Human service agencies begin layoffs
On the last day before the state budget expired, one Aurora social services agency laid off 80 workers and told 1,100 clients with developmental and mental health disabilities that they would lose services.
Other agencies also were moving ahead with cutbacks.
Workers and families alike cried upon hearing the news of layoffs and program cuts at the Association for Individual Development in Aurora, president and CEO Lynn O'Shea said.
"This," she said, "is the blackest day in the history of our agency."
The agency had to agree to the elimination of $3 million in state contracts, or else the state threatened to take away its Medicaid-funded programs as well, she said.
As a result, people with disabilities will lose job training, coaching and counseling, mental health counseling and medication management. The cuts affect group homes and individuals in assisted living in Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles and Elgin.
Some who do light packaging assembly will lose their jobs in a week, O'Shea said, and will likely lose their apartments.
In response, a federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday by Equip for Equality, a federally authorized advocate for people with disabilities.
The lawsuit seeks to stop the budget cuts on the grounds they violate the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.
Rather than making immediate cuts in services, some agencies are trying to cut discretional spending but keep staff and programs.
Little City Foundation in Palatine is doing that, but Executive Director Shawn Jeffers warned a proposed state budget to provide funding at about 50 percent of current levels would devastate people with mental and physical disabilities, including kids with autism who need housing and can't be taught in mainstream schools.
The loss of $6 to $8 million would close the agency's family program and cripple its foster care, as well as community centers and children's group homes, he said.
"In over 30 years of being in this field, never have I seen anything so reckless being proposed," Jeffers said. "We have to make sure that Illinois does the right thing."