WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. By John F. Bailey. December 19, 2002: Leaders of the Westchester Women’s Agenda said Tuesday, the county budget cuts affecting their nonprofit volunteer agencies would create a maelstorm of misery, costing Westchester County hundreds of thousands more dollars in the year ahead to achieve a short-term saving.
DEM CHAIRMAN WOULD RESTORE CUTS: George Latimer, formerChairman of the Board of County Legislators, now Chair of the Westchester Democratic Party said he would support a property tax increase Tuesday to maintain nonprofit agency services to the county at the news conference.
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The news conference made it known that the non-profit agencies expect to lay off individual case workers, limiting their capacity to serve clients. Citing “very lean” administrative staffs, leaders said cuts could not be made except at the caseworker/client level.
DOWNES ON THE BOTTOM LINE: “Not for profit human service agencies cannot tolerate a disproportionate share of whatever budget cuts are deemed necessary by the Board. They deliver services efficiently and far more effectively than government could.”Ms. Downes is Chairperson of the Westchester Women’s Agenda. She spoke at a Tuesday news conference.
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Through a series of charts, Toni Downes of Westchester Residential Opportunities, Lindsay Farrell of Open Door Family Medical Center and Julie Domonkos of My Sister’s Place noted how county cuts to their agencies will curtail services provided directly to people in need.
County-run Services Chided.
Three persons directly helped by non-profit agencies represented at Tuesday’s conference, the YWCA of White Plains, Open Door Medical Center, and Westchester Putnam Legal Services, told how the agencies helped them where county agencies had not.
EVICTED, HELPED, NO LONGER HOMELESS: Mr. Frederick Towns, a former post office worker, spoke of his being laid off and how the loss of income resulted in his eviction and placement in a county homeless shelter in Mount Vernon. He said Westchester Putnam Legal Services helped him and his son find a stable place to live.
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Towns said the county was paying $2,720 a month to house him and his son at a Mount Vernon homeless shelter, while the place he presently lives only costs the county $840 a month. He credited the Westchester Putnam Legal Services agency with finding him a more humane living arrangement. “The homeless shelter treated me like a drug addict. They considered me lazy and worthless,” Towns said. “It cost my son his self-esteem. His grades went down. He didn’t want to go to school. If it weren’t for Westchester Putnam Legal Services (finding Mr. Towns another place to live), I don’t know what would have happened to him.”
Latimer would defend a tax increase to restore the cuts.
George Latimer, former Chair of the Westchester County Legislators, and presently leader of the Democratic Party of Westchester County, appeared in support of the WWA position, calling on the County Legislators and the County Executive to,
“Let’s drop the weapons of rhetoric. Let’s deal with what’s best for Richard Jones if he’s still out there.”
Assembly delegation whacked.
Latimer in his remarks took Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, who has opposed the county request for a 1% raise in the sales tax to balance the budget, to task for taking what Latimer described as a “Scrooge-like” attitude, and being unproductive in finding a solution to the problem.
Latimer said he was for restoring the cuts and he would vote for a county property tax increase, currently sitting on 28%, if “I would be able to defend it on the basis of the good that it does.” He said he would work for a restoration of cuts to the nonprofit agencies in the present Westchester County Budget.
MAISANO THROWS HIS SUPPORT: James Maisano, Republican County Legislator from New Rochelle, appeared and spoke in favor of restoring the cuts, appearing to ally himself with Mr. Latimer on the issue.
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Mr. Maisano went on record as saying the services noted by the WWA “just can’t be cut. That’s the bottom line.”
Maisano praised non-profit agency use of County dollars, saying the non-profit agencies knew how to manage services better than Westchester County, saying they really run their organizations efficiently, getting “better bang for the buck.”
Caseworkers to be Laid Off.
Ms. Downs, of Westchester Residential Opportunities, chair of the news conference was interviewed by WPNCR afterwards. Downs said the figures presented on the charts at the news conferences showed the number of persons who would not be served, based on approximately how many persons individual caseworkers at their agencies were responsible for on average.
She said that in agencies she knew about, most were thinking about eliminating at least one and sometimes two full-time caseworkers or, in the case of Westchester Putnam Legal Services, one full attorney.
Asked if agencies could cut administration, instead of line case workers, Downs said most agencies were light in administration, often consisting as in the case of her agency, Westchester Residential Opportunities, of an Administrator and Assistant. She noted that one caseworker for CLUSTER (of Yonkers), or the Westchester Putnam Legal Services, one lawyer often works with “hundreds of cases” at any one time across the county, which accounted for the chart figures given.
Downes said in her own agency, Westchester Residential Opportunities, her First Time Homeowners Program was projected to be cut 50% and her Fair Housing program, 10%, and that CLUSTER, a Yonkers-based program was also facing cuts.
Charts of Woe
Ms. Downs began the news conference at the YWCA of White Plains Tuesday by pointing to compiled charts showing the number of persons who would be turned away by several of the nonprofit agencies represented today.
Westchester Putnam Legal Services which handles persons facing evictions for various reasons reported they most likely would have to turn away 445 less cases.
They prevented 1,697 evictions in 2002, project they would be called on 1,825 times in 2003, yet due to elimination of attorneys caused by the projected budget cuts, would only be able to handle 1,380 cases.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE TOLL:
Julie Domonkos of My Sister’s Place, an agency handling spousal abuse cases noted that legal and advocacy services for victims of domestic violence handled 18,200 victims in 2002. Her organization projects 20,994 cases expected in 2003 (ongoing and new cases), and projects due to agencies having to cut caseworker staff, to be able to serve only 15,901. That projects 5,093 cases of domestic violence victims that will not be served.
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Speaking to WPCNR Thursday, Ms. Domonkos said the figures are based on projections of domestic violence caseloads were made based on consultation with the Northern Westchester Shelter, and the Pace Women’s Justice Center. She said that My Sister’s Place and the other two organizations handle the majority of domestic violence consultation and refuge service in the county.
Domonkos said that caseworkers work 10-12-14 hour days serving the needs of domestic violence victims and should not be cut, saying “We need them to know there’s no fat to be cut when it comes to human service agencies.”
Speaking today, Domonkos said that her 60 staff total are spread among 4 shelters in the county, and all but two handle caseloads, even she herself handles cases. The Director of Finance and the Maintenance person are the only two who do not counsel.
My Sister’s Place can be contacted at 1-800-298-7233, at any time, by persons seeking help in dealing with a domestic violence situation.
Health Care Visits Projected Most Affected
Lindsay Farrell, President of Open Door Medical Center, said health visits by individuals without medical insurance would be most impacted. The WWA charts reported that in 2002 the county supported 50,000 such visits, and project 53,500 visits in 2003. By WWA statistics, the WWA reports the 2002 capacity to handle Open Door Medical Center visits will lower to 43,200 visits based on projected cuts to the program, leaving the possibility of approximately 10,300 persons not being served.
Farrell, “This is a terrible time to cut county support of human services. Even holding the funding level flat constitutes a cut in support, but we could have handled that. What we can’t handle is deep cuts in dollar support.”
How Open Door is Used.
Daysi Briones, a U.S. citizen from Peru spoke how the Open Door Health Center in Ossining helped her and several members of her family, who do not carry medical insurance. Her brother who was saved from appendicitis, thanks to the Open Door Health Center program. She said she had learned a lot about democracy, and how voting works, and how leaders are changed, and she hoped Westchester’s leaders would change their minds,
“Don’t cut the wings of life,” she said.
Y’s Supervised Visitation Program faces cuts.
Carrie Miller, a mom who has been able to keep her former husband involved in her son’s life, thanks to the YWCA of White Plains program, told WPCNR that the Y’s program enables children to maintain stable relationships with a parent who does not get along with their mother and father. She said this was important for children to maintain a relationship with the parent who is no longer in their life, otherwise they “internalize” it and feel that they are the cause of the disagreement between their parents.
Ms. Miller has been taking her son to the Y on North Street to visit with her former husband for the last year and it has worked out very well for her son, who loves seeing his father, preserving the bond.
County charged with throwing away matching funding dollars. Loses $3 for every $1 saved.
Ms. Farrell exposed a hidden cost of possible cuts, in her opinion: “Over and over we see that the county’s proposal to save themselves a dollar will cost these agencies and their clients almost three dollars in foregone programming.”
Using domestic violence programs as an example, Farrell in the accompanying news release, said the county would lose $126,818 in matching funds from New York State and Federal matching funds, by enacting their $201,300 15% cut, thus turning a $200,000 saving into a saving of only $74,480.
Latimer recalls the “Richie Joneses of the world.
Chair of the Board of County Legislators, George Latimer recalled a Little League player he once managed named Rickie Jones. He told the story of taking Richie home one day after a game, and seeing what he described as “the disarray of his apartment,” and no one at home to give him dinner. Latimer was visibly moved, recalling the scene, how he felt he wanted to help Richie in some way. He took him out to MacDonald’s that evening.
“I often wonder whatever happened to Richie Jones,” Latimer said. “What did he wind up doing?”
He also spoke of another man he knew who had died this week, who had been helped by the Open Door Medical Center, concluding that he would vote for a tax increase “for the Richie Jones of the world.”