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 It has been quite a year for New York’s nonprofits – one of severe challenges as significant reductions in government funding at all levels collided with skyrocketing human service needs.
The year got off to a blistering start with the inauguration of Andrew Cuomo as New York State’s new governor. Cuomo immediately set out to address a $9 billion State budget deficit through an extensive series of cuts to health, education and human services. In addition to imposing short-term funding reductions on a wide variety of programs, the governor launched what seemed like an unprecedented effort to redesign the State’s delivery system for Medicaid-funded medical and behavioral health services. Over the course of just two months, the Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) was tasked with identifying $2.8 billion in annual savings. The 70 separate programmatic and policy recommendations which came out of the MRT process appear likely to completely reshape the ways in which health services are provided to the most vulnerable New Yorkers – adults with serious and persistent mental illness, children with severe emotional disturbance, individuals with developmental disabilities, those struggling with substance abuse, children in foster care, etc.
In New York City, advocates calculated that Mayor Bloomberg’s preliminary Executive Budget would have reduced funding for human services by approximately $500 million, including massive cuts to child care, senior services and other critical services. And, while advocates were able to win significant restorations of funding, particularly in the areas just cited, substantial cuts remained -- and continued the multi-year downward spiral in resources available for many programs.
The adamant refusal by both Governor Cuomo and Mayor Bloomberg to entertain an extension of a “Millionaire’s Tax” – temporary personal income tax surcharges for the highest income New Yorkers – as an alternative to deep cuts in services, has served as a rallying point for human service providers and other progressive advocacy groups. With the tax about to expire – and the Occupy Wall Street movement bringing greater attention to issues of income inequality – it seems likely that this will continue to be a focal point for advocacy during the upcoming FY2012-2013 budget negotiations.
Hovering like a storm cloud over these state and local fiscal crises is the ongoing battle in Washington as Republicans seek to dismantle the nation’s social safety net in its entirety.
In addition to budget battles, there have been plenty of other issues and challenges confronting the nonprofit human service community. A high profile scandal prompted the State to undertake a seemingly open-ended review of policies and practices for compensating nonprofit executives. The Attorney General launched his own effort to reform burdensome regulations and procurement policies that impact charities.
What do nonprofit executives and advocates think about 2011 as it comes to a close. Take a look at some of their comments below.
Allison Sesso
Deputy Executive Director
Human Services Council
It was an interesting year to say the least! I think the sector stepped up its game in terms of our advocacy and I do believe that things could have been worse had we not been out there in such a public way. I am proud of HSC’s Who Cares? I Do. campaign and think we took a huge leap forward in terms of our strategy. We are informing people about what is on the line and improving people’s understanding of what “human services” are and why they are important. Our campaign launched on 2/14 and took off in a big way – here are some stats!
• 25,844 visitors
• 99 countries represented
• 61,141 page visits (so each visitor on average looks at 2-3 pages)
• Over 10,000 petition signers (don’t have exact numbers as about half are on paper and we haven’t yet converted them online)
• WCID Facebook likes: 721
• WCID Twitter followers: 755
Of course we did take some significant cuts despite our great advocacy and I think this is taking its toll on the sector and our ability to serve the growing need. I think we are able to serve fewer clients in some instances but we also provide less robust services – so the quality is hurt and that has an impact on outcomes.
Richard Altman
Chief Executive Officer
Jewish Child Care Association
2011 was a year in which Government at every level initiated sweeping reforms in how it plans to do business with Not-For-Profit providers. As a result, the social compact to ensure that the most vulnerable among us are provided with critical safety net services is no longer a given fact. This forceful demand for change will present great challenges and threats for the sector. It will require providers to embrace new models of service collaboration. We are in for a bumpy ride as 2011 ushered in a “ new day, new way” reality.
Nancy Wackstein
Executive Director
United Neighborhood Houses
The year 2011 will go down in the history of our sector as the year in which most of us woke up to the permanent nature of the new reality: government shifts away from support for people in need and the human services designed to help them. Many of us, including me, wanted to believe that once the recession ended and once the economy began to right itself we would see a return to the time when nonprofit services and help for the have-nots were again among our top priorities. Sadly, this is not what we saw. Despite some victories in the last budget season on the City and State levels – like City child care restorations that saved thousands of slots for low-income families and State withdrawal of a Title XX proposal that would have shuttered 100 senior centers in the City – the overall approach of both levels of government seems to have been to look at cuts to human services to solve deficit problems rather than looking to revenue solutions. I fear that this remains the approach as we enter 2012 and governments at all levels continue to grapple with rising deficits. This nation’s historical commitment to preserving a social safety net – particularly potent and effective in New York City and State over decades – seems to be dramatically shifting before our eyes.
Ted Houghton
Executive Director
Supportive Housing Network of New York
One compelling development this year has been the emergence of supportive housing as a central part of the conversation about Medicaid redesign.
Today, more than ever before, supportive housing is seen as the solution to not just ending homelessness, but to improving healthcare outcomes and reducing healthcare expenditures for the most vulnerable. We have the strongest consensus we’ve ever had at all three levels of government that the state needs to not only significantly increase access to supportive housing, but that we need to build more units. Hopefully, this understanding will inform next year’s executive budget.
Sean Barry
VOCAL-NY
This was a surreal year given that Governor Cuomo pushed through billions in tax cuts for millionaires while cutting equal amounts from healthcare and human services programs. It reflects totally backwards priorities at a time when economic recovery remains sluggish, need has skyrocketed and anywhere from 2/3 to 3/4 of New Yorkers say millionaires should pay more in taxes. Instead, Donald Trump will now have the same state personal income tax rate as a social worker come.January 1st. Cuomo had the opportunity to do something that was morally, fiscally and politically the right thing to do, and those things aren’t always in alignment. Instead, he blew it and showed that his most important constituencies are his big money donors and the New York Post editorial board.
That said, people living with HIV/AIDS could’ve fared worse. State funding for NY/NY III AIDS housing units and most City funding for AIDS housing programs were restored, albeit for only one year. But the overall shredding of the safety net at all levels of government will hurt people living with AIDS and millions of other New Yorkers hard.
One silver lining I see is the Mediciad Redesign Plan, despite the severe cuts that accompanied it. It’s a process that opens up real opportunities to improve health outcomes for low-income people with chronic health conditions, as long as Cuomo doesn’t pull the football away when it comes time to put MRT work group proposals into the budget. What comes out of this process could potentially transform how a range of human services programs operate, not just direct healthcare, but its still not clear how the pieces will fall into place.
Joel Berg
Executive Director
New York City Coalition Against Hunger
Our elected officials have been slashing funding to vital social programs at precisely the time they need more aid. This is being done in the name of deficit reduction, but, in most cases, it is actually being done to preserve tax cuts and corporate welfare for the ultra-rich. We’ve truly lost our national moral compass.
Luis A. Rodriguez, MD
Senior Vice President
Abbott House
Critical issues which surfaced last year included;
1 Financial struggles that we are all suffering due to the closing of programs and the wait for closedown funding;
2. Financial struggles as a result of suspended payment cases and the obligations that our case planners have for those cases;
3. Children being placed in regular Group Homes when they really need a higher levels of care;
4. The uncertainty as to how the new Medicaid reimbursement system will work for children in foster care.
John Coppola
Executive Director
Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers of NYS
With a substantial national economic crisis and a state deficit that exceeded a staggering number like $10 billion and with the magnitude of change service providers have had to prepare for and absorb resulting from Medicaid redesign and healthcare reform, 2011 has been one of the most stressful years in decades. Substance use disorder services providers have been bombarded by the federal government’s abandonment of prevention in our schools, cuts to treatment programs at a time when more people are dying from overdose and families are being destroyed by an epidemic of addiction to prescription medications, and we continue to pay way too much on corrections, juvenile justice/child welfare services, emergency room and other high cost healthcare instead of fixing underlying addiction issues at a much lower cost with better results. We worry that the year ahead will portend more cuts to a service delivery system that holds the key to state savings and better outcomes for less. We are hopefully that transformation of state government will mean a stronger system for addiction prevention, treatment, and recovery.
Doug Sauer
Chief Executive Officer
New York Council of Nonprofits, Inc.
It has been a heck of a year with the social programs and the charitable contribution deduction under assault at the federal level and the state not yet able to get its own fiscal house in order. Nonprofits are stuggling mightly to stay in business to meet accelerating community needs.
Unfortunately, attention on the real everyday realities affecting nonprofits and our relationship with the state got diverted by the Governor’s focus on the abuses of a few top executives. On the bright side, the AG’s Nonprofit Revitalization Leadership Committee is a sweet complement to the continued good work of the Comptroller to highlight how valuable the state-nonprofit partnership is and could be with proper reform.
Lucy Friedman
President
The After-School Corporation
We’re seeing some of the biggest cuts to schools and programs that support kids and families since the Great Depression. I’m struck by the remarkable resilience, ingenuity and perseverance on the part of schools and community-based organizations. They’re building deeper partnerships to support and educate the whole child, even as they struggle to mitigate devastating budget cuts. Everyone is trying to work smarter to achieve greater impact from the dollars we invest in kids and families. We’re still innovating, which is impressive. But at some point, the cuts go too deep for CBOs and schools to maintain programs that keep kids safe and learning beyond traditional school hours. I’m concerned about the impact of projected city budget cuts not just on numbers, but also on quality, and on New York City’s ability to maintain the after-school system we’ve built together.
Andrew Malekoff
Executive Director/CEO
North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center
Among the casualties in the latest round of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 2010 budget cuts is a network of child-care centers based in family courts across New York State that offer safe havens for children. The Children’s Center in Nassau County Family Court is operated by North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center and is rated among the top utilized Children’s Centers statewide, according to the New York State Unified Court System.
The Children’s Center is a place where parents who cannot afford child care can leave their children, from ages 6 weeks to 12 years, as they await court appearances. The philosophy of the children’s center is to offer a two-pronged approach for children: quality drop-in child-care services while their parents attend to court business, and a place where families can learn about and gain access to vital services.
Despite consistently high marks for the Children’s Center in Nassau County Family Court, its future is uncertain. The result of curtailing this service, according to a recent report by the New York Law Journal, is increased stress for at-risk children and their families, decreased family court efficiency and reduced access to legal services for women.
James Parrott
Deputy Director and Chief Economist
Fiscal Policy Institute
“I think there was a watershed this year when forces in Congress prevented any sensible action that would alleviate the nation’s unprecedented unemployment crisis. It’s clear, we have a major battle on our hands re-directing economic and fiscal policy at all levels of government away from austerity to laying the groundwork for broadly shared prosperity.”
Paule T. Pachter, A.C.S.W., L.M.S.W.
Executive Director
Long Island Cares, Inc. - The Harry Chapin Food Bank
I think the greatest impact on Long Island Cares this year has been the continuation in the number of people using local pantries as a significant source of their food. Although the pantries and food banks are a source of emergency food, we are seeing more and more people who are becoming reliant on this support on a more ongoing basis. With more people on Long Island loosing their jobs, the emergency food network has become a critical part of the social safety net for the high number of unemployed, underemployed and many young veterans who are returning to our region. Although we are challenged, we are also encouraged by the collaboration and partnerships we share with our member agencies and other organizations that support our mission.
Jim Purcell
Chief Executive Officer
Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies
There is no question that 2011 has been another very challenging year for all of our not-for-profit agencies. We completely understand the enormous budget challenges which the state, New York City, and all the counties and school districts are facing. We have tried very hard not to be asking for more money because we understand that their cupboard is bare. At the same time it is very frustrating when government then imposes new mandates and fees even while telling us they cannot cover the costs they impose on our agencies. It is also frustrating when the public sector assumes that even with funding cuts and their new workload demands and mandated fees that the agencies somehow can continue the same high quality work on behalf of our families and children. We have no choice but to live on limited budgets but the public agencies must help us by reducing their mandates and not imposing fees on the routine costs of doing business. There is no free lunch.
Phillip A. Saperia
Chief Executive Officer
The Coalition of Behavioral Health Agencies, Inc.
2011 will be remembered for and will mean going forward, the weight of budget cuts, more burdensome government mandates, radical program restructuring and transformation and the telescoping of enormous change into a very short timeframe. We are trying to meet greater demands with fewer resources—both in government and in the human services world. I believe some programs and services will end. I believe some consumers of services may be lost to care. The pace of change and shortage of resources converge to make this a most worrisome time in our behavioral health world.
David Mandel
Executive Director
Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services
Our most challenging days lie ahead.
Rapid reforms in health and mental health bringing significant reductions in funding -- coupled with policy changes on local and federal levels naturally occuring through election cycles -- will once again show our system to be resilient and responsive in times of great need. In a city with a broad mandate to help its millions of people in need we have to be proud of the overall care WE ALL share and provide.
We need more young energetic lay leaders to be involved to help our community system remain strong and flourish.
I am hopeful.
Gerard McCaffery
President/CEO
MercyFirst
I am optimistic about working with our new ACS Commissioner. Ronald Richter seems to recognize the reality of the needs of some of our teens. In the best of all worlds, every foster child would be able to live and succeed with a foster family as our previous Commissioner so deemed. For better or for worse, many older youth need the support and structure that residential programs provide until they feel safe and confident enough to return to a more normal setting. We all recognize the budget restraints we must live within but we can not just ignore the effect that some recent directives and polices have taken on a those youth whose needs can not be safely met with a foster family.
Betty Holcomb
Policy Director
Center for Children’s Initiatives
Last year really showed with the creation of the Emergency Coalition to Save Child Care that people really care about this issue. We were able to create a unified voice that was very successful in getting funds restored. It was a remarkable effort for such a tough year. However, looking ahead, we aren’t feeling safe at all and we are very concerned about things going forward. We know it is going to be another very tough year.
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