Sacramento Homeless blog

In a budget proposal presented by Gov. Swartzenneger yesterday, the governor said, "California should be in a position to safeguard its most vulnerable citizens. … We may want to, but we're not because our budget system is broken, and now I have no choice, and I stand here and call for the elimination of important programs." MercuryNews.com tells us "[Swartzenneger] blamed federal judges for blocking cuts in social services last year, preventing the state, he said, 'from using a scalpel to go and trim some of these programs. We now have to use the ax to eliminate them.'" Among programs the governor proposed to gut are  In-Home Supportive Services , a program for the blind, disabled and elderly; and  California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids [aka, CalWORKS], the state's welfare-to-work program.  The governor proposes to deeply cut the Healthy Families Program , the state's insurance program that serves children, teenagers and p...

Here, a brief look at several very recent news stories, that caught my attention, that are important for the futures of those of us in Homeless World Sacramento. Time magazine focuses on California's budgetary cesspoll and Governor Swartzennegger's plan to address the latest revenue-expense gap in an article titled " California Deficit: Arnold Has to Make 'Sophie's Choice' ". Per expectations, for homeless people bad becomes horrible becomes worse.  The safety net for the most vulnerable of the vulnerable ― homeless children! ― is to be further cut if the Governator has his way. Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, a Los Angeles Democrat, said she is "highly troubled" by Schwarzenegger's proposals for further cuts to a social welfare system under severe strain. Unemployment in many urban neighborhoods tops 20%, and the number of homeless women and children is growing. Additional cuts to the foster care system and increased caseloads for social wel...

The Sacramento Bee reports today on Sacramento county's ever-worsening budget problems. The county Chief Operating Officer Nav Gill issued a report to the county Supervisors Tuesday, telling them there is now a $50.5 million budget gap for the current fiscal year [7/1/09 to 6/30/10], up from $37.6 million, the estimate just a week earlier. Gill told The Bee that the budget has been cut five times in the last 14 months and that there will be another in September. "We are not done," he said, "We've got even more cuts coming down." Two short paragraphs from the story cite areas of budget cutting that will directly negatively impact the county's homeless community: Among the hardest-hit areas of the local budget will be health and human services and other social services, county staff members told the board. And the shortfall is expected to grow, yet again, once the full effects are known of the state's plan to divert funds from local governments to b...

The budget deal that has just been agreed to in the state legislature and which Gov. Schwarzenegger will sign will cut the monthly payments of Supplemental Security Income checks from $907 to $870 for single individuals. Many homeless people are recipients of SSI payments. Scuttlebutt in the Sacramento homeless community had been that many homeless people from Nevada had been coming to Sacramento to receive higher payment awards in this state than what is offered in Nevada, which does not supplement the federal minimum payment to its poor senior, blind or disabled citizens as California does. Quoting the Los Angeles Times from an article last month , One of the provisions both parties have supported in the state Capitol would reduce the maximum monthly grant for low-income blind and disabled Californians. Individual grants would drop from $907 to $870, while couples would see their monthly checks drop from $1,579 to $1,524, according to the state Department of Finance. Those grants we...

An article in the Feb. 5 issue of Sacramento Business Journal , " State ponders budget cuts for low-income seniors, disabled ," tells us that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing cutbacks in Supplemental Security Income/State Supplementary Payment (SSI/SSP) that "help low-income seniors and people with disabilities meet basic living expenses." The cutbacks and other reductions that Schwarzenegger seeks in SSI would impact many people in the Sacramento homeless community. Quoting the SBJ article, The governor has proposed cutting the grants to the minimum level required by federal law, starting May 1, and to suspend the June 2010 state cost-of-living adjustment. Together, they would eliminate $1.34 billion in grant payments [statewide]. The Central Valley Business Times breaks down statewide figures to give us this information with respect to Sacramento county: Here, 63,590 people will be impacted by a total amount of $78,728,000. That is an avera...

It now official. Republicans state lawmakers have put forward a proposal that would siphon off funds dedicated to funding mental health services for homeless adults to help reduce the looming humongous budget deficit, now projected to be $40 billion over the next 18 months. According to an article in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle , titled “ GOP budget plan: Slash $10 billion from schools ,” diverting Prop 63 funds away from homeless services is part of a $22 billion measure California Republican assemblymen and state senators are proposing. Proposition 63 – which was passed by California voters in 2004 – assesses a 1% surtax on taxpayer earnings exceeding $1,000,000 per year for the specific use of mental-health services. Republicans want to eliminate the programs the surtax funds and, instead, use the approximate $1 billion raised in 18 months for “general use” - that is, to partially plug the huge state deficit. To accomplish their plans, in whole or part, the Republican lawmak...

Funds targeted for mental-health programs for homeless adults, because of passage of Proposition 63 in 2004, might be diverted due to the enormous state budget deficit, according to reporting in the San Francisco Chronicle . The initiative Prop 63, known as the Mental Health Services Act , was passed narrowly by California voters in November, 2004. With a beginning in January 2005, the proposition raises revenue by levying a 1% surtax on taxpayer income exceeding $1,000,000. Approximately $800 million was raised in budget year 2006-2007 by the initiative, according to the latest information available, at HealthVote.org . The revenue is dedicated to develop mental health service programs including prevention, early intervention, education and training programs. Republicans in the state assembly and senate are seeking to bridge an astounding $40 billion shortfall in the budget for the next 18 months without raising state taxes. To do this, they must seek expenditure cuts and inventive me...