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Thursday, July 31, 2003

By Steve Levin and Gary Rotstein, Post-Gazette Staff Writers

Officials of 38 Allegheny County social service organizations said yesterday they're scrambling to improvise plans to outlast severe funding cuts caused by the state's budget impasse.

Melissa Coyle, shown with her daughter, Lailah, is a blind, single mother of two children. Northern Area Multi-Service Center helps her with shopping, housekeeping and other chores. But Monday's visit to her Penn Hills home may be the last because of funding cuts. (Peter Diana, Post-Gazette) Click photo for larger image. Study says gambling revenue estimates too high Rendell will ask lawmakers to come back today Poll shows Pennsylvanians evenly divided over income tax hike to cut property tax

The organizations operate 55 different programs for 10,000 of the county's neediest people.

Virtually all of them have sources of funding other than the state, but the cuts will force them to curtail services dramatically.

The funding originally was supposed to dry up June 30, but the county used $300,000 from its own reserve fund to cover some July costs.

Allegheny County Chief Executive Jim Roddey met yesterday afternoon with about 75 representatives from the agencies and told them that the county could not afford to pick up the state's slack any longer.

"If I had assurances from the Legislature that they were going to do something, I would consider [fronting another month's worth of funding]," he said. "But right now, they're saying they can't guarantee anything."

County Human Services Director Marc Cherna predicted that "a fair number" of programs would shut down. He said the state's 98 percent reduction in what the county gets from the Human Service Development Fund -- it dropped from more than $4.6 million to just over $78,000 -- was the deepest cut in his 7 1/2 years in county government.

The fund offers money to agencies whose programs don't fit into established categories.

The Legislature in March approved a bare-bones $21 billion budget. Legislators have since failed to reach agreement with Gov. Ed Rendell on proposals that would provide new revenue, mainly from slot machines and increased income taxes, to restore funds cut in human services, mass transit and schools.

In addition, the Legislature has yet to allocate $900 million that the federal government gave Pennsylvania in a nationwide allocation to state governments.

Noting that the state Senate recessed Monday, Cherna said, "We hope they realize how much of a crisis this is. People's needs don't go on vacation."

The House has two days of work scheduled next week.

Catholic Charities of the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese is one of the hardest-hit agencies, facing more than $450,000 in cuts, including deep reductions in services to pregnant teens, homebound adults and people with chronic illnesses.

"It's a huge amount of money and the impact should be pretty significant for those programs," said Sister Patricia Cairns, executive director.

Cairns said that when word first surfaced in March of possible funding cuts, the organization instituted a hiring freeze and shifted personnel to soften the financial blow.

"We will have to do sort of a triage to help those programs," she said. "We really need to be there for the people."

Tomorrow, the Shaler-based Northern Area Multi-Service Center will begin eliminating home visits by 20 personal care workers who provide services such as bathing, dressing, housekeeping and shopping that keep their clients living at home instead of in institutions, said Charles Teese, its chief operating officer.

Melissa Coyle, a blind mother of two toddler daughters in Penn Hills, who is also limited by back problems, said life was about to become more difficult without help with the weekly shopping and cleaning.

"It doesn't mean we'll fall apart, but it means I'll have to try a lot harder," said Coyle, 25. "I have trouble getting down on the floor [to clean], and she'll come in and figure out things as a sighted person that I would never notice."

The Black Vietnam Era Veterans will close one of its two homes for single fathers who are vets and have custody of their children, said Christopher Jenkins, the executive director. Its $40,000 budget cut is half of the funding for the two Bill's Houses. Six families -- about 15 people -- will be uprooted.

"We're going to have to find alternative means of housing for them," said Jenkins. "Their only alternative is the streets. They came to us from the streets."

Northern Area and the Neighborhood Centers Association, providing services throughout the city, will lose funding for crisis counseling and referral programs for families that encounter problems with housing, utilities, family violence, employment, health and other issues.

Nanzetta Waddy, the neighborhood association's director of programming, said five case managers will stop visiting their combined caseload of about 100 families.

All told, the association is losing about $280,000 in funding.

Staff writer Jeffrey Cohan contributed to this report. Steve Levin can be reached at slevin@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1919. Gary Rotstein can be reached at grotstein@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1255.