Contact: BJ Iacino at (303) 285-5223 Office or (720) 937-2728 Cell or biacino@coloradocoalition.org
COALITION CUTS PROGRAMS TO BALANCE BUDGET. MAJORITY OF SERVICES WILL REMAIN IN PLACE AS NEED FOR SERVICES GROWS
Mobile Medical Unit Will Close
January 7, 2010. Addressing a $3,442,168 cut in its health care funding from the State of Colorado, the Board of Directors of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) adopted a balanced 2010 Operating Budget which cuts important programs serving homeless families and individuals, while maintaining its core health care, mental health and supportive housing and treatment service programs for homeless and at risk families and individuals.
The $32 million CCH operating budget continues to fund core health, mental health and substance treatment services at the Stout Street Clinic, its health care for the homeless program, as well as at its satellite clinics at the Samaritan House Shelter and the St. Francis Center. It further maintains funding for services at the 1,400 supportive housing units it owns and manages, as well as an additional 700 privately owned apartments for which it provides rental assistance and services for formerly homeless families and individuals.
However, in order to address the budget shortfall created by the state budget cuts, the Board decided the following:
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To close the Health Outreach Program (HOP), Mobile Medical Clinic effective February 8, 2010. This program provides medical care on the streets, emergency shelters, and other homeless programs throughout the metro Denver area, serving more than 2,200 homeless men, women and children in 2009.
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To close the Ruth Goebel House, an 11 bed transitional housing facility for homeless women effective February 15, 2010.
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To close Turning Point, an 11-bed recovery housing program, effective February 28, 2010.
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To continue for a second year a wage and salary freeze for CCH employees.
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To eliminate eight administrative and program positions, and continue a hiring freeze on non-essential, non-grant funded vacant positions.
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To restructure employee health benefits to eliminate a proposed 16% cost increase, while maintaining employee premiums at their current levels.
Note: Coalition staff will find alternative housing for those currently living in the residential facilities to be closed to ensure that they do not become homeless again.
All of the services provided by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless and its partners are critical to meeting the existing and growing needs of our state’s most vulnerable citizens,” said Coalition president John Parvensky. “It is indeed ironic that at a time that both the federal and state governments are talking about health care reform and expansion of health care to the uninsured, their actions will cause a significant reduction of medical and mental health services for our homeless patients.”
The Coalition staff has been working over the past three months to address the state budget cuts though administrative and program cost savings. The Coalition has also been successful in raising additional funds from private individuals and foundations to help offset a portion of this loss of state funding. However, CCH was forced to eliminate two cancer screening programs for homeless patients in September when their state contracts were immediately terminated.
“Unfortunately, to ensure that our programs remain strong and retain the ability to serve the increasing demands for our housing and health services, we needed to make some hard choices,” Parvensky explained. “These cuts are painful, and will prevent us from meeting both the current need as well as the increased need we expect to see in 2010. However, we feel that these measures will allow us to focus our attention on those programs which provide the greatest benefit to greatest number of clients.”
The Coalition operates the Stout Street Clinic, the region’s only dedicated Healthcare for the Homeless Clinic, which has been hard hit by the reductions in the state budget announced in August. These cuts included:
- Elimination of the Colorado Health Services Fund by the Governor, reducing CCH’s Stout Street Clinic funding by $2,298,756 retroactive to July 1, 2009.
- Reduction of the Colorado Primary Care Funds by the Legislature, reducing CCH’s Stout Street Clinic funding by $493,412 effective July 1, 2009.
- Elimination of three Colorado Primary and Prevention Care Program grants effective September 1, 2009 covering health, mental health and dental services totaling $260,000.
- Elimination by Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment of three Cancer, Cardiovascular Disease, and Pulmonary Disease grants for mammography, colorectal, and pulmonary screenings for homeless persons, effective September 2009, totaling $390,000.
At the same time, the Coalition has been struggling with increased numbers of families and individuals turning to it for assistance – for health care, mental health care, and housing. For the first time, Stout Street Clinic has been forced to create a waiting list for mental healthcare services for homeless individuals. There are now more than 700 persons on the waitlist. The clinic cannot currently serve all patients who walk through its doors. Many more patients will likely be turned away as these cuts are implemented.
“These cuts are very difficult for the Coalition Board to make, knowing that the need for our services is growing rapidly,” said Jay Brown, Chair of the CCH Board of Directors. “We believe our staff has squeezed out every dollar of savings they could from existing programs without jeopardizing their ability to continue to provide quality housing and services. However, faced with a continuing deficit, we felt we needed to make these cuts to preserve our ability to serve the majority of our clients in our remaining programs.”
The greatest percentage of Coalition funding goes to serve those in need. In 2009, less than 8.6% of its funding covered administrative and fundraising costs, well below the average for non-profit agencies. The 2010 budget lowers the administrative costs to 6.03%.
“The Coalition Board appreciates the continued financial contributions from more than 4,000 supporters in Colorado,” said Brown. “These contributions fund vital programs for homeless families and individuals. Without these donations, the cuts would have been much deeper, leaving more families and individuals on the street without life-saving services.”
On any given night, about 11,000 men, women and children will be homeless in the Metro Denver area. It is projected that 18,000 will experience homelessness at some point during this year, half of whom will be in families with young children. Twenty percent of homeless adults are veterans.
Colorado Coalition for the Homeless is a non-profit organization whose mission is to work towards the creation of lasting solutions for homeless families and individuals throughout Colorado. CCH provides a range of housing, emergency assistance, health care, mental health counseling, and supportive services to more than 15,000 homeless families and individuals throughout Colorado each year. Only 15% of those we serve are eligible for Medicaid or Medicare. The rest are among the most vulnerable uninsured individuals in our state.
For more information visit www.coloradocoalition.org.
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