Friday, February 6, 2009

Guardian Program Cut

For months, social welfare advocates have sounded alarms over impending state budget cuts that will scale back some services in New York City, particularly programs focused on prevention. In November, Albany cut $8.6 million in funding for substance abuse programs for ex-convicts. The Homelessness Prevention Program, which costs $5 million annually and helps people fend off eviction, has been dropped from the state budget.

Over all, the Paterson administration said it would cut $68 million in non-mandated preventive services by 2011 — a rounding error for a state facing a $15 billion deficit, but real to the staff and clients of programs like the Guardianship Project.

Told that the courts could no longer support it, the Guardianship Project’s directors asked for $1.8 million for the coming year from a different pot of state money. But when Gov. David A. Paterson presented his budget proposal in December, complete with $9 billion in spending cuts, it was left out.

Barring a last-minute reprieve, it will shut down in April, leaving more than 100 people who are served by the program to be transferred to other services, and ending what some advocates viewed as a promising model for revamping the state’s troubled guardianship program.

Full Article and Source:
Budget Cuts Imperil Guardian Program for Elderly and Disabled

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Guardianship is not about protection, but about plunder.

Anonymous said...

It's usually not a good thing to have service funds cut, but perhaps if the Guardianship Project is cut, there will be less people snared.