Print  email 

Social services face losing critical funding as cuts loom

Staffing, services at risk as City Council looks at 2009 budget

By Matt Batcheldor | The Olympian • Published November 12, 2008

• Comments (0)

OLYMPIA – Directors of Olympia social-service programs worry that the city's 2009 budget will force them to cut staffing, services or both at a time when the economic downturn already is taking a heavy toll.

City officials have proposed cutting more than $150,000 in funding for human services for Olympia and Thurston County residents in the 2009 preliminary operating budget. Among the agencies that would be affected are the Olympia Early Learning Center, the Dispute Resolution Center of Thurston County, Community Youth Services, the Youth Partnership Program and the Human Services Review Council. The budget for the latter, a social-service spending consortium of Thurston County governments, would be cut from $195,000 to $170,000, while the other social services would lose their city funding completely.

The City Council will decide which services to cut when it adopts the 2009 budget. It must do so by the end of the year.

In the meantime, the council has some difficult decisions to make. One discussion about the budget is set for tonight's council meeting. Also, the public will get to have its say at a hearing Tuesday.

Here's how the agencies are coping with the potential cuts:

Community Youth Services

The city has funded CYS for about 15 years at a cost of about $37,500 a year, Executive Director Charles Shelan said.

His agency helps keep children off the streets and out of trouble, Shelan said. Its Rosie's Place day center gives children a place in which to get support from social workers in finding schools and jobs.

"It's primarily young people with backgrounds of severe deprivation, abuse, neglect, mental health issues, homelessness," he said. They might not be out on the street at night, but "they're going from couch to couch."

If the agency loses funding from the city, its ability to apply for federal and state grants will be hurt, he said, causing a domino effect that could destroy its network of care.

"We're very concerned about that," Shelan said.

He said he understands that economic times are tough, but "they should also look at what impact are those outside organizations having on our city."