DHS Forced to Make Cuts to Senior Center

By Melissa Maynarich, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Department of Human Services says it's being forced to cut services. The news is tough for seniors all across the state to swallow. Funding, $7.5 million, for elderly nutrition is being slashed. But, meals aren't the only things that will be lost.

Gyndola Owens eats lunch at the center for seniors nearly every day.

"If we didn't come here, we probably, I probably, my husband gets out, I probably wouldn't even get out of the house," Owens said.

She's just one of hundreds of thousands of older Oklahomans who depend on the meal program. Each year six million dishes are served. But with new cuts, DHS says close to 25 percent of the program is toast.

"It is one of the few programs we can cut without losing federal funds," Howard Hendrick with the Department of Human Services said. "And so, in an attempt to try to find where we can make cuts to find the least amount of overall affect, this is one we didn't lose any fed funds on."

DHS said it's the state's budget shortfall that's causing the agency to trim down. And those rural areas might experience the harshest affect. Local advocates are stunned.

"The cuts are so massive, we really can't think of a solution," Don Hudman with the area wide aging agency said. "We have to go into a survival mode."

Meanwhile, the significant cut at nutrition sites may have even more crude consequences not only for the elderly, but also for taxpayers.

"A meal delivered to an older person can be done for less than $5 s day, that same person not receiving a meal today, and maybe not receiving a meal for the next three months is likely to end up in a nursing home on Medicaid paid for at taxpayer expense at over $100 a day," Hudman said.

Gyndola said she's worried about her friends who may suffer.

"It's something that is needed for the community," Owens said. "The people need this to come here to have dinner, to have a full course meal."

Soon, she may be looking elsewhere for food too.

DHS says the cut should hold the agency through the end of the year. Officials will re-evaluate the situation in January.