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COURIER L 16 IFE, JUNE 19-25, 2020
Group home
advocates fear
more cuts
BY BEN VERDE
Proposed state-wide
budget cuts to group
homes for people with developmental
disabilities
will leave residential service
providers hurting,
advocates and caregivers
say.
The cuts, proposed by
the state’s Offi ce for People
With Developmental
Disabilities, will amount
to $200 million annually,
and come as operating
costs rise in the wake of
the coronavirus pandemic,
according to New
York Disability Advocates,
who feared another
round of lost funding on
top of decades of austerity
cuts.
“We urge the Offi ce
for People With Developmental
Disabilities to
work with providers to
identify solutions that
will lead to a more effi -
cient system rather than
extracting a pound of
fl esh from the critical
non-profi t providers,”
Mike Alvaro, treasurer of
the advocacy group, said
in a statement.
The proposed cuts
would reduce reimbursements
to non-profi t providers
from the state by 50
percent for so-called “retainer
days” — days when
group home residents
are not in the homes due
to a hospitalization, or a
visit with family. They
would also nix a previous
amendment which justifi
ed group homes accruing
the same expenses
despite having a temporarily
empty bed, be it due
to the death of a resident
or other circumstances.
The vacancy factor
was formerly at fi ve percent,
which took into account
the expenses that
do not disappear when
a resident passes away
and the home looks to
fi ll their place, such as
costs of upkeep and utility
bills. The proposed
cuts do away with the vacancy
factor completely,
according to one group
home leader.
“Say you have a home
where 10 people with developmental
disabilities
live and one of them
passes away,” said Joe
Riley, CEO of the Guild
for Exceptional Children,
which operates residences
in Bay Ridge and
Dyker Heights. “It’s not
like you can say ‘alright
now I have 10 percent less
expenses.’ You still have
the utilities, you still have
to pay the staffi ng for that
house, all the overhead remains
the same.”
And the reimbursements
for “retainer
days,” Riley said, allow
group homes to receive
the same amount of funding
per person if a resident
was hospitalized —
a common occurrence
during the coronavirus
pandemic.
Under the proposed
budget, the state would
only pay for half of the
days of a resident’s hospitalization.
These cuts unfairly
target privately run and
residential services, according
to Riley, as neither
state-run or day-only
facilities will face any serious
damage. The cuts
also appear to target facilities
with a more senior
population, who are naturally
inclined to have
more deaths and, therefore,
a higher vacancy
rate.
“I think it’s discriminatory,”
Riley said.
In a statement, the
state agency defended its
approach to fi nding savings
in its budget.
“There are no changes
to the services provided
as a result of this targeted
approach, which implements
savings goals included
in the enacted
budget,” said OPWDD
spokeswoman Jennifer
O’Sullivan.
She has a name.
Her health plan actually knows it.
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