Thanks to our many partners including HSN and Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth we continue to receive the most up-to-date information about local budget planning. For those working on behalf of, or directly with, foster youth we urge you to review Human Services Agency Department FY10-11 Budget Presentation found at this link http://sfhsa.org/1610.htm (in case you don’t have time to review, below is a short summary):
Summary of HSA FY10-11 Budget Presentation:
The HSA FY10-11 Budget report states that the city is facing a $466 million shortfall in FY10-FY11 (July 1, 2010-June 30, 2011).
The mayor has instructed each department to cut 30% from their General Fund allocations spending.
20% of this is in actual cuts and 10% is cuts as contingency planning. Together this equals 30% cuts in total.
For HSA this equals $28.5 million.
HSA is the department which oversees Family & Children Services (FCS) division which implements child welfare services in San Francisco. FCS is expected to absorb 5% of HSA cuts which equals close to $1.4 million
Each division of HSA including FCS is following the same “Budget Reduction Plan” which includes the following principles:
- Focusing on programs with general fund spending
- Not planning cross-the-board cuts to programs
- Looking at aid and non-aid budgets
- Seeking reductions in CBO contracts
- Developing plans to increase federal and state revenues
- Searching for internal efficiencies
This plan is not unlike what the department had proposed during the last round of cuts and simply means doing less with less. Since the focus of the cuts will be on programs whose primary funding source is general fund dollars this limits the impact on foster care reimbursement rates which are drawn from federal dollars, however, the cuts still deeply affect local families and children before foster care because local dollars are generally used for preventative measures which support local families prior to the full-scale involvement of child welfare services. Though the department has committed to not cutting programs “cross-the-board” that is no assurance for keeping programs which may be so understaffed they are ineffective. For example over the last 18 months alone FCS has lost 67 staff positions and an additional 5 eligibility workers which equals a total of 72 positions which were formerly designated to improved outcomes for local foster youth. Some of the lost 72 positions were part of a division “Reorg” and reductions may have actually been part of improved efficiencies, however, with more and more looses in positions and services, the outcomes for youth will inevitably be affected.
Please continue to keep involved in this process by:
a) Remaining linked to groups providing summaries and updates (i.e. HSN, Coleman, and for Foster Care specific, HEY)
b) Attend information meetings including:
- The department will present a more specific cuts plan to the Commission on January 28 and February 10
- Budgets will be submitted to Controller’s Office February 22
Related posts:
