November 2002
Impact of 2002 & 2003 King County Cuts on Family Resource Center Agencies

HEALTH CARE: Major Cuts Already Made, More on the Way

In 2002, King County cut funds to Community Health Centers of King County by about 50% (approximately $500,000).  While initially planning to ax all King County funding in 2003, funding was restored to 2002 levels for 2003. (This again represents a 50% reduction from 2001.) Loss of funds erects added barriers for those without insurance. What can $500,000 do? $500,000 represents the cost of providing 5,000 medical visits per year, or just over 3,500 dental visits per year to children and adults..

YOUTH SERVICES & VIOLENCE PREVENTION:  Devastating Cuts

While Friends of Youth was cut by $20,000 in 2002, the agency was able to make up the loss from cost savings and contributions. Initial plans to cut funds to the Lower Valley Youth Program, which provides a number of teen activity programs, were avoided (a cost of $16,000).

Youth Eastside Services received a whopping $124,000 in cuts in 2002: $31,000 was cut from the Neighborhood School House, $88,500 from Family Support and Violence Prevention programs and $4,500 for Grant Writing. As a result YES was no longer able to subcontract English as a Second Language classes with the Eastside Literacy Council, a cut impacting 184 clients. YES also had to reduce staffing in the Family Support and Violence Prevention programs.  Family Support provides counseling, case management, and information and referral to families identified by the schools, while Violence Prevention programs provide support and training to service providers, school staff, students and others to handle crisis intervention, conflict resolution, and violence prevention and intervention. As a result of the 2002 cuts, YES also eliminated a staff position at the Boys and Girls Club. Although YES was able to secure private funding for the Neighborhood School House in 2002, the program is still at risk for 2003. 

YES received $119,000 in cuts in 2003. $75,000 was cut from Immigrant and Refugee Program. Without other funding, this cut would result in staff reductions and halving the numbers of families served (a reduction of approximately 1,000 individuals served each year). The program will continue operations thanks to the City of Bellevue's new contribution of $37,000 for the next two years.  YES's Family Support Program also lost $44,000. Without another source of new funding, the Family Net program will be eliminated from Rose Hill Elementary in Kirkland. Thanks to some City of Redmond funding, the Family Net staff may be maintained at Redmond Elementary.
 
For Camp Fire USA, the losses affect the lowest income families in addition to children ages 3/12 years old to 18 years old across all Camp Fire programs. Childcare subsidies, which go to the lowest income families, were eliminated in the King County budget. Parents recently lost their subsidies to Special Saturday Club (July 1, 2002). That program gives respite to parents of children with disabilities (budgeted amounts equal $7,500). King County Funds ($8,300) also pay for milk for school lunches.

Funds for Healthy Start (which amount to $280,080) were initially slated to be cut, but have been reinstated for 2003.  2004 is a worrisome unknown to Healthy Start.  Elimination of funds would leave 375 young parenting families from Snoqualmie Valley to Mercer Island to Northshore without the early home visiting support services that ensure babies and young children receive the health care and developmental supports they need (and reduce abuse and other problems created by isolation and lack of knowledge).

MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES: Major Funding Cuts Made in 2002

David Stone, Seattle Mental Health, notes, "King County reduced its 2002 mental health budget by about $10 million (roughly 12%). The general impact upon most agencies--including Seattle Mental Health--was another round of staff layoffs and cuts in services to clients. (The scale of those reductions would be very difficult to measure as they came during the time when our agency was in the process of acquiring Mentor Health Northwest, which also meant some staffing reductions.)  The people who have been most significantly affected by the cuts in 2002 are those who fall in the 'working poor' category, the ones who are low income but eligible for Medicaid benefits. They have all been cut from publicly funded mental health services. These tend to be families with children and adults who are trying to live independently but have little or no mental health insurance coverage.  Further cuts in mental health funding will likely eliminate many rehabilitative services and convert the mental health system into one which provides primarily crisis services."

HOUSING: Cuts to others will decrease ARCH's ability to fund housing projects

While A Regional Coalition for Housing does not receive King County services funding, it will be impacted by the loss of those funds.  Specifically, agencies that receive cuts in King County funding may go to other public sources to make up the shortfall, most likely from cities that are members of ARCH.  At least one of the ARCH members will not be giving ARCH CDBG funds for 2003 because they are holding funds for agencies who are going to be in crisis as a result of lost County or other funding. This means ARCH will have less money available for housing projects.

CUTS UNRAVEL THE HUMAN SERVICES INFRASTRUCTURE

No agency or group is unaffected by these catastrophic cuts. While the funding that Hopelink, for example, receives from King County does not come from the threatened general budget (it is rather through federal block grant dollars), its clients, who tap many of the services at other agencies, will also be negatively impacted. Many food bank customers, for example, receive counseling at YES or medical care at Eastside Community Health Center.  Similarly, while Brain Injury Association of Washington, DisAbility Network, Habitat for Humanity and Seattle Goodwill, among other FRC agencies, receive no general funding from King County, all operate from the FRC campus and refer heavily to other agencies.

LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS ARE NEEDED

FRC agencies have multiple funding streams. As one agency director said, "It's like a quilt. You pull one or two threads out and before you know it, it all begins to unravel."  Concurrent with King County funding issues are grave concerns about balancing the next State budget and cutbacks or elimination of programs funded by the federal government. It is imperative that the community works together to find stable long-term funding for all key community services.
                                               Pamela Mauk, Executive Director
                                               Family Resource Center
                                               The Eastside's Human Services Campus
                                               pamm@familyresourcecenter.org;
                                               www.familyresourcecenter.org
                                               Updated November 27, 2002

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