From the Contra Costa Times in California. In the picture, George Swonger, left and Zachary Lindenmuth live at the Torrance home for kids with severe autism.The state's historic budget crunch has put Redondo Beach resident Pat Boyer and her autistic son in a dire dilemma.
Boyer, a widow, depends on Social Security payments her son receives for his disabilities. The Torrance boarding home where he lives also relies solely on state funds to care for children and adults who are too aggressive to live at home.
State supplements to Social Security are now on the chopping block, and payments to an array of service providers are being delayed indefinitely until the Legislature reaches a budget solution.
"It almost feels abusive the way (state politicians) are handling this situation," said Boyer, a single mother with two children. "It's been immensely stressful. I'm not sure what I'm going to do."
California is facing a $42 billion deficit and, this month, state coffers are expected to run dry. Critical payments to education, public safety and Medicaid will continue, but other funds supporting low-income children and seniors, the developmentally disabled and welfare recipients will be either cut completely or put on hold.
Officials at the nonprofit Harbor Regional Center in Torrance mailed a letter last month to 600 service providers in the South Bay and Long Beach areas, warning that, come March, they may not receive their check from the state.
That means providers such as Amyre and Drew Lee, a Torrance couple, will be left with the tab if they continue caring for eight autistic children and adults who live in their two boarding houses. Boyer's 19-year-old son, George, is among them.
"How do they justify abandoning these kids?" said Drew Lee, who had to take a part-time job to help pay the bills. "How do they justify something like this? It doesn't make any sense to me. Some of these people have no families - they have nowhere else to go."
The economic downtown has dealt a double-blow to service providers such as Lee: At the same time the state is delaying or cutting payments, banks are freezing credit lines - severing a lifeline of last resort for small nonprofits hoping to borrow their way through the budget mess.
Officials at the Harbor Regional Center, which funnels state money to contractors who care for people with illnesses such as epilepsy, autism and cerebral palsy, aren't sure what to tell their providers, except to plan for the worst.
"We've had payment delays before, but now (state officials) are telling us the money is just gone," said Nancy Spiegel, director of information and development at the Torrance-based center.Not only are payments frozen, but there is bipartisan support for a proposal to slash funding for regional centers overall by 3 percent, which translates to about $300 million throughout the state. Under the proposal, individual providers would be reimbursed for only 97 percent of their operating costs through June 30, 2010, according to the local center.
Officials fought to get payments for services provided in January, but there is no guarantee that services performed this month and beyond will be paid. If legislators don't reach a budget deal soon, the Lees will be out of luck in March.
They and others around the Los Angeles area are now mounting a public relations campaign with rallies and community outreach, including penning letters to legislators in hopes of putting a face on what the delays mean for service providers.
Boyer fears her son's struggles, which began with his diagnosis at age 3, will worsen if he is forced out of the home.
As a toddler, his symptoms were odd and erratic, but manageable: trouble with potty training, walking on his toes, slamming doors, little or no recognition of familiar people and trouble speaking.
His behavior, however, grew fierce over the years, his mom said - his screaming at times got so loud and violent that neighbors called police.
When he was 9, Boyer decided she could no longer safely care for her son. She placed him at the Lees' home, where he receives special education and work training during the day, and a structured routine of meals, chores and socializing at night.
"It really takes a team effort to care for these kids," she said.
Because of his disability, George receives supplemental Social Security from the state to help pay his medical costs and living expenses.
However, under a separate cost-cutting budget proposal, more than 430,700 Los Angeles County residents - all of them low-income seniors or people with developmental disabilities such as George - would lose $516.7 million in Supplemental Security Income/State Supplementary Payment grants, according to an analysis released last week by the nonpartisan California Budget Project.
Boyer said that if things worsen, she would have no choice but to bring George home. For autistic children and adults, any change to routine or environment is extremely traumatic.
"It would be very difficult," she said. "After just a few days with him, I'm completely thrashed. He needs constant care 24 hours a day."
Spiegel said that so far, none of the local providers has said they will close. The Lees, however, aren't sure how long they can go without payment from the state.
With six staff members, liability insurance premiums, two mortgages and medical care, it costs more than $5,000 a month per child to provide care, they say - more if the child is very severe. State money is stretched thin - they've already had to cut health benefits for themselves and workers.
The couple just spent several thousand dollars adding a bedroom to one of their homes to comply with state requirements for housing autistic adults. Since they had raised many of these kids, the Lees wanted to keep them into adulthood.
Now they're not so sure.
"We're looking at having disabled people in our facilities that we cannot care for," Amyre Lee said. "There's no other place for them.
"I want the governor and Legislature to see who it is they are affecting. These are children who need help, and it is the state's responsibility to provide that help."
