Okay. Good. These 11 agencies were established in 1963 under the Community Mental Healthcare Act under President Kennedy. And just for purposes of clarification, behavioral health services refer to services for people with psychiatric or mental health diagnoses, as well as substance abuse disorders. Intellectual disability services refer to people who have reduced intellectual functioning and disabilities in everyday living, such as communication, self-care and home living. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 provide services over many years and are the actual safety net of the Philadelphia community. We employ over 4,200 employees and serve 76,000 Philadelphians, children, adults and families each year. We've already heard about how the proposed budget cuts will cause a tremendous obstacle and tremendous cuts to our services. I'll enumerate those, but let me also say that Philadelphia is a national and international model under the leadership of Dr. Evans. We have collaborated with him, and, in fact, just yesterday, I was touring a group from Canada that had heard about what's happening in Philadelphia with behavioral health services and had visited our agency as well as some others from agencies you may be hearing from later. So we don't really want to lose that, and that's potentially lost in this process. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 add as another data point to what was mentioned before. Yes, Philadelphia is overrepresented in terms of the number of General Assistance citizens, 51 percent of all statewide, but I also want to add Allegheny County is only percent, even 8 though that's another large populus 9 county. The types of problems that we're likely to see if these cuts go through are reduced services across the board for behavioral health; mental health services on the outpatient basis, the wait list will be the rule, not the exception; emergency medications and funding for that; emergency services for people during the course of the day; 400 residential beds for -- residential rehabilitation beds for individuals with mental illness may be lost, and I'm going to say a little more about residential closings in a moment. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 these funds available so people can get services and then move to Medical Assistance when they get it and continue services. If people are cut off from Medical Assistance and cut off from General Assistance funding, that's closing the door to access. And if there's one thing the Coalition agencies have as their forefront is maintaining access. We are open to everybody, no 12 matter what their source of funding is, and we are open throughout the week and do everything we can to reach out to people as well as to serve them. We are not closing the door, and we may have to do that or at least make tremendously long waiting lists if these cuts go through. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 process if these cuts go through. I want to also mention or add to Councilman Jones' metaphor about a pebble in a pond. I say it's more like a bolder, and let me talk about what some of the ripple effects are going to be or the waves that are going to splash. As you heard, people will be going to emergency medical hospitals or to crisis centers if they're not able to get the needed services. But they're not just going to go for mental health disorders, they're not just going to go for substance abuse disorders. They're going to end up in medical emergency rooms. Without behavioral health services, people may not be able to manage their medical care well, and we're going to see an increase in medical hospitalizations for things like diabetes, pulmonary problems, cardiac problems, the kinds of things that co-exist with mental illness and with substance abuse. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 with very few resources and who are the most vulnerable are vulnerable in every way, not just in terms of their behavioral healthcare.
I want to piggyback on what was just said in talking about the other aspect of the implications of this, which is the impact on the workforce. We are looking at some major reductions in workforce, and most of the people, the vast majority of the people that work at Coalition agencies, are Philadelphia residents. I have personally closed six residential programs and laid off several dozen staff members over the past two years in response to other budget cuts, and I'm going to leave today and I'm going to go back to my office and I'm going to walk down the hall and see staff members and know in my mind that that person may be somebody that I need to speak to about a layoff if this budget goes through. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 number so I could get them a job, and I'm sure that's true for my other Coalition colleagues, and I will try to do the same thing again. And I have sat at the table with both of our unions, but I won't have as many options if this budget goes through this way. So I'd like to just say in closing that this is a major problem. The Coalition welcomes the opportunity to represent what we're doing to City Council and to advocate with you as well. We know that Philadelphia is an outstanding behavioral health city. It has become a place where people with mental illness, substance abuse, intellectual disabilities can live and become contributing members of society and actually come here rather than go elsewhere to get services. And we also know historically that it has been a home for all sorts of people over our history, and we don't want to deny that history and undo what has been done. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 So we welcome your advocacy along with the Coalition in working against these budget cuts. And I'd be happy to take some other questions after we hear from the other panelists.
Thank you very much. Very interesting information. The Chair recognizes Sharmain Matlock-Turner.
Thank you very much, Councilwoman Tasco, and thanks to the members of Council. I know that this process is a long one for you and there are a lot of people who want to talk, and I know some of us will be repetitive, so please bear with us, but we do think that the points are important. I'm excited and pleased to be sitting here and being a part of such an effort from people across the counties, from our elected delegation, certainly from your advocacy to say that we have to stand up to this. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 My name is Sharmain Matlock-Turner and I'm pleased to give testimony this morning on behalf of the Urban Affairs Coalition. It is no doubt that we are aware that we live in a period of history where governments at all levels are opting for increasingly stringent austerity measures to offset the lasting impacts of the economic recession and hopeful recovery. These measures have fallen quite heavily on the side of cuts to education and public welfare programs, the programs that are most important in moving people out of poverty. Those assembled here today know I am no stranger to the work of the tremendous non-profit organizations serving the region's working families. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 than 150,000 individuals whose lives are impacted by the Coalition each and every year. So I just want to bring three messages to add to the messages that you've heard from others. The first is what you already know, that the $41 million in cuts to health and human services programs will have a devastating impact on Philadelphia's most vulnerable citizens and on the non-profit organizations that serve them. As the City's presentation to PICA shared, the 34 million in proposed cuts to prevention services and programs will be felt by the homeless, those recovering from drug and alcohol addiction, as well as youth and young adults. In some cases, the programs serving these populations will close their doors, as you've heard. In addition, the $6 million in proposed cuts to health programs will undoubtedly help many people -- will hurt many people, including those with HIV and AIDS. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 As this is a multi-year trend in government allocations, I have witnessed how each dollar cut from social service or education programs alters the lives of people trying to make a better life for themselves and their families in spite of multiple barriers to success. Stripped of social supports, people are far more likely to drop out of school, go to or return to jail, remain addicted to drugs, become homeless, go hungry, stay unemployed and, in some cases, actually lose their lives. My second message is that City Council must find ways to help offset these cuts in your own budget and to reach out, as you have, to the delegations in the General Assembly to try to encourage them to not make these devastating cuts. We encourage you to explore options within your own budget, as difficult as that may be. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 not politics. For example, I have raised the concern that the prison budget has gone untouched while services to the most vulnerable are being slashed. We appreciate Governor Corbett's choice not to increase the prison budget this year and the efforts that Senator Hughes talked about to try to improve the system. Yet, we aren't yet seeing the savings that we know are there. Right now it costs taxpayers $267 million a year because we are having people return to prison instead of funding our safety net. This is not only the right thing to do, but it's also a smart thing to do to make sure that we're investing in the needs of people. Another example which Senator Hughes talked about is the Homeowners' Emergency Assistance Program known as HEMAP, which has already saved over 20,000 homeowners from foreclosure. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES.
120090 Attorney General has as the result of a national settlement with major lenders over unfair foreclosure practices. It seems that the right thing to do and the smart thing to do would be to use those funds to fight foreclosure. And, finally, I know that many of you in government have challenged us in our own sector to do a better job. You certainly have heard from organizations here that are working extremely hard to make sure they stretch every dollar. As you know, we presented to the City Council several weeks ago what it means for our organizations to join together and to share back-office services. That helps us to stretch dollars further, and so we encourage you to continue to support those kinds of innovations. However, in closing, my voice is one of many calling for a fair budget for Philadelphians and Pennsylvanians. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 people in your community who have completed their GEDs, recovered from drug addiction, returned from prison to lead successful lives and more. You know these successes happen as a result of the work of non-profit organizations that form our City's safety net. These programs are not handouts to be cut. They offer a hand up the economic ladder. As you continue to tackle this problem, please remember that we are counting on you to represent our views, to find ways to protect the most vulnerable and to ensure a prosperous Philadelphia for all of its citizens. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak today.
Thank you very much. And we call on you and your community to also go to Harrisburg and testify before the budget hearings to let them hear your voices, in addition to what we will do, but we certainly need the community. We're going to look up DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 and there's nobody behind us, and we know that there has to be some organization to get people there. We're going to have to take a five-minute break for the stenographer, but right when we come back, Henry, we will have those individuals who are here to testify. We're going to have the members from 1199 C come forth and testify when we come back. Thank you very much. They've been here a long time, as well as everybody else, but we want them to testify. Five minutes. Thank you. (Short recess.)
Good afternoon. We're back in session, reconvening the hearing. We'd like to have those ladies who are here to come and have a seat at the table. Ladies and gentleman. Thank you. I'm sorry. I didn't see. (Witnesses approached witness DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 table.)
Would you please state your name for the record. And we hope that you will try to -- we have a couple more panels to go today, so we'd like to hear your comments, and thank you, my committee person from the 49th Ward, who works with us in our Logan area. Thank you very much for coming.
Councilwoman Sanchez is going to take care. I'll be right back.
My name is Johnnie Willis. I'm a teacher at an early intervention program. I work for the Consortium. I have been there for about 30 years, 30 years or more. So I've seen like a lot of changes. When I came in here today, before I heard all this information, I was concerned. Now I'm frightened. Some of the things that have DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 happened in my program in the early intervention is, we have seen some slight changes already. I have a classroom of two sessions, children in the morning 6 and 13 children in the afternoon. When I 7 first started working in this field, 8 there was lots of money. We had speech 9 therapists, about three speech 10 therapists. There was a nurse. There 11 were two social workers. Each classroom 12 there was two teachers, and it was about 13 three assistants, and there were 14 children. Currently, I work with one assistant and there are 14 children. When we first started, there was breakfast, there was lunch, and there were two snacks. There's no breakfast, no lunch, and snack is provided by the parents and by myself. We had like lots of materials. Now I buy like a lot of materials for my children if they need it. So the changes and everything have been crucial. What I do in my classroom, I DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 work in five different skill areas - in social/emotional, I have cognitive, fine motor, gross motor, adaptive, and maybe a couple more that I have forgotten at this particular time. There is a supportive staff there. There are teachers. There is a speech therapist, and there might be a physical and an OT, occupational therapist. My day is very full. We are very, very, very, very necessary. We keep -- we help parents understand like their children's special needs. When I first started, most of our children were mentally retarded. They had like speech delays. My classroom now is mostly autistic children. And if anyone know anything about children with autism, you know that that is a job. I have been bitten. I have been hit. My assistant has been like in the hospital like from a bite from one of our children. I can't imagine these children being like without services. DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 Right now the program has been affected very slightly by some of the cuts. We are funded by Art Dell (ph). We have been furloughed for two weeks, one in June and one in, I think it's, August, which impacts like on salaries and how you accrue vacation and like all of those kind of things like from the cuts. It is extremely hard like right now because we don't have -- we just don't have the things that we need for -- like to run like a classroom. I don't have the money like all the time for toys and everything, but I do the best that I can. I can't imagine -- all the things that I heard today, I just -- I came here with some hope that maybe, okay, yeah, there's going to be like some money, you know, a budget cut, but then maybe we'll still make it. Now I'm not really sure. I can't imagine not having services for these special needed DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 children. They would suffer. Our parents, a lot of our parents are limited. We help them understand and understand like their children. We help them provide like services. We are -- I think that more than a teacher, I think that I'm a surrogate mom, because we do like everything. We walk parents through going like to the doctor. If they need a hearing appointment, we tell them like where to go. Some of our parents don't even know that their children can't hear or they don't understand, you know, like what's going on. So we help them there. So I beg you to help us keep like these services. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you for the work that you do. We completely understand how difficult it is, and we thank you for -- as President Nicholas talked about, you guys are the angels, so we --
We are. DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090
Thank you. Anyone else? You want to just register your name for the record.
Good afternoon. Thank you for this opportunity. My name is Ronnie Kane. I am a mental health worker for the Northwestern Human Services' Children's Reach program. Our consumers range from three to five years of age. They're diagnosed with ADHD, ODD, autism and many more. Within our program, we focus on the principle of resiliency. We provide care and support for the community. The children, they come at 9 o'clock and they leave at 3:00, five days a week. Cutting programs like this would be detrimental because it would not only take me out of a job -- I'm a year and a half out of college, I have tuition to pay, bills to pay -- but, more importantly, the consumers will be at risk of criminalization and DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 institutionalization. Yesterday while in circle time I usually ask my kids what's on their mind and how is their night last night, and one of my kids, Javier, he said, Miss Ronnie, the cops were chasing a guy and they shot him. They didn't shoot me yet, but... And then one of the other kids, Isaiah, he interjected and said, If a cop shoots me, I'm going to shoot him back. So what then do you say to a child who already has their mind set that he will be shot? So my question is, if these jobs are cut, what will happen to the children?
Can you move the mike closer to you. DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090
All right, dear. My name is Sylvia Bennett and I work in the field of mental health and behavioral health. I've been 27 years there. And I've seen the beginning, and I hope I'm not seeing the end. I brought people from Penhurst when they were released from Penhurst, and you wouldn't believe what you saw when you brought these people from Penhurst and put them into a stable living environment. They began to be, over the years, happy, healthy, getting more care. I care for people now. I work a 17-hour shift. I care for people that need medication. They get my support by taking them to doctors, taking them out on outings and everything. If this budget is -- if this is a cut, it's going to hurt these people bad. These people need us. It's going to hurt me bad to see them hurting bad. I beg of you, please work with us. We want to go to Harrisburg. We DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 want to speak. We want to take our consumers up there and ask for help. We don't need another cut. They really need your help.
Hello. My name is Carolyn Jones and I work for the IDD services at Northwestern, the Association for Independent Growth. What I'd like to speak about is a safety issue. With the budget cuts going on now, what we've been seeing is that they've been removing staff, a lot of staff from the houses. Some of the houses were double coverage and now they're making them single coverage, which puts the safety of the consumers as well as the safety of the staff at risk. And I just want to say that we just -- we can't do these budget cuts. We can't, because they need -- the consumers, the individuals that we serve, they need our support very much. Thank you.
Hi. My name is DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 Deborah Daughtry and I'm a DSP worker under IDD Services with NHS/TAIG, and I've been employed there for years. 5 Recently, I just started 6 noticing the impact of where these cuts 7 would be. The people that I've been 8 working with, I have been working with 9 them the duration of the time of my 10 employment there, and their health has 11 recently started declining. Everyone 12 that works with them, my co-workers, we 13 have been there the duration. We're 14 seeing the impact with hospital 15 insurance, even with home therapy. 16 Everything that would be of an assessment 17 for them is declining. And we understand that at times, that sometime you may have to make a little snip here and a little snip there, but not like this. This would be a harsh impact. When I first came up here, my whole thing was going to be 20 years ago they wanted it to be normalization, and DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 years later, all the promises and things that they put in place, now they're declining on it. What type of Governor do we have that we voted in to do something like that? And we beg that he has a whole search of heart and soul about this, because the impact of these cuts is not only going to hit the clients, but the people that give the quality care and all around. Thank you so much.
Good afternoon. 16 My name is Shirlene Bennett and I work 17 for NHS/TAIG, and I've been employed 18 there for 23 and a half years. I've also 19 went to school through the union, got my 20 Bachelor's Degree in Behavioral Health to learn more about the disability of the people that I work. I work in the behavioral health. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 alcohol. I work in all three departments. I work at the Atrium in the day program for the consumers that come there during the week. I work with the families that need and don't understand the disability of their children. But we have adults now. I work with the adults. I have seen the improvement that we made from the time they started up to where they are now. And some of them have some very serious mental disabilities, along with the behaviors where they cannot stay at home. We have to work with them. We are well educated on the job to redirect them in some of the things that they do when they're out. Where a lot of people look at us strange when we're out with the disability, but I don't feel that way. I feel proud when I'm out with them, because I can see the improvement. And through our programs that we have here, we have made life better for them. They have -- they're independent. They live on their own. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 They feel good about this. And if we cut the services, some of them won't be able to do this. Some of our consumers cannot live with other people. They have to live independent because of their disability. Medication doesn't help them, because they seek attention. This is something they were born with. We have to thank God that it's not us, and if each one of us looked at them and see that this could be you, what would you do? What would you want? And this is how we work with our consumers. If this was my child, this is my mother, this was my sister, my brother, what would I want for them? And if we look that way, I think Corbett would probably think a little differently if he just come and visits some of these places and see the improvement that these people have and see how they think and how happy they are to be living in a decent home and be able to travel and do things. They cut the budget. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 the things that they have, it's hard even getting clothes for them, because we have to wash their clothes every day, because, you know, they have different issues, different behaviors. Some wet themselves; some don't. But their clothes don't last as long as ours do. So that's more money. The food that they eat, they eat differently than we do. We have diabetics. We have some people that's small weight. They have to have Ensure. Ensure is expensive. A lot of people don't realize. Even young people take Ensure because of their metabolism. I had a gentleman that I took out to the basketball game the other day, and the issue with him was, he like to hoarder, he like to keep things in his pockets. He has so much stuff that he couldn't really play ball. And we were in a field where they had basketball and children playing. Now, he wanted to play his CD and play ball, too. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 redirect him. It took me about minutes to redirect him to put the stuff up. That's not an easy task. And to eliminate these type of services, it will cause problems. Now, if he wasn't redirected, he could have hurt one of them children out there. Two days ago I heard on the radio where somebody got shot at the Belfield, playing basketball. Now, that person probably -- they probably could have caught him and he probably would have pleaded innocent and it wouldn't have cost the City that much. But with this young gentleman, if something happened, he would have had to go to court. It would have cost them more money to go to court. It would cost money for him to go to a psychological evaluation.
And these cuts is going to cause more problems with these consumers than what they paying now, because they going to increase the problem. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 problem and make it better. Some of our people work. They have part-time jobs. They feel proud. They paying taxes. It's not a big amount, but they still contributing to society. And I just hope that when you go to Harrisburg, that you think twice about the families that's going to be affected, the people in the neighborhood that's going to be affected, and these people that can't help themselves. They didn't ask to be born this way, but God made everybody differently.
Thank you very much. I appreciate you hearing us today. My name is Martin Johnson. I work as a direct care counselor for the Overbrook Friedlander program, which is a subsidiary of Overbrook School for the Blind. I work with deaf, blind, mental retardation individuals, and they are the ones that are going to suffer the most DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 from these budget cuts. It's so easy to dismiss them, because they don't really have a voice and they can't speak for themselves. So we're here on behalf of them and on behalf of ourselves, because we work in this field. We're the ones who see them daily and we're the ones who see the things when there are budget cuts such as this that affect them. It affects them right away, as opposed to other people who are able to probably subsidize us or come up with a way to subsidize what they're missing. They're unable to do that, so we provide direct care for them every day and every night. They don't know any dangers, because we let them know where the dangers are. They can't let us know or they can't let someone know that they're in pain or they're feeling sad or they're feeling happy. You have to interpret those behaviors when you see them, and that only comes with working with them DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 continually. It's just like you know your child. You know when your child is not feeling right. You know when your child is happy. You know when your child is sad. You know when your child is in pain. You know when there's something wrong with that child. Well, we interpret these things for them. Without the funding from the government with supplies for the funding for their activities and pays our paychecks, it cuts programs and it cuts people. When you cut programs and you cut people, then the end result is those individuals go lacking. So we're trying not to let that happen. Yes, it's about self-preservation, yes, but also it's also about caring about the individuals. I've worked with them for 18 years. In 18 years, I've seen many people come and go, but still we're still there and we still provide the care and the love and just the basic overall -- what I want to DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 say is what you and I take for granted. Every day we're able to get up in the morning. We decide what we want. We decide whether we want to go to work. We decide whether we're going to go shopping today, whether we're going -- we decide whether we're going to just maybe just lounge around. They don't get to do that. And if someone is not there to help them, to give them suggestions, to maybe even interpret their behavior, or some of them can speak, some of them can't speak, some of them do sign language or tactile sign, and you have to be able to read these things. If you don't have someone there to do that, then they go by the wayside. And basically if we are our brothers' keepers, then we ought to be our brothers' keepers and do the job that we're supposed to do. Parents do it every day. They don't get paid for it. People who adopt, people who just maybe take care of somebody in the neighborhood, they do it. DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 Yes, we get paid to do this. This is our job. This is what we like to do. There are not too many individuals who will do it, but we like to do it. So I urge you and I thank you for listening to us this day, and I hope that we can change the legislators' mind and the Governor's mind. So whatever we can do to help, we're going to do, but we need your help also.
Well, we thank you. It looks like we're going to have to change the Governor and the Secretary's mind. The Legislature has already done the dirty work. But we thank you for testifying. We thank you for providing the services to our citizens who are in need of care. And don't apologize for getting paid, because it's what this world is all about. You get paid for services you provide. But what I like about it is that you serve with compassion and that you care, and that's what our clients, your clients DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 need, is someone who cares, someone who is compassionate. And I don't think they mind that you get a paycheck every week when you get paid, and we don't either. So thank you very much for your compassion and your service. We have another panel that we have to have come forth now. (Applause.)
Thank you all very, very much. I am so sorry for this panel. Next time we'll kind of like let you know what time to come, because these hearings are very intense and can be -- everybody wants to testify. So we thank you for your patience and being here. We'd like to call on Ms. Yvette Nunez from Congreso, Dr. Cheryl Pope from APM, Shelley Yanoff, Christie Balka and Rose Malinowski Weingartner. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Thank you DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 all so much. I hope you've enjoyed the testimony of the other panelists, and certainly we all learned something from each group, and we thank you for your patience and we'll let you go ahead and proceed. I'll be here all day. Who is first? Ms. Congreso?
Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. My name is Yvette Nunez. I'm a Vice President with Congreso, and the testimony that I'm presenting this afternoon is on behalf of our President and CEO, Cynthia Figueroa. Congreso de Latinos Unidos is a community-based, non-profit organization in Eastern North Philadelphia which was founded 35 years ago. Our mission is to strengthen Latino communities through social, economic, education and health services, leadership development and advocacy. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 educational credentials and workforce skills to compete in a global economy. This means ensuring youth graduate from high school and enter college, adults get jobs that provide family-sustaining wages, and our clients receive the health and social services they need to remove barriers and become self-sufficient. Last year, our staff served over 15,000 unique individuals, many of them receiving multiple services through more than 50 different programs, programs that are needed in our community now more than ever. Congreso serves a diverse community of primarily low-income individuals and families, of which 60 percent are Latino. Latinos now make up 12 percent of the total population in Philadelphia and they are the fastest growing demographic in the City and the Commonwealth. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 Latino community. While the community we serve is vibrant in its culture and rich in its heritage, our service area has the highest percentage of residents living in poverty in the City of Philadelphia at over 56 percent. It has one of the largest concentrations of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families recipients in Pennsylvania and it has the highest rate of food hardship in the state, with over 31 percent, ranked fourth highest nationwide by the Food Research and Action Center. For the clients for whom we have data, we know that 85 percent of the people we serve live at 150 percent below the poverty line and more than 60 percent receive some form of public benefit such as food stamps. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 health services, victims of domestic violence, and countless of other individuals that, with thoughtful and effective programs and services, have the potential to be productive, contributing members to society. Governor Corbett's recent budget proposal would call for cuts that have the power to undermine our efforts to help members of Eastern North Philadelphia realize their full potential. Announced recently, the Governor's plan has combined six line items that relate directly to human services into one line item and then decrease the total funding to this new line item by percent. It has been 19 estimated that the City of Philadelphia 20 would lose approximately 40 million in funding that directly affects its behavioral health, human services, public health and housing departments. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 relate directly to children, the homeless, individuals struggling with drug and alcohol addiction, and other serious medical needs. The Governor's proposal would also call for cuts to state welfare and public benefits, including medical care and food stamps, benefits that determine if someone gets to live or eat and that more and more people have come to rely on during these difficult economic times. Almost immediately these cuts would impact over 20,000 people. On the behavioral health side, 11,000 people would lose access to mental health assessments, 400 community residential beds would be eliminated, 400 case management services to individuals with chronic severe mental health illness and substance abuse issues would be eliminated, and mobile emergency services would be reduced across the City. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 as legal services and supportive services for domestic violence victims.
An estimated percent of reduction in case 5 management services for emergency and 6 transitional housing would mean that 7 individuals trying to prevent 8 homelessness would stay in shelters 9 longer or, worse, the need will be too 10 great and families will be turned away. 11 On the health side, we can 12 expect reductions to HIV/AIDS services, 13 including hospice beds for AIDS patients 14 and reductions to HIV testing and case 15 management. This is of particular 16 concern to Congreso given that the work we do has found an increase in the number of positive testing results in our community. Maternal and child health services would also be reduced, including prenatal care for the uninsured and services to families who have children with special needs. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 additional strain onto an already cash-strapped School District. This again is of grave concern to us due to the significant number of high school dropouts at 48 percent and higher amongst African American and Latino males. Since the beginning of the economic recession a few years ago, the City has had to do more with less each year. As times have gotten worse, we have had to find more ways to help the growing numbers of those in need with fewer and fewer resources. Deputy Mayor Schwarz has said that he expects that these cuts to services, housing and supports would mean that we will have more people who are homeless, an increase in street population, more people with untreated mental illnesses and substance abuse, an increase in our jail population and an increase in institutionalization. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 undermine the quality of whatever services remain. From intake assessment, treatment to management and then follow-up care, the process of delivering essential services in a thorough and effective manner would be greatly disrupted. Philadelphia has spent many years working diligently to develop a safety net for members of our community that are most in need. Philadelphia is the state's economic driver, and the Latino community is the largest growing segment of that population. Now is the time to invest in our future and not further harm or reduce and eliminate necessary services that are greatly needed in communities like Eastern North Philadelphia. We must do our best to support the most vulnerable, and we urge City leaders to make their voices heard in the name of the most needy. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 rates sore and people lose hope in the systems that are ultimately designed to help them. These cuts will take decades to recoup from if all continues as Governor Corbett plans. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
Thank you very much for your testimony. Very thoughtful, very informative. Next. Who is next? Well, Dr. Pope.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Regarding the impact of Governor Corbett's proposed state budget cuts for health and human services, Fiscal Year 2012-2013 --
Could you summarize that if you are going to repeat the same information.
In the interest of time and to avoid redundancy, yes, I'm going to summarize the full impact. I am Dr. Cheryl V. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 APM, Deputy Vice President of Health and Human Services appearing on behalf of APM President and CEO, Nilda Ruiz. As many of you know, APM is a Latino-based health and human services and community development agency building better futures for Philadelphia area families. We have an array of programs and services, including education for children, mental health support, drug and alcohol treatment, health promotion, designing and constructing affordable housing, and teaching financial literacy. APM serves clients throughout the Greater Philadelphia area. A complete listing of our services appears at the end of this testimony. Housing support networks, many also will be overwhelmed by these budget cuts. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 don't speak English or are unfamiliar with the inner workings of the system and rely on APM to help them navigate, become educated and eventually self-sustaining citizens who no longer need assistance. As threatening as the above eventualities are, the snowball effect will not stop there. It is projected that there will be a loss of 500 to 600 residential mental health beds in the City of Philadelphia. So these people will be discharged to shelters. When their unmonitored illnesses and disabilities manifest or worsen, the admissions process and length of stays will take longer in many inpatient stay opportunity. Additionally, as often happens, when the behaviors are undertreated and undiagnosed, some people end up in jail with charges stemming from behaviors that otherwise could have been controlled with treatment, and that causes more financial burdens on all those attendant systems. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 We have a number of problems to watch out for. , patients with violent psychotic episodes, schizophrenia, et cetera. APM and many outpatient clinics designed to handle moderate case severities would be in a dangerous position as the ripple effect takes hold and more and more patients with serious psychosis go wherever they are familiar, ending up on the doorsteps of community organizations where they know their language and the reputation for caring. The alarming impact does not stop there, experts say. Thirty-five thousand people in Philadelphia will be affected by the cuts to General Assistance. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 seek medical health outpatient services; 437 beds will be lost for drug and alcohol clients; and over 1,500 uninsured individuals will not be able to receive any form of drug and alcohol treatment. The Department of Human Services will lose housing support for more than 575 families. There will be a further increase in homelessness of older aging youth, those between to years 12 old; delayed family reunifications, which 13 would impact directly on APM's foster 14 care program. 15 When they have the reality of 16 how all these proposed cuts will affect 17 working individuals and families, when 18 you remove quality child care, there was 19 the real chance people will start losing 20 their jobs. The ability to trust one's 21 children with responsible educational care is crucial to two-home families. The overburdening of existing staff at organizations like APM is also a very ill-advised, unprofessional practice. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 give high-quality, intensive human service. The previous budget cuts already added more work with less staff. To further stress, the current staff will have an eventually -- will have an extremely negative effect on patient needs and services and will also impact morale with new negative lows. These cascading effects are the most easily predicted results of the proposed budget cuts by Governor Corbett. As with life in general, there are also those negative developments which cannot be predicted.
What we are talking about here is cutting the safety net for people in need, plus entire families. They are the most vulnerable. Governor Corbett is cutting the net, leaving them dangling with very real dire consequences for all of Philadelphia. More than ever, we are all connected in our society. When those around us are in trouble, the pressure is felt everywhere. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 No one is stating that sensible, well-thought changes might be in order. However, to do this at the expense of the most vulnerable members of our society is cruel, unnecessary and extremely shortsighted. Wholesale cuts destroying the social fabric will have a long-lasting, highly damaging effect on our culture, our children and grandchildren. How many pairs of Imelda Marcos' shoes must we pay for before we can get our own people the help they need? The Cheney-Bush Administration admitted losing plane loads of cash bound for Iraq to the tune of $9 billion. There is a lot of money for corporate bailouts, corporate welfare and tax breaks of every kind, including the banks that seeded the 2008 crisis in the first place. If there is money for them, then surely there is money for the highly successful, life-saving programs APM has launched. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 widely reported throughout the major media, and those success stories are about strong, healthy, wonderful people. Their journey from poverty to prosperity benefits everyone in the City and state. We build better futures, and every time we strengthen our fellow citizens, we create members of society who contribute to their communities and the tax base. The national defense budgets are often cited as so crucial that no one can even investigate them objectively, let alone make the kinds of devastating cuts the Governor wants made here. We understand the defense budget strengthens us by protecting us from exterior negative forces. Our services, social agencies and government programs strengthen and stabilize the interior of our country, and they are every bit as important. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 way. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you very much. Next, Miss, you're testifying for PCCY?
Yes. My name is Christie Balka and I'm Director of Advocacy for Public Citizens for Children and Youth. As many of you know, PCCY works to improve the lives and life chances of children in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties. And I want to state for the record that the organization does not solicit or accept public funds. We are grateful to you and your co-sponsor of this hearing today for the opportunity to testify on the impact of the proposed state budget on health and human services funding. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 Governor's proposed budget is enacted, it would be a disaster for Philadelphia's children, families and the City itself. But this is not inevitable, and all of us here have an important role to play in preventing it. Although the ostensible purpose of the Human Services Block Grant is to provide counties with more flexibility, the only thing it really accomplishes is that it gives counties the freedom to decide which services to cut next. This proposal is like passing the buck without passing the bucks. The proposed percent 17 reduction to the seven line items that 18 are folded into the Human Services Block 19 Grant would cut 33 million from the 20 City's Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disabilities Services. As you've heard, that money currently pays for mental health services to more than 4,000 people and substance abuse treatment to more than 2,000 people. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 Elsewhere, Deputy Mayor Don Schwarz has estimated that Philadelphia will see a 50 to 75 percent increase in street homelessness and incarceration as a result of losing these funds. Gutting the City's community mental health system will have an enormous ripple effect on children and youth, as more children would enter the child welfare system and additional families would experience separation at greater cost to both children, to the City and to taxpayers. You've already heard that the Human Services Block Grant would reduce services to families who are caring with children with intellectual disabilities. Cuts to the Office of Supportive Housing would reduce the City's capacity to provide housing supports to youth who are aging out of the child welfare system. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. , and this would be occurring at precisely the same time that the School District's summer programs and child care subsidy for after-school programs are also being reduced in our city. These are all consequences of the Human Services Block Grant, but the budget also proposes a six and a half million dollar cut to the Health Department that would reduce prenatal care and lead poisoning prevention. It proposes a cut to the Free Library of Philadelphia and also a cut to Community College of Philadelphia. And in addition to reducing money that goes directly to these City agencies, the Corbett budget proposes two significant cuts in direct payments to Philadelphia residents. General Assistance -- and you've already heard about the impact of General Assistance -- would come at a cost of about $86 million to Philadelphians. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 subsidy would come at a cost of more than $8 million to this county alone. The loss of General Assistance would again compound the increase in homelessness and most likely result in an additional increase of children entering foster care. And the cuts to child care subsidy would make it more difficult for parents to retain jobs without placing their children in potentially unsafe conditions while they work. Earlier Councilwoman Quinones-Sanchez asked about the cost-benefit analysis or the economic impact of these cuts. If you want to talk about economic impact, we spend about $2,450 per year providing General Assistance to the caregiver of a foster child. It costs us more than $21,000 a year for foster care for one child. So there you have it.
These cuts don't make economic sense, as much as they don't make policy sense and human sense. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 17 for every dollar spent. That is the result of increased wages, consumer spending and taxes paid by Philadelphia residents. Children have needs that cross agency boundaries, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention here proposed cuts to the School District of Philadelphia. In addition to providing an education, the School District provides many children with preventative healthcare, behavioral health and family support services. With our School District still reeling from the impact of last year's budget cuts, the Governor's budget this year would result in a $21 million cut at the same time that the District is being asked to meet a long-deferred increased pension obligation with no additional financial support. Now, Councilman O'Brien mentioned stock and franchise tax, and I just want to echo the point that that will save the state $250 million. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 could make the cuts that I've just mentioned whole by delaying the scheduled reduction of the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax. We could close the Delaware loophole. That would save us another $150 million. And attached to my testimony are some additional ways that the state can save money and encourage growth over the long term. I'm afraid we can't do this by talking about stopping cuts alone, and we also have to talk about the revenue increasing side of this. Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth and has much to lose if this budget is adopted. More families will be homeless. More children would be left by themselves or in unsafe conditions during the day. More would attend schools that are unable to meet their needs. I said earlier that these cuts are not inevitable, but preventing them will require heavy lifting from all of us. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 geographic and political boundaries, as was discussed earlier, and I urge you to do everything in your power to build those alliances and prevent this budget from going through. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Could we allow the lady to come to the table so she can testify.
Good afternoon. My name is Rose Malinowski Weingartner. I'm a researcher with Public Health Management Corporation and their Community Health Database, and I'm presenting information today from our 2010 Southeastern Pennsylvania Household Health Survey and other sources to show the many threats to health and well-being faced by children in Philadelphia and adults in special populations, including adults with mental health conditions, adults in recovery, and adults with physical and intellectual disabilities. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 I'd like to thank you for taking the time to allow us to speak today. The Community Health Database's 2010 Household Health Survey was a telephone survey conducted of 10,000 adults and 3,000 children in the five-county area. All of the respondents are non-institutionalized adults. So when I'm talking about numbers of adults in particular situations, I'm only scratching the surface. I'm talking about adults who are able to be reached at home, on their land line or their cell phone. So there's an obvious population we're missing here. So the data I'm presenting here today are from the 4,399 interviews conducted within Philadelphia. Approximately 175,400 adults in Philadelphia have been diagnosed with a mental health condition. More than 100,000 of those adults are receiving treatment for their mental health conditions. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 would describe their overall health status as fair or poor, and this represents about 70,800 adults in the City. About one in seven Philadelphia adults with a mental health condition has no public or private health insurance, leaving about 21,800 adults vulnerable. More than one in five adults in the City with a mental health condition, which is about 40,000 adults, has been sick and needed care in the past year, but has not received that care because of the cost. Three in ten adults with mental health conditions in our city have been prescribed medications, but have not been able to afford to pick up those medications during the past year. So that's about 53,500 adults who may not be getting the care that they need. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 Philadelphia. This is 58,000 adults. More than a quarter of adults with mental health conditions in the City have had to cut the size of their meals or skip meals because of the cost. This means that about 49,000 adults with mental health conditions in Philadelphia may be food insecure. Nearly two-thirds of Philadelphia adults with mental health conditions find it very difficult or somewhat difficult to afford their housing, meaning that there may be 108,000 adults with mental health conditions who do not have secure housing in our city. Additionally, our data show that about 128,300 adults in Philadelphia are in recovery from alcohol or other drugs. More than a third of adults in recovery in our city, about 46,000, describe their health as fair or poor. One in five of these adults have no 25 public or private health insurance. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 More than one in five adults in the City in recovery, nearly 30,000 adults, has been sick and needed care in the past year, but has not gotten that care because of the cost. A quarter of adults in recovery in the City have been prescribed medications they could not receive because of the cost. Our Community Health Database research also shows that more than a third of adults in recovery, 47,200 adults in the City, in recovery live below the federal poverty line. About two-thirds of adults in recovery in our city say it's difficult or somewhat difficult to afford their housing, and that's 80,300 adults in recovery with unstable housing. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 insecure. So what we're seeing is that there are multiple risks based by these populations. 4 percent of all adults in the City, said they have a physical, mental or emotional disability.
And, again, this is non-institutionalized adults, adults who can be reached at home. Among adults with disabilities, about 22,000 still have no public or private health insurance. More than one in five adults with disabilities in our city, about 45,000, have been sick and needed care in the past year, but have not gotten that care because of the cost. Nearly four in ten adults with disabilities in the City have needed dental care in the past year, but have not gotten it because of cost. That's 78,900 adults. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 About three in ten adults with disabilities in the City, 60,000 adults, have been prescribed medication that have not been able to receive it because of cost. So they're not getting the treatment that they need. Community Health Database research also shows that four in ten, about 81,000 adults, with physical or mental disability lives below the federal poverty line in the City. In Philadelphia, about three in ten adults with disabilities have had to cut the size of their meals or skip meals because of cost, which is 60,000 adults who may be food insecure. So overall there are hundreds of thousands of adults in these special risk groups, these special populations, who are facing additional financial need who may be subject to additional risk because of these cuts. I appreciate you giving me the time. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090
Good job. Thank you for that information. It's very helpful to have. We have it in our packet, right?
Thank you very much. Thank you all very much for your testimony and taking time to come out and for your patience and the information. Thank you. Our final panel, I believe, we have Paula Cullinan, Jeff Wilush, Kathleen Brown McHale, Dyann Roth, Tony Valdes and Jonathan Ramos.
Yes. DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 (Witnesses approached witness table.)
All right. I'm going to ask Mr. Ramos to speak first. He has to go to a meeting, and all of you have to go to meetings, but he has one in a few minutes. Thank you very much. Would you state your name for the record and please present your testimony.
Good afternoon, Madam Chair. My name is Jonathan Ramos. I'm a retired police officer, past President of the Spanish American Law Enforcement Association, the largest Spanish-speaking law enforcement association in the State of Pennsylvania. I truly appreciate the opportunity to speak before this body. I would like to share with you my concerns over the current food stamp asset test imposed on our senior citizens residing within the Commonwealth. My current State Representative DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 stated in a newspaper article that he was okay with the asset test for seniors approved by the Governor. This is one of the reasons why I'm running for State Representative. Four thousand five hundred dollars is not enough money for someone to pay for a respectable funeral. The cost of living continues to go up and for the first time in three years, our elderly received a cost of living increase. The food stamp program is paid for by the federal government. It is more expensive to monitor the asset test than the amount of fraud and abuse that is currently taking place. The reduction of people receiving food stamps will impact the economy and the ability for families and our seniors to buy quality food. These are the people that are basically the most vulnerable ones in our community, our seniors and our young kids. Another example is the proposed DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 cuts to cash assistance that people receive while under recovery. These specific benefits are 90 percent reimbursable by the federal government. In Philadelphia, these benefits offer a safety net to people who truly need assistance to continue fighting for their lives as they struggle against their demons. The 180th District has a huge population that is living under those conditions. Some of them are living under the railroad tracks near Gurney Street. Last, but not least, the Latino community is a driving state of -- is the driving -- is driving the State of Pennsylvania and the City of Philadelphia realized population growth. Pennsylvania's agricultural economy depends on the Latino community and the immigrant population. Pennsylvania needs to develop strategies to lure Hispanics that will support and sustain the DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 agricultural economy. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania must grow revenue through stronger economy and workforce prepared to do the job, and that will definitely include my Hispanic brothers and sisters. I thank you for the opportunity to speak and pray that we can develop strategies to provide a safety net for those families and elders that need it the most. Thank you.
Thank you very much for your testimony. We say thank you for taking the time to come down to give us this perspective. Any questions? (No response.)
If you get to Harrisburg, we want you to be a strong voice against this kind of stuff.
Madam Chair, I DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 intend to do that.
Don't vote for Act and and 66 and whatever 5 else comes down the pike. Thank you. 6
Thank you 8 very much. 9 Sorry about the time, but your 10 information is just as important to the 11 record. Everything goes into the record. 12 When we go back to review comments, 13 testimony, we read the entire record. 14 And I always tell folk when they want to 15 challenge us on issues, have you read the 16 notes of testimony? Because they are 17 very, very important. 18 So thank you for your patience. 19 Proceed. 20
Thank you. Good 21 afternoon. I very much appreciate the 22 opportunity to speak with you today. My 23 name is Paula Cullinan. I am the Chief Operating Officer of the Center for Autism and President of the Philadelphia DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 Alliance.
Excuse me. Let me just make this statement also. Because you don't see the Councilmembers here, we have televisions in our office and we watch it on television. I watch hearings all the time, and you can do the computer and still hear the testimony, which is the most important thing, that they hear what you say. And so I will definitely say that a number of them are listening and watching you on television. Thank you. And this is televised on cable, our cable network, during the hearing, as well as it will be repeated.
Okay. The Center is a non-profit clinic that has been serving individuals with autism and their families since 1955. The Philadelphia Alliance is an organization of 54 specialized agencies that serve individuals with mental health conditions, intellectual disability and DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 chemical dependency. Alliance agencies employ well over 20,000 people and serve more than 100,000 vulnerable Philadelphians with significant needs. We are proud to be part of a vibrant and healthy social safety net which leads the nation in efficacy and positive outcomes. The Alliance also understands the difficulties of the current economic climate, and we agree that the state's fiscal reality must be addressed. However, we also believe there has not been sufficient thought to or planning for the longer-term effects of some of the cuts currently proposed by Governor Corbett. We are particularly concerned with the economic impact on Philadelphia and with the negative effect on quality of community life in the City. The cuts to the social service system proposed by the Governor have the potential of costing hundreds of jobs across the Philadelphia region. These job losses will reduce planned income tax DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 revenue for the City and reduce consumer spending. The steep cuts contained in the HSDF Block Grant proposal and the elimination of the General Assistance program will cause the human service providers, who encompass a large portion of the City's business community, to cut their workforces. Dyann Roth's testimony today will provide additional details about those cuts. As many of you know, providers are stretched thin. Several of our member agencies have already enacted significant layoffs and consolidated programs. The safety net has already been cut to the bone. This budget proposes cuts so severe that many providers will be finally forced to close programs. Philadelphia cannot afford to lose its human service workforce. Many people with intellectual and behavioral disabilities receive services that enable them to positively DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 contribute to society. As programs shrink and these individuals lose access to necessary community services, there is nowhere for them to go except to the streets, prisons and state-run institutions. The loss of critical services to people with disabilities will be devastating. In addition to severe funding reductions, the state has asked providers to operate under excessive and burdensome regulations. As you will hear from Jeff Wilush and Kathy Brown McHale, the regulations proposed by DPW greatly exacerbate the micromanagement of private providers' businesses and force providers to operate below cost. This is not sustainable for long and will force programs to close their doors. Even Governor Corbett agrees that caring for people with disabilities is a core responsibility of government. When vital human services are not funded by government, jobs are lost and people DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 are harmed. Without the availability of community-based services, these individuals will tax other more costly community resources. This doesn't help Philadelphia or our citizens. People need help, and the help they get from Philadelphia's human resource providers not only improves quality of life for the individual, it improves the quality of life in the City's communities and supports the economic health of the region. I urge you to continue to work with us to oppose the proposed cuts in the Governor's budget. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, for this opportunity. My name is Jeff Wilush and I have the privilege of being the President and Chief Executive Officer of Horizon House, an organization founded in Philadelphia DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 in 1952. And I was not one of the founders. I will truncate my testimony to really be three major points that I've outlined in my written testimony. And the first is that the individuals that we serve, their families and the people that we employ and our organizations are integral parts of the Philadelphia community, and as such, to propose budget cuts and the regulatory reforms that are contained within the Governor's proposal will have a significant and detrimental impact on our community. The organizations and businesses like Horizon House are employee driven, but 75 percent of our funding going directly to employee wages and salaries. In order to survive the cuts of this magnitude, organizations will need to eliminate jobs simply to survive. The cuts proposed by the Governor will lead to significant job DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 losses across the City. And without these dedicated employees, people in need of our services will go unserved, and communities will be negatively impacted. To put it simply, this funding pays citizens of Philadelphia to provide services to citizens of Philadelphia, both of whom will be negatively impacted by these cuts. And, finally, I'll point out what others have pointed out today, is that numerous studies have proven that an effective network of supports provided in communities, like those provided in the City of Philadelphia, is the most cost-efficient way to provide services to individuals, not to mention the most compassionate and effective way to encourage independence and self-sufficiency. The short-term economic game of these cuts will only lead to a higher long-term cost in dollars as well as the immeasurable cost to the families and communities that are DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 Philadelphia. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
Thank you very much. Does your program provide in-home services to your clients?
We provide a lot of case management services to individuals who are living in their own apartments, yes, ma'am.
All right. Thank you. Ms. McHale. MS. McHALE: Good afternoon. Thank you, Chairwoman Tasco, for this opportunity. My name is Kathleen Brown McHale. I am the President and CEO of a non-profit Philadelphia-based organization, SPIN. We provide full range services for children and adults with intellectual, developmental and autism spectrum disabilities since 1971. In those years, we have seen significant DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 strides in the lives of people with serious disabilities. SPIN and other providers have taken people out of institutions and brought them back into community, where they have lived real lives and contributed to society. We have also supported families so that their loved ones did not need to go into institutions. In Philadelphia, about 12,000 people with an intellectual disability are registered for services. There are 46,000 with an intellectual disability. Of these, 3,000 receive nominal or no 16 direct services at all. The 6 percent funding cut from the state that we received this year reduced those nominal services even further. The percent 20 cuts planned for next year will likely end minimal support for hundreds, and be the end of hope for thousands more who simply wait for services on the waiting list. SPIN provides service to 2,700 DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 children and 850 adults annually. Most of the adults are funded in one of two waivers which provide for community services. Two hundred and fifty of the adults live in SPIN-operated homes and receive 24/7 support to live an everyday life. These are individuals who once lived in back wards, in institutions or whose families are no longer able to provide care at home. They need life-long support, which is a core responsibility of government. Yet, in Fiscal Year '12, DPW gave themselves a 6 percent discount from providers' approved cost from two years ago. To deal with the 6 percent cut, which is a $2.9 million reduction in my organization, we decreased employees through attrition and layoffs. Today, SPIN has 51 fewer employees than it did a year ago. This has been even more difficult because at the same time the state gave themselves a 6 percent discount on services, they increased DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 program and fiscal regulations to providers such as my organization. Regulatory compliance requires qualified people, training and infrastructure. Because decreasing our workforce was still not sufficient to bring our costs in line, we also reduced health insurance and other benefits to our entire workforce. After all of this, SPIN is still operating in the red this year. That is primarily because we have not yet cut any services to people. The cuts that are coming for Fiscal '13 will send a critical blow to the mission of SPIN and the missions of other human service providers. We will be forced to cut services to people in critical need. We will see more people going back into institutions. We will be repeating mistakes of our past. We will undo the progress that has been made in many of our lifetimes, all at the expense of our most vulnerable citizens. And I urge that we continue to do everything we DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 can to assure that these cuts don't happen. Thank you for the opportunity.
Thank you. Don't leave. The question I want to ask all of you before Mr. Valdes speaks, what have you done thus far to reach out or communicate with the Secretary of Welfare in Harrisburg and the Governor relative to this issue? MS. McHALE: We've been in Harrisburg.
We have been constantly in Harrisburg meeting with Deputy Secretaries --
Not only through the Philadelphia Alliance, but also through the statewide organizations. A number of us have been meeting constantly with the Deputy Secretaries, attempting to meet with the Secretary. We've met with the Lieutenant Governor, have made DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 various visits to Senators and other legislators' offices just to raise the attention level around the potential impact of these cuts, because our main concern obviously as provider organizations is to minimize the impact of any of this on the people that we're committed to serving. So the education process has been something that we've taken very, very serious in this. MS. McHALE: We have also engaged our workforce, our Board, our employees. We have written letters to the Governor, to Senators, to our Representatives. We've visited them in their home offices, in Harrisburg. So, you know, we have really been working on this really throughout the year, because we felt those cuts already. They've already happened. And now, you know, facing further cuts, we are doing everything that we can, and we will not stop.
Thank you. DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 I wanted to ask that before any of you left. Ms. Roth.
Yes. I'm Dyann Roth and I'm representing Resources for Human Development, or RHD. We are a diversified non-profit human services provider with more than 1,400 employees in Philadelphia alone. We serve over about 10,000 individuals with developmental disabilities experiencing homelessness and in recovery from mental health and drug and alcohol abuse in this city. We also operate a network of federally qualified health centers that provide primary dental and behavioral health services to another 19,000 Philadelphians. I'm going to try to make mine short, because people have been so eloquent today with all of the points.
That's what happens when we have these hearings. When you get to be towards the end, DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 everybody has pretty much said everything, but please feel free.
As my colleagues and the Alliance have already described, we're very concerned not only about the percent cut on the lines going into 8 the Human Services Block Grants, but also 9 the regulations that are being forced 10 through in an expedited fashion without 11 any public process. And those 12 regulations, as I think Tony will also 13 talk about, some of the damage 14 financially on our organizations are not 15 immediately visible, but the regulations 16 themselves will cause even more havoc 17 with the financial stability of many of 18 our organizations. What that really 19 means -- and I'm off my testimony here a 20 little bit -- is that very stable -- you hear the years of longevity of these provider organizations. We will be destabilized financially. Our employees will lose jobs, and the people that we serve -- I believe one of the things that DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 we haven't said very directly today is not only will people be using the ER more, they will be going into psychiatric institutions more, they will be going into jails more, but they will die. One of the employees of RHD's Woodstock Family Center, which is an emergency housing program for women who are experiencing homelessness and their children, wanted me to share her story today. And her name is Jenell Smith. She was a single mother, unemployed and struggling very seriously with powerful drug addiction. She was able to receive General Assistance, which helped her feed and clothe her four young children while she completed a drug treatment program and obtained a GED. She took part in a work readiness program at that time, which helped her gain the courage and sense of responsibility she needed to get and keep a job. And she sustained her employment for 12 years. She now counsels women in the DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 same type of life situation she found herself in, offering hope and strength to help them move out of homelessness. Jenell believes that if it were not for the drug treatment program that served her and the supports that General Assistance and the community of services that she was able to take part in, she would be dead today. Instead, she's contributing to so many other families and to our community. This city cannot afford to lose more of our neighbors to drug addictions and mental illnesses, and we need your help to keep people like Jenell healthy, employed and contributing positively to our community. Jenell is just one of thousands of employees who also -- we talked about ripple effects often. The families of our employees, the people that we serve and their families are all going to be tragically affected if these cuts go through. DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 And, finally, as others have also stated before me, what we need to do is not just talk about stopping the cuts, but also where do we find the resources. And so I do believe that together we need to help push forward some of the revenue proposals on the table in Harrisburg. As an organization and as part of many other organizations, RHD, we like to create rallies at the State Capitol. We like to bring our folks to the legislators, and we will join with any other members who have testified today to do that and make our voices and the voices of the people who are not always heard this time in Harrisburg. Thank you.
Well, thank you very much for your testimony. It's been very enlightening, and thank you for the work you do. I'm familiar with actually all of the organizations who are here today, especially Tony.
Thank you for DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 having us all here today. This is a privilege.
No. It's quite all right. I'm going to testify today representing the children and families served in Philadelphia's behavioral health system, many of whom seek services --
I'm Antonio Valdes, CEO of the Children's Crisis Treatment Center. And many of these children have suffered adverse experiences, physical and sexual abuse, family and community violence and other kinds of traumatic events. At CCTC, we're a private non-profit agency dedicated to assisting children and their families coping with DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 the impact of these types of issues. Specifically today, as you've already heard, I'm going to speak a little bit about the impact of the planned behavioral health co-pays on the children and families that we serve as an example of the kind of changes that are coming not necessarily through the budget itself. We contend that requiring co-payments will place a significant financial burden on families and force parents and caregivers to choose among other competing priorities when deciding whether or not to have their children participate in medically necessary behavioral health services. Given their limited resources, many families will need to prioritize among other basic needs, such as food, shelter, clothing and transportation. Who among us would want to be in the position to make such choices? We project that in the DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 best-case scenario, families will be able to afford to have their children participate in treatment only some of the time. In the worst-case scenario, families will decide that treatment services are no longer available to them and they can no longer afford them, and that in those cases, they will stop services altogether. Both scenarios will have potentially drastic results. In the words of a parent who participates in services with her two children who experienced trauma, I just don't know what my family could give up in order to be able to afford another cost associated with treatment. I also don't know what I would do without these services. We often think of these families as the cost is just simply the cost that they experience directly with us, getting to their appointments, the cost of transportation, et cetera. It's already an expensive endeavor for these families to participate actively in DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 services. Another parent commented, I look at the behavioral health services that my child receives as a medical need, just like if he had a physical health problem. The services are medically necessary. I would worry about his future if I'm not able to afford his treatment. Another parent added, It is a horrible experience not to be able to afford what my child needs. You can't afford to and you can't afford not to. Parents interviewed for this testimony expressed worrying concern about the dire consequences of families not being able to afford their child's treatment. Adding that their worst fear is that their community, the City of Philadelphia, won't be able to step in and help until it is too late. And by too late, they mean -- and in their own words -- that the children will end up in prison. DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 Again, I greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak today and will end with a quote attributed to Gandhi that we frequently use in our work and speaks to our purpose here today. "The measure of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable members." Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Councilwoman has a question.
I think this is an important point and one we were speaking about earlier off the record. What are some of the co-pays that we're talking about? Because I don't want -- I want people to kind of get clear about what you guys are going to be expected now to charge folks.
Well, some of that -- and some other folks, please jump in. Some of that is yet to be clarified. So like many other things, many of the specifics have not worked out. There are DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 some different criteria based on income. There's a lot of hidden administrative costs as well because now we're going to have to -- you can just imagine what's going to happen when someone comes in for an appointment where you're going to have to go through a whole process of determining income levels with every person that walks in to determine what co-pay they qualify for. All that stuff is sort of out there still to be worked out. So it's not even just the burden on the family, but there's an administrative burden that now it's going to be placed on each organization that's going to have to check on these.
Do you get a sense that there has been a well-thought-out discussion on this whole change?
Well -- and these are all guesses on most of our parts, I DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 think, as to what's behind these. But I know the insurance industry for a long time has known that the best way to reduce utilization is to add co-pays to the cost for a consumer coming into any kind of appointment that we all pay when we have co-pays with our own doctors. The idea behind that is to reduce utilization, often defined and characterized as they're trying to reduce over-utilization, but we'll leave it to each person's judgment as to what the real motivation is.
So we have the insurance industry. We have the prisons, increasing prisons, increasing institutions, increasing insurance. So somebody is going to make some money.
Yeah. Fortunately here in Philadelphia I think in behavioral health, we have CBH as a partner, who clearly views this in the same way I think we do. But it is -- I wonder about the traditional motivation DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 we've seen as these changes have been made in other places.
Thank you so much for testifying. I appreciate it very, very much, and certainly I appreciate your patience. You are all CEOs and very important to your organizations, but it's important that you came to let us hear your position. And we will try to figure out what the follow-through will be once we finish this. We'll have to talk about what we do next, and we'll be in touch with you. (Thank you.)
In addition to these two gentlemen, is there anyone else here to testify? (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Good afternoon. DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090
Chair Tasco and Ms. Sanchez, Vice Chair, my name is Paul Yabor. I'm with the Frankford Recovery Coalition, and I'm also with ACT UP Philadelphia, the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power. And I'm also a collaborator with the University of Pennsylvania doing ethnological field work with intravenous drug users. I'm going to skip who this affects, because we've heard it over and over again, but I'd like to say a couple things about recovery houses. So the grist of the situation is that over the past decade, an unwritten, unauthorized policy of cooperation has existed between private recovery houses and the welfare system. There was a book called How It Works by Professor Robert Fairbanks, which alludes to this or documents it very well. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 unwritten contract of sorts has allowed people addicted to drugs to get medically assessed as temporary disabled in need of drug and alcohol treatment. They are given $205 in cash and $200 in food stamps and medical benefits for nine months. The number one funding mechanism for recovery houses is General Assistance by a wide majority. The other funding streams for recovery houses such as the clients on SSI, SSD and those who work is minimal. It should also be pointed out that the management of recovery houses is a real shell game, where you'll have half the people, half the clients, receiving benefits while the other half are waiting to obtain them. There's up to a 30-day wait for cash benefits to kick in. The recovery houses take the cash and food stamp as rent. This varies from house to house as to exactly how much they take. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 and four months of outpatient. The client is encouraged to integrate back into the workforce and eventually move on in a process called Step in, Step Up, Step Out. This is a system that's flourished to the point where there are easily a few thousand recovery house beds citywide. I don't have exact figures. However, I am confident the system of recovery houses supplies as many, if not more, slots than the shelter system. The recovery house system also provides far more structured support and overall a better quality of life than the shelter system. The recovery house system also acts as a conduit for offenders coming out of jails and even the criminal justice programs such as Forensic Intensive Recovery program, relies on recovery houses to provide daily supervision and General Assistance to provide funding. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 on recovery? The majority of people in recovery houses would not have a way to pay the rent. The only other option would be the shelter system, which is already overwhelmed and already is also facing additional cuts. So we're talking about -- and I thought it was about a thousand, but after talking to Professor Fairbanks, the number is more like four or five thousand. Many recovery houses would be forced to close down or downsize and most likely foreclosing on mortgages and leaving additional vacant properties, some programs having six or more houses. Many people coming out of jail would not have any other place to turn other than the shelter system, which does not provide monitoring. Criminal justice programs would not have funding for their clients. IOPs and OP treatment programs will have to close or downsize. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 able to reapply for that. So maybe there's not as much of an impact there, but there'll still be a number of people lost to care. People emerging with addiction issues will have little chance of obtaining treatment, and the incidence of mortality from drug abuse will increase. With less supervision and a greater degree of desperation, offenders will be more likely to go out and commit more crimes. And I had e-mailed this to all Councilmembers.
I'd just like to say that our system of recovery houses is the front line against the battle with addiction in the City, and it's perhaps one of the most dynamic components. It's based on grassroots and it's the most fundamental, because at the end of the day when any treatment program is over, it is back to the recovery house that they go and they live. This is their shelter. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 The loss of GA is going to devastate this, and I don't believe that the City of Philadelphia can in any way absorb doubling the people in shelters, especially people who are vulnerable to going out and getting involved in addiction and committing more crime. I share Senator Vincent Hughes' hope, but I believe that hope for the best and expect and plan for the worst. And no matter how much advocating we do along the lines of trying to change these cuts, we have to prepare for the inevitability that something is coming down the pike. It's my sincere hope that if we have to, we have to declare a public health emergency and act in that respect. Not only does this reflect on people in addiction, but I'd just like to step into the HIV and AIDS for a moment. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 at or greater than that of Sub-Saharan Africa. We're seeing women of color who their rate of infection is rapidly expanding as well. In retrospect to that, the one sector we have seen reductions is with IV drug use, which we can say is a lot to do with our needle exchange program. However, along those lines, we have the recovery houses which supply the structured environments where the addict cannot only -- where the addict seeking treatment can go, and which is also an element of our needle exchange program. We don't -- in that program of Prevention Point Philadelphia, it doesn't just supply equipment, it also supplies counseling and referrals to our recovery house system. And in addition to that, we're looking at a $24 million cut in funding for HIV and AIDS, the federal matching funds. And that's about it. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 to prepare.
Thank you very much. It's a challenge to prepare. I go back to Dr. Schwarz this morning, over 30 years developing a system that seems to be working, to change it drastically and immediately just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. So I'm not sure what the rationale is, but thank you for coming. Councilwoman Sanchez has a question.
I want to thank you. I too have had an opportunity to spend some time with Mr. Fairbanks, read his book, had him provide orientation to my staff. When I first got elected, I inherited this kind of recovery house situation in my 24, 34 zip code. My office has done extensive work, and we've identified about 300 properties in the Kensington area that provides some sort of recovery house. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 out of the market, it became very clear to me, outside of taking all the political hits by folks who have challenged me because of my unwillingness to say I'm against recovery and my unwillingness to say that these are not necessary services, my work with Councilwoman Blackwell, it is clear to me that without this system that has been created particularly in those zip codes, 34 and 24, we would have many, many people homeless and in the street. And I am extremely concerned. It's a conversation we had with Dr. Schwarz when we did the briefing and I worked very closely with Dr. Evans on, and just yesterday had a discussion with the top brass at the Police Department as we try to combat crime along that corridor where Jose Benitez, who I also work very hard and advocate for, Prevention Point. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 work has been effective. All of these things are not sexy and it's stuff that nobody in the community wants to deal with. And when I first heard about the state cuts, that was my first thing. General Assistance is crazy for the people in the recovery, the amount of money that flows in the community, because all this money is spent rapidly. So it cycles in and out of the system. I can tell you that as a city, we're not prepared. The Mayor's budget does not even begin to fill the $44 million hole, let alone all of these other cuts that don't go through our budget but are going to impact our budget system. Our Office of Special Needs has told us they can't handle anything else. And so I agree with you, this is definitely a state of emergency and one that we have to be loud and clear about that how it's going to impact cities and particular neighborhoods like Kensington. That's why we're outraged. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 The Councilwoman and I really want to bring this to the attention. People need to understand that these cuts are state and, therefore, when we have to carry -- we're carrying the burden of this. We've carried Corbett's cuts. This one is one that we can't even begin to fill, because even if we said as a Council that we can try to fill in those 44 million, we can't do the General Assistance. We can't do the Medicaid. We can't do the behavioral health services. So we are in -- and, again, this money is reimbursable at the federal level. There's no reason why Corbett is cutting this, other than the fact that they're mean-spirited and someone through this Act 22, the Secretary of Welfare in this case, has been given way too much power, way too much power to make the numbers work. And we're really in for a devastating effect. com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 quickly as the state thinks it could do this. So it's not a question. It's just a level of frustration and fear that I have about what's it going to do to the different systems within the City of Philadelphia, including the Police Department. The police doesn't want to arrest. I mean, part of our challenge in even responding to intersections like Kensington and Somerset is, you don't want to victimize the victim anymore, the users over there. So for neighborhoods like the ones that I represent, it is going to be tremendously impactful, and crime will undoubtedly increase.
Thank you so much for your testimony. We appreciate it very much. Mr. Froehlich.
Yes. Hi. How are you? Good afternoon. My name is Jake Fleming. I'm a Peer Specialist at DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 Northeast Treatment Centers, adult behavior services, mainly substance abuse and co-occurring disorders. Thank you for -- it's a pleasure to be here today. First and foremost, I have to tell you, I am a grateful and blessed, truly blessed, recovering alcoholic and drug addict. I've been asked to come here to tell you about my story pretty much and what Medical Assistance and the cash assistance did for me to save my life. So we're going to get a little deep here for a minute, but I'll keep it short and sweet. February 28, 2008, I surrendered to alcoholism and drug addiction. I knew I needed treatment. I knew I needed help, after 30 years of abuse, alcoholism and drug abuse, 30 years out there. I wouldn't be alive today if I hadn't got the treatment that I got. I would not be here. I was homeless. I was destitute. I was physically and DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 mentally sick. When I went to detox, had I not sought help, they told me, the doctors there, said if I had not sought help when I did, I probably wouldn't have lived two more months. That's how sick I was. Receiving the cash assistance and the Medical Assistance helped me get in the recovery house, which I'm glad my man talked about, because that's a real huge part of this, and it helped me get into outpatient treatment. I was able to have a place to live, get in a recovery house, like I said, received the treatment, recover and complete the program. Three weeks ago I celebrated four years of sobriety.
I'm employed today. I'm paying taxes. I'm supporting myself and I'm also supporting my 14-year-old daughter, who I neglected for many, many years. DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 If this budget that Governor Corbett -- if it goes through, the impact, we've been talking about all day, it's going to be devastating to the City as well as to the state. Homelessness obviously will skyrocket. People that are seeking treatment won't be able to get treatment that they're seeking. They won't have the recovery houses to go to because they will shut down. So people will be able on the street. At Northeast Treatment Center, we recently did a survey of our clients and we asked the clients a simple question: What would you do if your cash assistance and Medical Assistance was cut, and 80 percent of those, of our clients, said they would be homeless. Most of those said that they believed they would basically have no choice to resort back to what they know; for instance, burglary, prostitution, drug dealing, death by drug abuse, instead of receiving the help that they could have DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 received -- that they're receiving now. Where's the shared sacrifice, you know? As I stated, I wouldn't be alive today. I wouldn't be supporting my child. I wouldn't be a productive member of society had I been denied the help that's going to happen if this budget passes. People are going to get denied. This assistance saved my life. I should be laying in a grave. I should be laying in a grave. This assistance saved my life. If it's fast, it's going to be ugly. It's going to be ugly. People will die. I'm living proof of what this assistance can do. Somebody said earlier, one of the Councilmembers said, we need to put a face on it. I'm your face. I represent thousands of people in recovery. Because we do recover. If we choose --
But the state would not think you were the face. They see another face. They don't see DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 your face. They don't believe that your face exists.
It's real. We do recover, but I couldn't have done it without this help. I just don't know -- people will die. I shouldn't be here, as I said. I want to thank you for letting me speak.
We thank you, and we thank you are here, thank you that you are here, that you took advantage of the resources that were available and that you stayed with it. We continue to encourage you to keep it up and keep going forward and work with your daughter. I think it's a great story.
And I appreciate it very much. Mr. Froehlich, you want to add something? DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090
My name is Michael Froehlich. I'm a staff attorney with Community Legal Services. I've submitted my testimony and so I'll summarize. I wanted to quickly recognize earlier today there were about 150 folks from the One Day At a Time program that were here. They had to leave earlier. There were dozens of people who are associated with the Northeast Treatment Center that had to leave, and Sonya Mendelovich, who is in the gallery here, has been instrumental in working with folks. A number of organizations have come together and organizing around the General Assistance program. We have a website at pacaresforall.org. That's pacaresforall.org where you can find more DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 information about how to contact your legislators, the Governor, media reports and other information about who is receiving General Assistance and who would be most affected by the elimination. I want to say two things -- sorry; three things. Number one, it's really great to hear that General Assistance is being talked about so much today, because it really isn't being talked about in Harrisburg. The human services cuts, the education cuts are all being talked about, but I don't think GA is being talked about enough. If the basic ed cut -- basic ed cuts to Philadelphia are about $20 million. Like Temple University cuts are at $40 million. The human services cuts, $42 million. But just the General Assistance cash alone is at like $86 million. It dwarfs the other cuts. All of these programs are important and DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 critical, but when you talk about the General Assistance program, it dwarfs the other stuff. I'm a legal aide lawyer and I'm an advocate and I'm proud to be a legal aide lawyer and an advocate, but I'm also a taxpayer and I live out in West Philly. And I pay my taxes from my employment, and it offends me as a taxpayer to see the waste that would happen if you eliminated General Assistance. The Governor says cut GA, we'll save $150 million, but it's like 205 bucks a month. And you cut GA, the cost of the shelter system is a thousand dollars a month. God forbid crime increases. Cost for incarceration is $3,000 a month. So the General Assistance program, aside from being a lifeline for so many people, is also one of the most efficient and cheap programs that we have to deal with this problem. Finally, and worse of all, it doesn't have to be this way. I think DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 that's the craziest thing about this whole day, is people have come up and talked about all the cuts and what they're going to mean, and it doesn't have to be this way. And we don't have to raise taxes to save all these critical programs. If we just delay the planned tax cuts and we close the corporate tax loopholes, we can save the General Assistance program, we can save the human services programs, and we can save our basic ed and our colleges. And I think that that's a message that certainly people in Harrisburg need to hear and are starting to hear, and we need make sure that they do hear. So thank so much for considering my testimony, and my submitted testimony has more information in it.
Thank you very much. We certainly appreciate your time. We appreciate your testimony. We certainly appreciate your story, and DiscoveryWorks Global 888.557.8650 www.dw-global.com 3/20/12 - PUBLIC HEALTH - RES. 120090 thank you for the work you're doing in the community. And we will see where we go from here. Councilwoman and I will talk, kind of figure out what is our strategy. We're certainly -- I'm in communication with my State Rep every day. I listen to this every day, because, you know, we talk about what's going on in Harrisburg. And so we'll get together and kind of figure out what we can do to help. Thank you. Anyone else here to testify? (No response.)
There being no further testimony, this Committee will stand in recess until the call of the Chair. Thank you. com CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on March 20, 2012, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. -------------------- MICHELE L. com 226:24 227:21 necessarily 73:4 107:5 108:7 254:9 necessary 137:22 147:21 180:12 206:18 238:4 254:17 256:8 269:8 neck 89:20 need 5:13 6:22 7:8 17:9 21:17,25 26:2 31:18 33:14 39:3,5,6 43:4 44:7 52:17 59:17 60:7 69:14 71:10 83:2 84:24 97:23 99:16 100:9 104:10 105:10 108:3 110:19 113:6 123:2,7 124:5 129:9,10 138:15 138:15,18 161:7 161:10,11,12 168:22 173:24 176:24 179:22 181:12 182:10 185:17,22 186:4,4 186:21,23 189:6 197:11,19 198:2 200:8 201:25 204:9 205:13 206:12 209:6 212:18 213:15 224:22 228:7,21 232:7 233:10 239:7 240:22 241:3 243:9 244:11 245:19 251:15 252:3,6 254:20 256:5 262:4 267:25 271:3 276:19 281:15,16 needed 158:7 167:12 181:25 200:14 206:19 224:13 226:4 227:19,22 250:22 273:18,19 needle 267:9,15 needs 21:15 28:19 33:4 59:3 69:15 85:9 91:3 104:11 138:16 145:7 174:18 180:14 203:5 204:24 212:9 220:6 221:21 232:23 236:5 254:21 256:13 270:18 needy 201:10 206:23 negative 34:22 60:24 108:24 142:8 212:8,10,15 214:18 236:19 negatively 241:5,9 neglected 274:24 negotiate 147:13 negotiated 62:23 negotiating 16:20 neighborhood 193:10 196:25 neighborhoods 270:24 272:14 neighboring 26:8 132:13 neighbors 251:14 net 5:2 91:16,19,21 131:25 134:11,14 140:21 143:5 145:20 156:20 164:3 174:15 176:8 206:11 212:18,20 232:7 233:9 236:7 237:17 nets 8:20 9:4 network 235:16 241:14 248:15 networks 208:19 never 107:20 118:17 154:20 161:23 new 4:2,6 20:22 21:11 23:16,20 24:17 39:15,24 43:11,15 64:23 108:19 128:21 155:5 202:17 212:10 221:25 newly 19:20 news 40:11 78:14 newspaper 231:2 NHS 150:18 157:21 162:18 NHS/TAIG 187:3 188:17 Nicholas 148:19 158:16,17 182:23 night 184:5,5 194:17 Nilda 208:4 nine 95:9 97:14 262:7 ninth 126:23 nominal 243:15,18 non-behavioral 18:6 non-institutionali... 9 55:23 7 7 90:18 140:19 143:11 7th 13:3 70 90:12 70s 100:11 70,800 224:4 700 153:16 71 137:2 75 171:22 217:4 240:18 76,000 164:5 78,900 227:25 8 8 90:18 8th 3:9 80 15:14 121:18 275:18 80,300 226:18 81,000 228:10 85 201:17 850 244:2 9 9 90:18 98:12,13 165:7 183:17 9-1-1 53:19 9:00 218:2 90 232:4 90s 45:17 146:24 900 152:4 934 54:5