Health and human service agencies brace for county funding cuts

Auburn Youth Resources will take some hits to its programs, but AYR director Jim Blanchard is confident it will survive.

Debbie Christian, director of the Auburn Food Bank, said it’s too early to make predictions, but said the service will feel the hurt down the road.

While King County is still making up its mind about how deep to cut, directors of health and human services on the south end are steeling themselves for the knife.

The financially-pinched county is planning to eliminate funding to programs and agencies, including the Auburn Food Bank, Auburn Youth Resources, and the Domestic Abuse Women’s Network (DAWN), among many others.

And while those agencies have other funding sources, the effects will be substantial.

Michael Hursh, human services manager for the City of Auburn, explained what it means to residents of a community who have come to rely on those services.

“It’s going to put the pressure on service clubs and churches and the community. It’s going to take us back to a model in human services funding that we haven’t known for 50 or 60 years,” Hursh said. “Essentially, it is going to require communities to care for communities.”

The state of Washington was already planning reductions before the economy tanked last fall. In the recently-concluded legislative session, lawmakers addressed the $9 billion shortfall with across-the-board cuts.

Tony Sermonti, communications specialist for the Senate Democratic caucus, said money that the Legislature gives the State Department of Health to distribute to counties has been reduced by $4 million, less than 10 percent of the total fund.

Now King County is sorting out what to do about the state cuts.

County officials in 2008 began to grapple with the size of the deficits they were facing and to plan reductions. Right now, they are proposing five areas for proposed cuts for 2009, five to six areas of cuts for 2010, and the final round of cuts through July 2011.

“We are in a bit of a holding place, although we do know that access to mental health will be reduced with the non-Medicaid funding taking a 9-percent cut,” Michael Heinisch, Kent Youth and Family Services’ executive director, wrote in an e-mail to Hursh. “There is also a cut to chemical dependency, low-income, adult outpatient residential and detox services. But again, we’re waiting for King County to crunch out what exactly and how extensive to make the cuts.

“We don’t have all the details yet from the budget passed at state level, and also we are not sure how cuts at the county are going to impact our programs,” Blanchard said. “In one sense, it’s a little early to make a judgment. But we know we will get a reduction in our managed care counseling rate, hopefully less than 5 percent. We understand there will also be a cut in our treatment counseling rate for kids involved in chemical dependancy and substance abuse.

“We have a chemical dependency intervention service in six of the school districts in the area, and we anticipate cuts in some of the districts, although we will limit those to one to two districts,” Blanchard said. “And we’re anticipating a cut in the amount of funding we receive for youth in both of our residential programs in Auburn. We just don’t know what those are going to be at this point.”

Christian said: “Down the road this could mean a big deal to us, but at this point for the year we’re safe as far as the county is concerned. It’s private donations I’m most worried about.”

Heinisch said that the most immediate concern centers on those South King County programs that are in the county’s proverbial lifeboat. He predicted the first hits probably will land on the homeless projects the county pays for through general funds and to food distribution.

Also hit hard will be the crisis clinics and child care resources.

“Since the counties did not get substantial new possible revenue tools, at this point the life boat will sink on June 30, unless the executive’s office … and the Council get together on a way to redirect some existing funds and or dip into the county’s reserves to float the lifeboat the remainder of 2009. It’s a matter of looking at the list of the lifeboat cuts and probably having a conversation with the folks who are in the lifeboat,” Heinisch said.

As of now, all King County general fund funding for human services will be eliminated by Jan. 1, 2011, under the scenario that King County Community and Human Services Department came up with in preparing for the 2009 budget.

“The state just finished their deliberations, and we will be in the process of analyzing the impact of cuts, particularly those that concern mental health and substance abuse in the session that just ended,” said Sherry Hamilton, Communications Manager for the King County Department of Health and Human Services.

“…King County has a plan that, for all intents and purposes, wipes human services out of their budget,” Hursh said. “They are essentially doing away with the county department of Community and Human Services as we know it in three years time. The two biggest hits will be in public health and human services. Unless there is some kind of uptick, they are beginning their first stage of cuts this year.”

FACING THE KNIFE

Program areas eliminated by three-year reduction plan include:

Year one

• Most of the programs in the homelessness prevention and emergency services category, including food banks, except for the men’s and women’s winter shelters.

• Batterers’ treatment

• Women’s Advisory Board’s discretionary funds

• Youth homeless shelters

• Senior centers serving primarily urban incorporated residents

• Senior services – adult day care

• Information and referral projects

• Support for youth case managers at Superior Court, miscellaneous youth work experience funds

Year two

• Domestic violence

• Sexual assault

• Senior centers serving primarily rural/unincorporated residents

Prioritized to remain at least partially funded until 2011: