens of millions from the federal stimulus package.

Since the recession began more than a year ago, Pennsylvania employers have eliminated more than 75,000 jobs while the state's unemployment rate has grown from 4.6 percent to 7 percent. Banks have repossessed more than 12,000 houses and more than 40,000 homeowners have received at least one foreclosure notice.