Looming Cuts Threaten to Leave Developmentally Disabled Homeless

By Colleen Chen, NEWS 9

STILLWATER, Oklahoma -- The state agency that helps Oklahomans with developmental disabilities said budget cuts will not just trim services but could end up leaving the people they are supposed to help homeless.

The Developmental Disabilities Service Division of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services is facing a $24 million cut of state dollars. The budget cut totals more when matching federal dollars are considered, bringing the total to around $72 million.

The reduction will directly affect people like Steve McCully, who spends his days working at Braum's in Stillwater and at a workshop center. McCully is developmentally disabled and is estimated to have the mental capacity of a sixth-grader. He is able to be productive because of DDSD programs. He lives in a group home and is able to work because of the help he gets from a work coach. The workshop helps provide added income and an opportunity to build up work skills for people like McCully. The proposed cuts will eliminate the workshop and likely eliminate his home.

Orlando Williams has worked in the developmental disabilities field for 13 years and serves as McCully's coach.

"These jobs give them a feeling of independence, of doing something on their own. It is inhumane if we take this away from them. We're taking away people's dignity," Williams said.

He said eliminating the workshops will devastate people like Steve.

"If these options go away, people like Steve will end up homeless or in a nursing home where he can't work," Williams said.

Phyllis Taylor runs the group home where Steve lives.

"He's depended on us for the past 26 years. He doesn't fully grasp what is about to happen to him and people like him. We can tell Steve, 'you might lose your job coach, you might lose your home in the future,' but he doesn't grasp the reality," Taylor said.

She said she can't live with the idea of leaving people like Steve to fend for themselves without any options.

It is more expensive for the state to put people in nursing homes. Current state funded programs for group home run about $37 per person on a daily basis in a 12 bed home. The cost is about $65 for a six person home. To fund the sheltered workshop is about $21 a person. Nursing homes on the other hand run about $160 a day. The rate could be higher since there is already a shortage of nursing home beds. Many who are developmentally disabled would not qualify for a nursing home.

Williams said he expects homeless numbers to rise if the Legislature cannot find money to fund DDSD services.

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