Service agencies caught in budgetary ‘chain of events’

By Melissa Westphal

BusinessRockford.com

Local human service providers will talk with employees in the coming week about managing the massive state budget cuts headed their way.

The state sent letters Friday to human services providers — including those serving at-risk youths, people with mental illness and developmental disabilities — detailing grant programs that will be eliminated and others that will be cut 50 percent to 75 percent.

Organizations will receive information specific to their services this week.

That’s a tough pill to swallow for Stepping Stones of Rockford, which provides housing and rehabilitation services for people with serious mental illness and was on the verge of shutting its doors last month. It was forced to apply for emergency funding from the state last month just to cover bills and payroll; the state came through with about $480,000, but it’s about $450,000 behind schedule.

It’s a common story for nonprofit providers, who are used to begging the state for the money they’re owed, but they were floored to learn that the state plans to cut huge chunks of their funding by June 30.

The local groups have little more than two weeks to decide whether they can keep their doors open or operate month to month under complete budget uncertainty.

“It’s pretty grim,” said Frank Anselmo, CEO of the Community Behavioral Healthcare Association, a nonprofit state trade association representing more than 95 providers. “The reality is, (the state) doesn’t have the cash and won’t until they solve the budget crisis.”

The General Assembly’s “doomsday” budget cuts $2.24 billion from the Illinois Department of Human Services. Letters from DHS to local providers detail cuts to the General Revenue Fund and Budget Relief Fund and, although the budget hasn’t been approved by Gov. Pat Quinn, the letters tell providers to work with customers and staff “and prepare for an uncertain future.”

Stepping Stones receives about 90 percent of its funding from the state to serve 120 clients. The biggest concern is what will happen to the thousands of people who benefit from local services when programs get cut or agencies are forced to close, CEO Steve Langley said.

“It’s a chain of events,” he said. “It’s impossible to repeat what you lost. Groups would have to start back up at their own expense, and you’d have to rehire people you lost.”

That makes layoffs another huge concern, especially because the Rockford metro area’s unemployment rate sits at 12.1 percent.

“Only when we have the final information about cuts can we begin to determine how we would approach what to do,” Langley said.

Mary Ellen Commare, executive director of Youth Services Network, said her board is meeting Monday to discuss next steps. Cuts for the organization, which services young victims of abuse and neglect, will be coming from DHS and the Department of Children and Family Services.

Commare was in Springfield last week with other providers to learn more about the cuts, and state officials told local agencies to take the “doomsday” cuts very seriously.

Matt Toohey, executive director of Access Services of Illinois, said the latest cuts number about $553,000 for his organization, which serves people with developmental disabilities. He spent this weekend trying to calculate how many employees and clients that will hurt.

Toohey is trying to organize all of the local human services organizations this week to publicize the overall effect of the cuts on the behavioral health population.

“It’s not just one or two agencies, it’s thousands across the state,” he said.

Reach staff writer Melissa Westphal at 815-987-1341 or mwestpha@rrstar.com.