46 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • NOVEMBER 2021
FAMILY & EDUCATION
DISABILITY CARE HOMES STRUGGLE
TO MAINTAIN STAFF AMID BUDGET CUTS
continued from page 45
“The current staffi ng crisis has also resulted
in East End Disability Associates
operating its programs at minimum
capacity, deploying senior staff to cover
direct support professional shift s, postponing
planned development, and discontinuing
some programs that we have
provided to families since 1993,” said
Lisa Meyer Fertal, the chief executive
offi cer of East End Disability Associates,
in a letter sent to family, friends, and
business associates. East End Disability
Associates operates seven group homes
on the East End of Long Island.
And it does not help that budget cuts,
along with the lack of COLA, are not taken
into consideration by the state as it
continues to implement mandates such
as requirements for fi lling positions
or having a certain amount of staff to
watch the group homes.
“The problem you have now, with all
these mandates and cuts, 80 percent of
our budget is salaries,” Evdos said. “The
problem is, we want to raise the direct
care workers to $20 an hour. The state
doesn’t give us the money to do that.
Basically, agencies on Long Island are
paying anywhere from $14.50 to maybe
$16.00. Agencies can’t aff ord to pay the
$20 an hour.”
What happens, Evdos added, is that
staff members realize they can work
a job at Lowe’s Home Improvement
or McDonald’s for an easier job that
will get them more money. In fact,
according to a study from New York
Disability Advocates, 39.2 percent of
agencies reported that they were unable
to open programs due to staffi ng
shortages. Agencies also reported a
93.16 decrease in job applications.
Fertal stated in the above letter that
East End Disability Services had two
group homes in the developmental
phase that were ready to provide a
lifetime home for 12 individuals living
with their families. But while the
homes were ready for occupancy, the
agency could not operate the homes
due to an insuffi cient amount of staff .
This shortage could be exacerbated if
the state mandates that workers within
this industry must be vaccinated. Currently
there is no requirement, but 10
employees told Evdos that if they were
required to be vaccinated to continue
their employment at the agency, they
would resign.
“Our staff are working 24/7 and they’re
burning out,” Evdos said. “That’s a
problem.”
Agencies such as Rise Life could also
lose money whenever an individual
spends the night away from the group
home at say, their parents’ house, or if
the individual has to go to the hospital.
“What happens sometimes is, some of
our individuals need hospitalization
and care, and even though we have the
staff , and the expense there, they take
the money away from us,” Evdos said.
“When you look at our budget, 80 percent
of our budget goes to salaries. So
there’s not much room for cost savings.
You have to pay rent, you have to pay
insurance, you have to pay whatever.
It’s a problem.”
There is no room for cuts when direct
care workers are dealing with people’s
lives, Evdos said. These employees are
required to meet certain criteria and
to be trained to work with individuals
with developmental and intellectual
disabilities. But their pay does not
refl ect the work they do.
“The state needs to come to the plate,”
Evdos said.
State Sen. John Mannion, the chair
of the Senate Standing Committee on
Disabilities, did lead a public hearing
on Sept. 14 in Albany to evaluate the
current workforce challenges within
the system that supports New Yorkers
who have intellectual and developmental
disabilities.
“This hearing is signifi cant action,”
Mannion said during the hearing
introduction. “It is a manifestation of
a very real crisis that is taking place
in communities in New York. There
are simply not enough caring and
compassionate New Yorkers who are
pursuing employment working with
the disabled.”
Low pay is clearly one of the factors
behind this workforce shortage,
Mannion said. But low pay is not the
only reason, as the state needs to fund
the recruitment of more clinical staff ,
such as nurses and mental health
professionals.
“We need to work with community
colleges,” Mannion said. “We need to
fund tuition credits and mentorships.
We need to have a strategy that brings
together job seekers with these challenging
but rewarding and fulfi lling
positions.”
Currently, predominantly women of
color, make up most of the workforce
in disability care across the state,
Mannion said. At Rise Life, Evdos said,
more than half of the employees are
Black or Hispanic.
“They talk about fair wages and helping
the minorities, and they’re not helping
the minorities,” Evdos said. “Living on
Long Island is very expensive. A lot of
our employees work three or four jobs
just to make ends meet.”
To address the crisis, Mannion said,
the committee has rejected the cuts
proposed in the budget and also secured
the fi rst COLA in over a decade.
“This is long overdue,” Mannion said.
“No employee anywhere should go
without a raise and people who provide
this service certainly deserve
one. Our front-line healthcare heroes,
particularly those who we entrust with
our vulnerable, deserve to be valued.
They deserve better pay.”
But these victories are not enough,
Mannion added, as they must serve as
a launch pad for additional increase in
salary for direct support professionals.
The state did just receive $700 million
from the federal government, with
$550 million of those monies allocated
towards this workforce shortage. “It
will provide for things like longevity
bonuses and hazard pay,” Mannion said.
During the hearing, he called on the
state to match the federal investment
and include $500 million in the next
budget to “begin moving the needle
on this crisis.”
Charles Evdos of RISE Life Services (Photo by Ed Shin)
/LONGISLANDPRESS.COM
