Health official: Proposed budget cuts 'a recipe for disaster'

Philadelphia Health Commissioner Donald F. Schwarz said Wednesday that Gov. Corbett's proposed cuts for human services would have a sweeping impact on a wide variety of vulnerable populations.

Affected by the cuts, Schwarz said, will be people with mental illness and intellectual disabilities; homeless individuals and families; children aging out of foster care; HIV patients needing hospice care; and elderly people in the city-run nursing home.

At a City Hall news conference, Schwarz called the cuts "alarming" and predicted a rise in the city's homeless population, as support for housing the poor and mentally disabled was cut.

"This takes apart many of the supports to people who are particularly vulnerable," Schwarz said.

He labeled the proposed budget cuts "a recipe for disaster."

Corbett's budget would cut $41 million for human services. In addition, the budget would eliminate about $65 million in general assistance money that helps disabled and sick adults, domestic violence survivors, adults in alcohol- and drug-treatment programs, and others in similar situations.

Jonathan Stein, general counsel for Community Legal Services, which has many clients who receive general assistance, said the cuts to that funding would affect 35,000 people in Philadelphia. In Pennsylvania, 67,789 people receive a total of $150 million yearly. In most counties, general assistance pays $205 per month.

Corbett's plan also would eliminate an additional $159 million in state-funded medical assistance to general assistance (GA) recipients, Stein said. The cuts would only increase costs, he said, as more poor people turn to churches, homeless shelters, and community assistance agencies, many of which are already under immense financial pressure.

"Fewer than one in 200 Pennsylvanians receive GA, but for those that do, it is a critical safety-net benefit that can be the difference between life and death," Community Legal Services said in a statement.

In recent years, the city has endured multiple rounds of cuts for human services.

Between fiscal 2009 and 2012, the state reduced funding for AIDS prevention 40 percent, for emergency food 13 percent, and for mental-health services 22 percent.