Programs for disabled forced to wait for funds
By NORA SORENA CASEY Special to the Daily Press
DOWNTOWN As the state budget remains in limbo, local disability providers and clients are doing everything they can to stay afloat while the last of their funding runs out.
A march will take place today at the governor’s office in Downtown Los Angeles to urge the California Legislature to pass the state budget. In the meantime, state funded agencies have little to no money.
The Westside Regional Center, which provides disability services to local cities, including Santa Monica, ran completely out of funding on Sept. 10. State funding ceased on July 1.
Since then, Westside Regional has provided it’s own funding, but they can no longer do so, according to officials there. Westside Regional will continue to run all of their programs without pay for as long as possible, and will begin to pay employees once they receive funding from the passed budget, including for time spent working before the budget is passed.
“We are counting on our vendors to ride this out with us, we can’t pay our employees,” said Elizabeth Spencer, director of the Westside Family Resource and Empowerment Center. “We have folks who have mental health issues who are scared that at any moment their support person is going to leave them or say, ‘I’m sorry I need to get a part-time job.’”
The center provides services to persons with mental retardation, epilepsy, autism and cerebral palsy, and intervention services to children 3 and under who are at risk for disability.
“I know from our experience and speaking to other parents, they’re really concerned about regression,” said Ruth Tello, a mother of twins who receive in-home services provided through SmartStart, a Westside Regional vendor in Santa Monica. “When the budget passes, even then you’ve lost critical time in the children’s development.”
The treatments and services provided through Westside Regional deal with day-today stresses and costs that are part of raising disabled children, and the progress made with children needs to be reinforced and built upon. For this reason parents and program providers are doing everything in their power to stay open.
“It’s business as usual for us, except its scary knowing the resources aren’t coming in,” said Judi Friedman, the general manager of Step by Step, a Santa Monica service that provides programs for disabled children.
“But we can’t turn those kids away. Even one day makes a big difference for them.”
Step by Step is another Santa Monica vendor supported by Westside Regional. Friedman is adamant that the budget stalemate will not prevent them from offering support for the families. However, she still hasn’t been paid for the month of August and is concerned about the repercussions of operating programs without funding.
Claudia Landis is already under financial stress due to the costs of caring for an autistic child. As a doctor who sees patients on Medi-Cal, Landis is impacted by the budget stalemate in her job as well, and has not been paid for recent work. She is currently borrowing money on her home equity loan to help pay their behavior therapist, since Westside Regional has stopped.
“I asked her how much she was owed and it was something like $2,000, and I thought, ‘well, I can’t let her lose her house,’” Landis recalled. “I don’t know how long I can do this. I will never be reimbursed for the interest, and what if I lose my job?”
Sharon Lowery, director of SmartStart, said her programs can only hold out for another 30 to 45 days. Since she began SmartStart in 1992 she has never had to withhold pay. If the program does shut down entirely, Lowery is not sure how well they will be able to continue services again once the budget is signed, because staff may find new jobs and patients may regress.
“For many of our families, they are still reeling from the diagnosis and they’re just beginning to feel that their kids are getting help,” she said.“If you take away their services, you’re taking away their hope — over politics.”
Lalena Henninger is facing mounting costs for behavior therapy and baby-sitting for her autistic child, as well as concerns that the programs her son attends at SmartStart school will close. At the same time, she does acknowledge the legitimacy of the state’s budget dilemma.
“I feel there is not much I can do because I feel that my representative is representing me very well,” Henninger said. “He’s standing up for the things that are important to me. I just feel really stuck.”
But many of those impacted feel that whatever disagreements the state legislature has, they need to acknowledge the serious, lasting detriment that this delay is causing for the disabled.
“You’re talking about special needs children, you’re talking about mentally ill people,” said Lowery, who is appalled that the legislature could continue not to pass the budget while knowing the impact that lost funding has. “I don’t know how they can do that and have a conscience.”
A slight delay in the passing of the budget often occurs, but this year’s political stalemate is different, according to Spencer.
“Historically, we’ve gone through our reserve, we did that this year, we’ve taken out a line of credit, we did that this year,” Spencer said.“In the past we tell families,‘It’s OK, we’ll take care of it.’ But they’ve pushed us past that point, where, this year, we can’t take care of it.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 15, 2008. Read the original PDF.